The University of Birmingham’s Arts and Science Festival is set to return to the city next month, taking place across the university’s campus and beyond.
Taking place from March 12-18 2018, the week-long festival is set to treat
audiences to over 60 inspiring events exploring all things art, science and the
spaces between.
The theme this year is Stop Start! promting a diverse programme exploring time,
movement, migration, behaviours, life, death and much more.
Here’s what is taking place this year…
TALKS
This year’s festival talks will provide opportunities to
learn about an array of topics.
Ten years on from her landmark BBC series THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN JOURNEY, Alice
Roberts explores the latest insights into the colonisation of the globe by our
ancient forebears.
Enter the world of DIGITAL DINOSAURS with palaeontologist Dr Stephan
Lautenschlager at the Lapworth Museum of Geology and unearth CREEPY
CRAWLIES OF THE 1600s at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.
Reflect on bipolar disorder in STOP, START, PAUSE: KEEPING MOOD ON TRACK
and in
STARTING WITH STEAM: THE ORIGINS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN BIRMINGHAM
Dr Malcolm Dick and Dr Kate Croft will lead an interactive session exploring
the significance of Matthew Boulton and James Watts’ steam engine.
SCREENINGS
Arts & Science Festival returns to Birmingham’s Electric
Cinema with sci-fi thrillers TIMECRIMES (2007) and FLATLINERS
(1990) introduced by University of Birmingham academics, as well as the
hilarious Trash Film Night, featuring the brilliantly terrible HARD TICKET TO
HAWAII (1987).
Other screening highlights include the Oscar-nominated A MAN CALLED OVE (2015)
and the sweeping biopic about the first woman to win the Nobel Prize MARIE
CURIE: THE COURAGE OF KNOWLEDGE (2016) at mac Birmingham.
On-campus screening events include an evening of Stop Motion Shorts curated by
the Flatpack Film Festival; Life:Moving, a series of six short films
challenging society’s misconceptions about terminal illness and a screening of
Emmy-winning documentary YEMEN UNDER SIEGE (2016), followed
by a panel discussion with the director Safa al-Ahmad.
The Festival will also screen UNREST (2017) at the University of
Birmingham Medical School, a powerful documentary which charts the journey of
twenty-eight year-old Jennifer Brea, who upon being diagnosed with ME (commonly
known as chronic fatigue syndrome), turns her camera on herself and discovers a
hidden world of millions confined to their homes and bedrooms.
EXHIBITIONS
A series of insightful exhibitions will be hosted on campus
and across the city.
Highlights include BLACK COUNTRY LUNGS, a unique collaboration between community
arts organisation Multistory, Dutch photographer Corinne Noordenbos, and local
people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
Ort Gallery will present GHOST STREETS OF BALSALL HEATH in
partnership with Flatpack Film Festival – an exhibition featuring previously
unseen photographs of Balsall Heath and Highgate in the late 60s by Janet
Mendelsohn.
ART
AND ANATOMY will showcase the creative talents of students in the
Institute of Clinical Sciences, who have been invited to interpret this year’s
festival theme – Stop Start! – from an anatomical perspective.
SLIME
CITIES explores the microbes found in our mouths and features works by
artists, students and visitors of Birmingham Dental Hospital and School of
Dentistry.
WORKSHOPS
The workshops will provide opportunities to experiment and
explore the intriguing connections between art and science. Events include STOP
SITTING, START MOVING, an interactive session on why being sedentary is
bad for your health and YOU WANT ME TO STOP DOING WHAT? a
lively workshop on climate change.
MAKE
YOUR OWN PARTICLE! is a hands-on session designed to teach children and
their parents about the varying personalities and behaviours of different
particles and in Art and Technology participants will be able explore some of
the technologies that are helping to reshape art and its production.
Artist Ian Andrews and physicist Kosta Nikolopoulous experiment with visualisation
and mark-making in PARTICLE PHYSICS AND FINE ARTS and DYS FUNCTION, presented
by Vivid Projects’ Black Hole Club, is an interactive workshop examining the
form and function of cognitive interruption as experienced by neuro-divergent
individuals.
WALKS
Visitors will be able to explore campus through guided walks
including SOUNDWALKS, a new series exploring hidden audio worlds. THE
INVISIBLE ART OF THE GUIDED WALK is a city-wide walk unpicking of the
hidden mechanics of the guided tour by Ben Waddington (Director of Birmingham’s
Still Walking Festival).
PATHWAYS
TO BIRMINGHAM’S FUTURE starts in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and
explores the impact of urban regeneration in the city and TIME MOVES considers time
and movement in a selection of interactive and participatory family activities
at Winterbourne House and Garden.
PERFORMANCES
For family fun, WHERE’S MY IGLOO GONE? is an
extraordinary immersive performance journeying into the Arctic, presented by
The Bone Ensemble.
THE
PARTICLE EVENT at mac Birmingham presents works that explore the
connections between movement, interaction and the invisible including Neutrino
Passoire, a performance by contemporary dancers Mairi Pardalaki and Fanny
Travaglino and musician Katerina Fotinaki.
Full details of the Arts and Science programme and ticket
information, head here.
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