London LASER 09
Tuesday 19 May 2015
6.30 – 9.00pm (registration from 6pm)
C202, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, 1 Granary Square,
Kings Cross, London N1C 4AA
The ninth event in the London LASER series presents a group of Art/Science practitioners talking about their work, how they became interested in transdisciplinary research and how they go about working in collaborative ventures. The event has been organised by Brett Wilson and will be chaired by Barbara Hawkins, both founder members of the transdisciplinary research group ‘Project Dialogue’ and co-editors of the publication ‘Art, Science and Cultural Understanding’.
The event is free but please book: londonlaser09.eventbrite.co.uk
Iain Biggs is a Visiting Research Fellow at Bath Spa University and UWE, Bristol, and an independent teacher, researcher and artist who publishes regularly on a variety of topics. He is a co-ordinator of PLaCE International, an arts-led research network, and of the Mapping Spectral Traces international network. At present he is working with NOVA on a hydro-citizenship project in Bristol. His talk will provide a general context for thinking about particular projects involving five artists – Christine Baeumler, Cathy Fitzgerald, Antony Lyons, Perdita Phillips, and Deirdre O’Mahony – who all work in different ways in the Art/Science field. Iain will stress the ’social engagement and/or educational’ aspect of their work as a distinguishing element.
Shelley James completed her PhD last year at the Royal College of Art in London, before which she studied printmaking at the University of West England, Bristol and textiles at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. She is currently teaching at the Institute of Making at UCL and has collaborative projects running with the mathematician Sir Roger Penrose and the crystallographer Professor Brian Sutton, supported by Arts Council England as well as a patient engagement programme with Moorfields Eye Hospital. The Gordon Museum of Pathology at King’s College London holds a permanent installation of her work exploring DNA. Shelley will discuss recent projects exploring the role of materiality in science-art collaboration.
Helen Pynor is an artist with a scientific background and whose practice has focused on philosophically and experientially ambiguous zones such as the life-death border and the spatial/material basis of consciousness. Her work is informed by in-depth residencies in scientific and clinical institutions such as the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden where she is currently Artist-in-Residence. Helen’s work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at the National Centre for Contemporary Art (Russia), National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Science Gallery Dublin, Australian Centre for Photography and Wellcome Collection.
Simon Read is a visual artist who works closely with the processes and dynamic of environmental change. At present he holds an Associate Professorship in Fine Art at Middlesex University and is an associate member of the Art and Environment Network of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management. Using case studies from his work on intertidal infrastructure projects with coastal and estuarine communities on the Suffolk Coast, Simon will explore the importance of the links between a speculative approach to experience as an artist, a firm understanding of the scientific and engineering principles of a project on the ground and a broad conceptual basis for research afforded by interdisciplinary academic networks.
Brett Wilson is a recently retired scientist and a founder member of Project Dialogue, a research group bringing together artists and scientists to explore commonalities across research in the arts and sciences. Over the last six years he has acted as a “scientist in residence” in the faculty of art and design at the University of the West of England and is co-editor of the recently published book ‘Art, Science and Cultural Understanding’. Brett will be talking about blurred lines, communities of practice and the role of metaphors in science’s conceptual models. www.projectdialogue.org.uk
LASER is a program of evening gatherings, which bring together eclectic guest speakers working at the intersections of art, science and technology. Running successfully in the US for several years, London LASER is the first of the series to take place in Europe. Free of charge and open to the public, London LASER encourages lively discussion in an informal academic setting. London LASER is hosted by University of the Arts London (Central Saint Martins MA Art and Science and LENS) and University of Westminster (Broad Vision art/science research and learning project and CREAM), and chaired by Heather Barnett. LASER is a project of Leonardo® /ISAST (the International Society for Art, Science and Technology).
London LASER 