LATimes.com -- Friday, August 18, 2000 Art Reviews "Inspiring Links Between Art and Science" By DAVID PAGEL, Special to The Times Over the past generation, the idea that artists are godlike creators has given way to the notion that they are freethinking inventors, resourceful experimenters whose pragmatism and cleverness allow them to get the job done -- often in unexpected ways. At Angles Gallery, a 17-artist show drives this point home, sometimes belaboring it into a cliche and, at other times, pushing it to the next level. Organized by guest curator Nowell J. Karten, "Inventional" never lets you forget that art and science are equally creative endeavors, each capable of producing results that are best described in terms of how inspired or uninspired they are. The most captivating works bring a sense of the inexplicable down to earth. Accompanied by a four-page, frame-by-frame analysis, Jno Cook's four-second film of a puppy playing with two scraps of cardboard is a piece of image-and-text Conceptualism that is as moving as it is goofy. Looped through a homemade device that the artist has cobbled together from an old-fashioned film splicer, a VCR motor, and a pair of manually operated switches, "Rollodog" transforms an ordinary slice of life into a marvelous stop-action dance that demonstrates just how extraordinary mundane things can be. ........ etc bla bla bla