Almost eight months has galloped by since my last post. Here are a few pictorial way-markers, that end with a poem.
Becoming an Ecology - a day of Natural Dye collaboration and experimentation
Ceres Studio, Brixton.
Ceres Studios, high in the sky over Brixton, invited 10 artists to work together to develop an ecology of natural dyers. We had a joyful day working on a large piece together and each of us made an additional small piece - pictured.
DisCussing colour and its origins with Ceres Studio
Vibrating Chladni plate at resonance, scattered with paint pigment.
Designers and teachers, Lara and Flo from Ceres studio spent the morning at Imperial College to consider colour and its origins.
We viewed atomic spectra, then looked at molecular hydrogen to reflect on the complex molecules that colour our world.
We introduced a musical analogy with atomsong.com and experimented by vibrating a Chladni plate sprinkled with blue paint pigment. This gave us a feel for the idea of resonance as an explanation of what is going on.
Then we went to see lasers in the lab and explore how laser light interacts with atoms.
Magnets and the art of Hilma af Klint, with families in White City
Our magnetic Earth, a magnet, an eye and a flower and two magnetic poles.
We have created a new magnets workshop and it was great fun to work with local families in White City to consider the magic of magnets, explore the artwork of Hilma af Klint and then bring these ideas together in large colourful paintings.
Thank you to our hosts at Imperial College’s Invention Rooms and scientists Dr’s Izzie Rabey and Rhys Jenkins.
Dancing
A balloon lifts little pieces of paper using the magnificent power of tiny charges, which lift the paper from the Earth’s gravity.
In collaboration with The Place, we created ‘Electricity: Sparking our Imaginations through Dance’.
This is a short participatory video about the tiny charges that make up the material world and which are the source of electricity. There is discussion, experimentation, and discovery through creative dance activities.
For families, schools and all students of nature.
Commissioned by A New Direction and The Arts Council.
https://theplace.org.uk/electricity
We have also been awarded the Imperial College London Faculty of Natural Sciences Prize for Excellence in Outreach, Public and Community Engagement in the Group category 2022. For the ‘Elemental dances’ project.
Creative workshops in Hackney with Primary Advantage
Dr Ravi Desai and Geraldine in ‘Our Sun’ workshop.
Sea-world Diorama, by Hackney students.
It was a pleasure to work during the spring with 8 primary schools in Hackney who collaborate under the banner of ‘Primary Advantage’.
They requested a programme of art-science workshops on magnets, the Sun, sound and vibrations and atoms. The project concluded with two excellent exhibitions in Hackney Libraries. Thank you to my scientist colleagues: Dagny Yousef Kimberley, Ravi Desai, Tiffany Harte, Steph Yardley of Imperial, Cambridge and UCL, and to the organisers Henry Hammond and Sandra Gaudan.
https://primaryadvantage.co.uk/
Atoms in Durham
Children with an interactive whiteboard experimenting with www.atomsong.com, which turns atomic spectra into sound.
Oxclose school in County Durham, welcomed us to give an afternoon workshop to their Year 6 children about atoms.
We viewed atomic spectra and discussed the origins of atoms, their content and behaviour, and how they make up our world, as part of our ‘World of Atoms’ series.
Thank you to Durham scientists Dr Hannah Williams and Adarsh Raghuram.
Strathclyde Conference
A selection of workshop participants from the last three years.
The DesOEQ/QSUM22 conference is for theorists and experimentalists from a range of fields related to the control of cold and ultracold molecules, quantum simulators, out-of-equilibrium systems, and many-body dynamics. I presented ‘The Gifts’ – reflections on the treasures that a scientific education brings and how we can share them with more minds. Lively discussions followed and some new projects emerged.
It was a pleasure to create this image of collaborators during the last three years. They are scientists, curators, dance artists, musicians and film-makers.
https://desoeq.phys.strath.ac.uk/desoeqqsum22/
Reading Marie Neurath, in Reading
Beginning the day.
I made a research trip to the Typography and Graphic Communication Department of Reading University to discover the work and archives of Marie Neurath.
I am intrigued by her approach to communicating often complex scientific ideas in colourful and beautifully illustrated books for children. It was an exciting adventure to have the opportunity to handle her working documents and sketches, and to read her correspondence. For example, an exchange in the 1940’s with physicist Otto Frisch at the Cavendish labs in Cambridge, about the book ‘Inside the Atom’.
Thanks to Professor Sue Walker and Dr Emma Minns, who generously hosted my visit.
https://www.reading.ac.uk/typography/collections-and-archives
Explorations
Bamboo sculpture at Eskenazi; Experiments with avocado skin dyes; A window at Tate Modern reminding me of symmetry.
In the background there are experiments with natural dyes and printing in my studio, and visits to see the work of others. A highlight was the collection of bamboo sculptures at Eskenazi Gallery. It has, from time to time, the best exhibits in London.
There are also inspiring discussions and collaborations with: Prof Henrik Jensen of Imperial College on the potential for expression using cellular automata; Prof Smitha Vishveshwara of Illinois University on expressing ideas about water and nature by considering hydrodynamics; and Dr’s Paolo Molignini and Mehedi Hasan of Cambridge on how we can enrich perspectives by deeper consideration of symmetry and asymmetry.
https://www.eskenazi.co.uk/en-gb/exhibitions/contemporary-bamboo-masters-from-japan
Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure
by Rabindranath Tagore
I found this poem in a park in Bloomsbury, alongside a sculpture of the author.
Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure.
This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again,
and fillest it ever with fresh life.
This little flute of a reed thou hast carried
over hills and dales,
and hast breathed through it melodies
eternally new.
At the immortal touch of thy hands
my little heart loses its limits in joy
and gives birth to utterance ineffable.
Thy infinite gifts come to me
only on these very small hands of mine.
Ages pass, and still thou pourest,
and still there is room to fill.