Centenary gatherings on the East and West coasts celebrated the life and work of pioneering polymath and ecologist Gregory Bateson (1904-80). Scholars, artists, and others gathered over the weekend at the University of California at Berkeley and the CUNY Graduate Center to talk about Bateson and his contributions to cybernetics, biology, psychology, and anthropology.

The Berkeley conference was called “Multiple Visions of the World,” while the companion New York event was called “Art, Circuitry and Ecology: Honoring Gregory Bateson.”

Bateson attended Cambridge University, married anthropologist Margaret Mead, and went on to study a dizzying array of topics from the people of New Guinea to porpoise communication.

The all-day program at the CUNY Graduate Center featured several younger artists, many of whom are combining interest in the environment with creative techniques and strategies. Manhattan Neighborhood Network’s Youth Channel education coordinator, Andrew Lynn, spoke about “Whirl-Mart Ritual Resistance,” whereby nonshoppers protest Wal-Mart by entering their stores and pushing around empty shopping carts. Members of Nsumi, an arts collective with members in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, discussed their project of free “guerrilla consulting,” aimed at introducing a new model of creative exchange.

Another speaker was Aaron Gach, co-founder of the Center for Tactical Magic, a group that seeks to activate “latent energies toward positive social transformation.” One of the group’s projects is called “Pow(d)er Struggle,” which involves handing out donuts to police and protesters alike.

One of the most intriguing projects that Mr. Gach discussed was an “interspecies collaboration” aimed at illegal logging of California redwoods. A “cricket-activated defense system” employs an electronic device to receive cricket chirps from the forest to trigger a firing signal to shoot toy rockets.

The Knickerbocker “logged” (pun intended) onto their Web site to learn about this “form of extreme bioengineering that simply recombines consumer surveillance products (essentially “bugging” devices”) with model rockets – both trickle-down goods from the military-industrial complex.”

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GREAT TALK

John Barry spoke on his book “The Great Influenza of 1918: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History” (Penguin) at the New York Academy of Medicine last week. Mr. Barry is distinguished visiting scholar at Tulane University’s Center for Bioenvironmental Research.

Christian Warren of the New York Academy of Medicine introduced the program. He made reference to the fact that people have been lining up for vaccinations at public health facilities around the city. Looking out at the standing room crowd, Mr. Warren quipped, “I’m a little concerned you showed up expecting flu shots.”

In his lecture, Mr. Barry noted that the 1918 pandemic was the first major collision between modern science and disease.

Among those in the crowded audience were a medical specialist at the Bureau of Immunization, Sheila Palevsky, as well as an adjunct associate professor at Teachers College, Shirley Fondiller, who co-founded an editorial service for nurses and health professionals. She is at work on the authorized history of Cornell University-New York Hospital School of Nursing from 1877 to 1979. She was seated next to a nursing education and community health consultant, Wanda Hiestand, who gave a recent talk entitled “Outrageous Women in Nursing.”

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HALL OF FAME

Esteemed folksinger Odetta performed at the Museum of the City of New York, as City Lore, an organization that conveys the richness of New York City’s cultural heritage, inducted new members into its People’s Hall of Fame last week.

The new inductees were Jim Power, who beautifies the East Village with mosaics; Aurelia Fernandez Marure and Margarita Larios, who preserve Meixcan arts and culture as part of the Mano a Mano Program; the Reverend Deacon Edgar W. Hopper, who has preserved the “Slave Gallery” at St. Augustine’s Church; Tina Pratt and the Swinging Seniors, for dance; and Terry Marone and the Actors’ Equity Advisory Committee on Chorus Affairs, for passing on the “Gypsy robe” tradition.

Among those present in the audience were Stan Michels, who is running for Manhattan Borough President, and the curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folk life and Cultural Heritage, Nancy Groce.

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DEMOCRATIC GESTURE

The CUNY Graduate Center events draw distinguished audience members as well as noted speakers. CUNY Graduate Center theater and comparative literature professor Marvin Carlson conducted a recent discussion with Michael Blakemore, Michael Frayn, and a Columbia University history professor, Volker Berghahn.

The topic was the National Theatre of Great Britain’s production of “Democracy,” which has opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. The play is part Cold War spy thriller and part drama about human nature, and is about Willy Brandt, a former West German chancellor.

In the audience was noted biographer Claire Tomalin, who is Mr. Frayn’s wife. She is a trustee of the Wordsworth Trust and the National Portrait Gallery in London. She is also Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has written biographies of Samuel Pepys, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, and Katherine Mansfield.

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BOOKLOVERS

An independent store called McNally Robinson Booksellers will open next month on Prince Street between Lafayette and Mulberry streets. It will span 7,000 feet of space on two levels. The Canadian based booksellers have stores in Calgary, Saskatoon, and elsewhere.