Arts of Experiment events in May/June 2015

The ArtLess Group, led by Professor Carol Watts and funded by the AHRC, is excited to announce the upcoming events at Birkbeck, three of which have been organized by me:

May 11: Experiments with the Invisible explores the various ways the ‘invisible’ or ‘taboo’ can be portrayed or visualized in the Arts. Previously ‘hidden’ elements from biology, chemistry, and physics are ‘stolen’, reimagined and find visual form.

Session 1: Jayne Wilton, Visualising Breath: There’s something in there

Session 2: Adrian Hornsby, Using Concepts, Building Narratives, and Stealing from Science

18.00-20.30, Keynes Library

May 18: Curiosity: an interdisciplinary symposium addressing curiosity in relation to museums, art, myth, literature and film with Dr Fiona Candlin, Dr Brian Dillon, Professor Laura Mulvey and Professor Marina Warner

Cinema, 14.00-17.00

20 May: Blake’s Dream: Vala or the Four Zoas: a performance exploring Blake’s ‘Vala or the Death of Judgment of the Ancient Man A dream of Nine Nights’ with Dr Luisa Cale (contact l.cale@bbk.ac.uk)

G10, 18.30-20.20

29 May: Experiment and Play is an exploratory, interactive, and pedagogical examination of how play and performance have a vital role in experimentation. Poet practitioners explore the fascinating relationship between sound and experimentation in both a formal presentation of their art and research, as well as a series of truly engaging interactive activities for the audience.

Session 1: Dr Holly Pester, The Productive Sonics of Rest and Work

Session 2: A session with PhD student Daniel O’Donnell on automatic writing

18.00-20.30, Keynes Library

June 1: Experiment: Life: Rachel Armstrong, Professor of Experimental Architecture, and Andrew Webster, Professor in the Sociology of Science and Technology, discuss how what we call ‘life’ is problematized and reconsidered in the 21st century by looking at biosciences (stem cell, synthetic biology, nanotech) and life as a non-classical object.

Session 1: Rachel Armstrong, Vital semiotics: Life as a non-classical object

Session 2: Andrew Webster, Bio-objects and the biomanipulation of "life": creating and ordering the unruly

18.00-20.30, Keynes Library

Artless is an AHRC funded project at Birkbeck led by Professor Carol Watts and Dr Ben Cranfield. Shaped by PhD students and early career researchers from a variety of research backgrounds, the ArtLess group explores ways to unite the Arts and sciences to promote new, innovative, collaborative research. One of the project’s outreach programmes includes creating research exhibitions for Touring Exhibitions and Bury Art Museum. The group is currently working on a virtual exhibition, which will be pitched in Japan in 2015.

For more information on the events please contact Dr Grace Halden (gracehalden@yahoo.co.uk)

For more details on the ArtLess doctoral initiative please contact Professor Carol Watts (c.watts@bbk.ac.uk)

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