Art & Science Talks
I've finally got confirmations from speakers on 4 talks I'm organising at Cranfield. This part of the residency 'deal' was such an easy thing to write on an application form but it actually takes a lot of time and effort to find a good balance of interesting people to come and speak. Let alone the admin – book a room, get permission, talk to security, figure out who to ask to move a table, get a risk assessment on blu-tack, and so on…
My aim is to attract people from science, engineering and business to come and hear artists talking about their collaborative work in various disciplines, and maybe get inspired to work with artists themselves, or just to consider opening up research strands to include lateral subjects. I think I've got a great line-up:
1st October 2008 – Professor Paul Brown – artist
Subject: Can a robot evolve to demonstrate creative drawing behaviour?
15th October 2008 – Francesca Galeazzi – artist & architectural engineer
Subject: A recent expedition to the Arctic with Cape Farewell; preventing creativity freeze in the name of climate change awareness
29th October 2008 – Dr Emma Lawrence – experimental psychologist & Julie Freeman – me
Subject: Tricks of the Psych Trade: an artist/scientist collaborative event unraveled. How did a public understanding of science event get helped by art?
12 November 2008 – Anna Dimitriu – artist, founder of The Institute of Unnecessary Research
Subject: Talking to bacteria – our relationship to the everyday microbial world in which we co-exist, plus the importance of Unnecessary Research
The talks are free, and open to all, and are at 6pm, Building 52a Cranfield University. More info: http://www.in-particular.net/talk-series
I'm intrigued to see what kind of response I get – there are very few activities on campus that involve art (OK, well none) yet I speak to people here regularly who have a keen interest in art or who are artists 'on the side' as well as scientists.
Now to get the audience to come in the first place…
