Art and Science Talk at Imperial
Yesterday I gave a talk to a bunch of post doc researchers at Imperial College. They were all scientists that had been and will be working with school children (ages 8-11) to enthuse about and teach science. The workshop was one of many organised by Wayne Mitchell (Cranfield Health) and he invited me to talk about how art can be used in the understanding of science. My work often manifests itself as abstracted representations of scientific processes so that made sense, and I really enjoyed thinking about the differences and similarities between art and science methodologies in preparation for the talk.
As there were only ten or so people in the workshop I decided to do something I usually do but backwards – I showed a piece of work called The Lake (2005) and asked them to guess what it was without me explaining anything up front. No one guessed exactly what is was (a sound and animation work that was generated from 16 fish tagged in a lake), but it sparked an interesting discussion and some new ideas. This completely proved the point that presenting scientific data in a non-obvious manners sparks curiousity and wonder. Conveying complex systems and/or biological processes is possible in a way that is accessible (for want of another word) and allows each visitor to explore the concepts behind the work further to the depth they want to.
When The Lake was installed at Tingrith Fishery children of all ages loved it – I think this was because it gave them space to make up their own stories and theories about what the shapes were doing and why. Science enabling creativity :)
Two other people spoke at the workshop – my friend Dr Pink talked about his event organising org Rusty Promotions and a science communicator called Ian Dunne. Interesting both. I learned that sperm whales hunt by sonar, and when they find their prey (generally giant squid) they emit a super loud noise to stun the squid stupid and then attack. I've met people like that in East London.
Actually maybe not true about the whale after all: http://scienceline.org/2008/05/12/ask-locke-whale/…
(This article contains this quote "This was a a lovely idea killed by data". I think I've just found the title of the nano works.)
The Lake http://www.juliefreeman.co.uk/lake
Dr Pink http://www.rustypromotions.co.uk/
Ian Dunne http://www.ianbdunne.co.uk/
