The International Year of Chemistry

No, I didn't know it was the International Year of Chemistry either, but the Science Gallery in Dublin does. They've just opened a new Art/Science  exhibition called Elements which runs until late September:
"The exhibition, launching in the International Year of Chemistry, is curated by David Grayson, Daniel O’Donovan, Hugh Aldersey-Williams and Michael John Gorman, and is a partnership between Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin and the BergamoScienza festival, with the assistance of researcher Brigid Lanigan and advisor Silvia Giordani."
Check out the exhibits and see what the Irish Times has to say.


Guy Morgan

Merging Art and Science in a new exhibition

Radio 4's Material World (presented by Quentin Cooper) carried a piece on Thursday July 7th on:
"Merging Art and Science
Science is changing our world, and now it’s influencing art too.   A new exhibition at GV Art in London brings together the work of 13 contemporary artists who have been inspired by science. Quentin is joined in the studio by co-curator of the exhibition, Professor Arthur Miller, and by artist Stelarc, who uses his own body as the basis for his art. He has undergone suspensions and grown an ear on his arm! For this exhibition he has contributed an image of the skin around his head, electronically stretched to fill a flat canvas. "
Listen to the item
It's about 22 minutes from the start..

Guy Morgan

The Prospect of Immortality

The Impressions Gallery, Bradford has the opening of The Prospect of Immortality on Saturday 11 June from
2:00pm to 4:00pm. In his first major solo show "Murray Ballard offers an unprecedented insight into cryonics: the process of freezing a person after death in the hope that scientific advances may one day bring them back to life."  Magnum photographer Mark Power will open this exhibition at 2:00pm.

Guy Morgan

Darwin, dance and Bird Psychology

Have just been listening to Midweek on BBC Radio 4, where one of the guests is Nicky Clayton, Professor of Comparative Cognition at Cambridge University and "an expert in bird behaviour. She is also passionate about dance and now combines these two strands as the Rambert Dance Company's first 'Scientist in Residence'. She is working with the Rambert on a new production, "Seven for a Secret, Never to be Told" and will be at this year's Hay Festival."
Her previous work with the company was  Comedy of Change which celebrated Charles Darwin's 200th aniversary.

Guy Morgan

The Future's just gone - until next year

Unfortunately I wasn't aware of the Future Everything Festival in Manchester this week, but it sounds very interesting, particularly with its angle on the Arts  Listen to a piece on it within the most recent podcast on BBC World Service technology programme Click  to see what we've just missed.

Guy Morgan

Anatomising a Portrait: An Epileptic Journey - Saturday, May 21st 22:00 on BBC Radio 3

Listen out for Between the Ears on BBC Radio 3 Saturday May 21st at 10pm:

"Anatomising a Portrait: An Epileptic Journey

Next on:

May 21st Saturday, 22:00 on BBC Radio 3

Epilepsy affects 1 in 200 people but there are many public misconceptions and prejudices about the condition. In recent years neuroscience has begun to find out more about the brain's activities, and now it is possible to hear the sound of a brain having a fit. The sound of epilepsy is not a jagged rasping, not spikes of sound - but more like the sound of whale song, a plaintive cry for help, a call in the wild. How does an artist go about creating a work of art to reflect this?
Artist Susan Aldworth has been commissioned to make a series of artworks reflecting epilepsy for both St Thomas' Hospital in Westminster and the National Portrait Gallery; and in the pursuit of one portrait in particular she has placed centre-stage her close friend Max Eilenberg"

See some of her work

Guy Morgan

Continuing Dialogues

Now that my brain is settling down from all the ideas traded at Dialogues last week, I thought I'd pass on  stuff that has appeared in the wider world about some of the themes people are engaged with.
I've mentioned the BBC World Service programme The Forum before, and the podcast from March 19 is still available with Professor Brian Greene talking about multiverses and Finnish artist Oron Catts who "is the director of SymbioticA, the Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, within the School of Anatomy and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia". (See a previous post about the Visceral exhibition in Dublin a few weeks ago).
Another edition that you can still listen to is February 19th follow the link to see examples of the work by Kenyan, New York based artist Wangechi Mutu. "Her portraits of fantastical women, include anatomical drawings of cancerous tumours that transform the terrible into the beautiful".
And of course the Wellcome collection's new exhibition  Dirt has just opened which includes some specially commissioned artworks.
If you'd like to contribute to this NASN blog, please get int touch with Paul Digby or Hondartza Fraga at contact@northernartsandscience.com for the details.


Guy Morgan