Artist Liz Magic Laser’s live performance and videos intervene in spaces such as banks and movie theaters, and have involved collaborations with actors, dancers, surgeons, and motorcycle gang members. She stages situations, dialogues and monologues in the urban environment, and its population becomes both her audience and extras in the resulting videos. Her work is concerned with the fine line between serving the public and manipulating it. Politicians and business leaders are coached in the art of persuasion using methods drawn from realist theatre traditionally used to evoke audience empathy. She will discuss her recent work and current project with DiverseWorks, Tell Me What You Want to Hear, which poses the question, “can the public level the playing field by understanding how to engineer empathy as well as our leaders do?” Liz Magic Laser lives and works in New York City. She is a graduate of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program and Columbia University’s MFA program. Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Mälmo Konsthall, Mälmo, Sweden (2012); Swiss Institute with Forever & Today, Inc., New York (2012); The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2012); the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2012); and the Performa 11 Biennial, New York (2011). Laser is the recipient of grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (2012), the Times Square Alliance and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art (2010). Laser has an upcoming commission and solo show at DiverseWorks in Houston, Texas. Laser will be the Armory Show 2013 Commissioned Artist. Liz Magic Laser is her real name from birth.