Manchester Science Festival is over...until next year!

Manchester Science Festival is over for another year and we've had a blast! We promised you 9 days of action-packed geek-tastic fun and what an amazing week it was! We've pulled together a selection of highlights.

Domino Computer Challenge
For what was one of the largest attempted domino-based computers, the team created the chain, domino by domino, and then ran it to work out a simple calculation. Once the machine was set in motion, the audience could see the information travelling along the lines of dominoes, and learned how computers work in a similar way. This fantastic event at MOSI played out to a packed audience. It took 10,000 dominoes, 1 day to build, months of planning and just seconds for the dominoes to fall.

The Science of Fish and Chips

At this event at the University of Salford, visitors were served traditional fish and chips from a handy fish and chips van. Five different varieties were served and tasters were encouraged to identify which fish they were eating. Dr Stefano Mariani from Salford's School of Environment and Life Sciences explained the implications on marine eco-systems of over-fishing certain species whilst demonstrating to visitors and their children how different fish look and taste. This blogger tried the fish and chips and can tell you it was delicious!

Science Junkie LIVE
Science is the most extreme of sports. In fact, it is even more important in high adrenaline physical adventures. This live outdoor show, pitted the talents of free-runner Alex Potts against mountain bike superstars Andrei Burton, Joe Seddon and Jack Gear (presented by Greg Foot and Nick Insley and produced by Huw James) all with a heavy bass soundtrack. As the guys flipped and spun through the air confidently, Greg explained to the audience what intense forces were acting on their bodies explaining the control required to make such dare-devilry look effortless.The crowd oohed and aahed as the bikers did bunny hops and flips over the course, while the audience were encouraged to cheer for man or machine in a series of exciting gravity-defying challenges.




Turing's Sunflowers Spirals Count
Members of the public joined Jonathan Swinton and researchers from The University of Manchester to find out how Turing's Sunflower growers contributed to the mathematical story of how sunflowers grow. The results were announced alongside a screening of Turing's Sunflower Diaries, crowd-sourced from footage shot by growers and directed by BBC Outreach staff volunteers. Take a look at the video to find out more.

Moon
Shown in MOSI's 1830 warehouse, this film  directed by Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie), explores what it means to be human. Packed with film fans, it was the last in a series of screenings in the atmospheric pop-up cinema space and was also the last event on the very last night of the festival. This moving and often hilarious film was introduced by guest Duncan Wilson who went on to lead a post-film discussion about the themes. 

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for coming to our events and getting involved in what we think was the best festival yet! We loved every minute and can't wait for next year. 

If you took any photos of your experience, we'd love to see them! Please share them on our Flickr page and let us know what you thought of this year's festival by filling in a quick 2 minute survey. 

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The Wasted Works - An Interview with Artist Gina Czarnecki

      The Wasted Works is a controversial exhibition created by artist Gina Czarnecki. This striking collection of work, created from 'discarded body parts,' is available as part of Manchester Science Festival. As the Works opened at MOSI last week, we thought we'd grab a few minutes with the artist herself and see what she thinks about the issues involved.

      

     1) Should people be allowed to donate parts of their body to an artist? 

      Yes - as long as full consent is given by the donors and the artist endeavours to retain the integrity of the work in being mindful of the context that it will be exhibited. For example, if people donated fat to Canopé - I would consider it bad practice to then put the chairs in an exhibition about obesity…

2)  Is it right for galleries to exhibit artwork made of real human bones, teeth or fat?

At the moment, a licence is required from the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) for the display of tissue from deceased donors. For tissue from living donors, the same bio-hazard protocols are in place, but a permit is not required (however this is new territory and the expansion of DIY biology and experimentation in this area may highlight the need for a similar license for tissue from living donors in the future). Keeping living tissue in a gallery context, such as SymbioticA have done, requires lab equipment (which is not cheap to hire, own, run or maintain). Crucially though, if it is art then galleries should, in my opinion, be able to show this. If it is 'right' or not comes down to personal values, the integrity of the work and taste.

3) Who owns our body parts when they are removed from us? 

If you lose your hand in a farming accident - on the farm - then you can do with the arm what you like. As soon as this is in a medical establishment, we do not 'own' parts of our body once removed. Once removed, the tissue becomes a possible bio-hazard and is treated accordingly.Technically, no one really owns this but it is the responsibility of the medical profession and we are not allowed to take bits home …but I wonder how Roald Dahl got his hip bone…there are certain bits we can take - stones. In some cases, the umbilical cord and placenta…I guess not too many people ask.

4) Does the use of human tissue in art serve any purpose, or is this just sensationalism?

This depends on the art. In Wasted, this was to draw attention to the grey areas of consent, ownership, donor participation,  etcetera - the Chapman Brothers source bones in their artworks from China. Gunther Von Hagen's first 'bodies' were given to medical research and not for display as art. The Wasted Works were not ultimately about the bones but the process of ethical approval, treatment of bio-hazardous materials and patient consent. I made these works because of living in Liverpool - and the shadow of the Alder Hey Organ Scandal as it has become known and the people who were personally affected by not being asked. My father was a concentration camp survivor and at 7, my visit to the Majdanek camp was shocking and has informed much of my art practice and position since. The basic agreement with medical research is not to cause harm, in any way but for the benefit of improving quality of life in some way...I think if the artwork can do this then it is not just sensationalism. We are also talking of a time when teenagers are having botox (and silicone breast implants have recently exposed bad practice of the use of builders' grade silicone). This just shows us how little people investigate what poison is going into them or the fact that this is the intentional disabling of the body when it is in the name of 'beauty' but those same people will be disgusted by sitting in a chair made of fat - human or otherwise…

5) Should this type of art require formal approval?

Currently, there is no formal body set up that can approve or not this sort of work - the HTA deals with tissue from dead donors and medical research. Universities have their own panels that can approve or not this sort of work. Through The Wasted Works, I have started the process for a national Art and Ethics Advisory Panel and with a significantly high level of people and institutions giving advice in relation to ethics, then this may develop a direct resource for people in the future to know public sentiment, sensitivities and legalities of individual projects. We are not a committee to approve or not the ideas/projects but are advisory only - and with the intention of developing the debate in a public participatory way.

6) Which piece is your favourite and why?

My favourite is The Wasted Works - they co-exist. The palace is the tip of the iceberg, all the pieces do different things and together do more than the sum of the parts and allow one another space - I wouldn't feel comfortable showing diagram for a summerhouse without the lightness of the palace…but the bits I enjoy most at the moment, are the drawings and stories coming in from the donors of the milk teeth. I like this because there is a response on a personal level, and its not the silence of an art audience or the feeling that your work is in a void, but that every one sent is helping to make The Palace grow.


The Wasted Works is available as part of our Art Meets Science programme. Visit our website for a full list of events. 

Request a brochure: info@manchestersciencefestival.com
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Exploring the Polar Regions and Locating Lionel

Andrew Glester is the Producer/Director of Polar:Explore and Locate Lionel at this year's Manchester Science Festival. For this week's blog, we've asked  him what he loves about science, who is Lionel and what we will love abut his events.

Tell us about Lionel?     

Lionel is my campervan but, inspired by the words and works of Carl Sagan, he is also the Spaceship of Our Imagination. He’ll be landing in Manchester just before and, then again, during the festival.

As he’s a Space and Time machine, we don’t actually know where or when he’ll appear but keep an eye on the twitter hashtag #LocateLionel and Facebook for news on sightings. If you happen to locate him, you’ll be able to step inside and watch a selection of films…and, stocks permitting, a bit of fresh popcorn.

How did the idea come about?

You’d have to ask Lionel. All I know is that I was camping by Coniston Water, reading Carl Sagan’s book Cosmos and now I’m turning up at festivals in the Spaceship of Our Imagination. I’m not really sure how that happened.

   

What will people love about Lionel and Polar:Explore?

Locate Lionel is a lot of fun but there are also some really beautiful and thought-provoking films which he’ll be showing and I know that people will be able to relax in that unique environment and take in a film or two that they won’t have seen before.

Polar:Explore is a bit different. We brought Polar, the full scale orchestral concert to the festival last year and Polar:Explore enables us to take it further. There will be a string quartet and a harpist performing some of the best chamber music ever written, combined with a special version of the film from Polar but the real difference is that we have teamed up with the British Science Association and are able to introduce real scientists to the audience to explore the science of these magical frozen lands.

We have an astronomer on hand to talk about the ethereal Northern Lights and a zoologist who knows a thing or two about the animals from the poles but there will be hands-on activities for children of all ages too.

Polar:Explore is taking place at Manchester Museum which is just brilliant because we have all their resources and people to call upon to really help us explore the themes of Polar with the audience.

Why do you love Science?

When you look out into the night sky, you see stars which no longer exist. When some of those stars exploded, they sent all sorts of exotic particles out into space. Particles the stars themselves had cooked up over billions of years before going supernova. Those particles are what everything is made of: this planet, those trees, that computer, the atmosphere, you, me, my daughter, this pencil…everything. We don’t know that because we sat quietly and thought about it or because we had some revelation in a dream. Science is the reason we know these things. It’s the reason we know pretty much anything.

Exploding stars spewing out matter which comes to life and gains a consciousness which allows it to understand that it is, itself, made out of those dying faint dots of light in the night sky.

As Carl Sagan put it, “We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.”

I don’t see how you fail to be interested in that.

Why will people love Lionel and Polar: Explore?

At Sound of Science, we try to bring the beauty of reality to life. It doesn't really need our help but, personally, I like to take time out occasionally to look at the world and the universe around us and appreciate just how beautiful life can be and I think that’s what Lionel and Polar: Explore can do for the audience.

I don’t make anything for a specific age or type of audience. I just make things that I know I would love to experience and I imagine the 4 year old me would love hanging out in a campervan watching films as much as the slightly more grown up version does and I know that adults will enjoy Polar:Explore as much as the children in the audience will. I don’t believe we ever stop wanting to have fun or to marvel at something beautiful or thought-provoking. The programme says it’s for families but you don’t need to bring yours with you. Come on your own or with a friend and talk to the scientists and the musicians.

Alice, the lead violinist in the quartet has been to the Arctic on a field trip with her dad who is a marine biologist.  Greta, who will be playing the harp, doubles as a neuroscientist and actually made her own harp. These are people worth talking to! I suppose I should probably mention that both events are completely free of charge too…

Lionel is on Facebook  and Twitter and you can follow him via #LocateLionel. 

Locate Lionel and Polar: Explore are available as part of our Art Meets Science and Family Fun programmes. Visit our website for a full list of events. 

Request a brochure:info@manchestersciencefestival.com. Get the latest news on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter.

Seeking Perfection scoops public engagement prize

Manchester Science Festival is part of a team that has scooped a prize in a European competition for best innovations in University outreach and public engagement.


A creative project called Seeking Perfection has been awarded the ‘Recognition of Distinction’ as part of the ‘EngageU’ programme. Over 100 projects were submitted from Universities across Europe, but this project was selected because of the quality of the collaboration between The University of Manchester, Nowgen, Contact Theatre and the Manchester Science Festival. The creative approaches used made this a distinctive and innovative project. The project team created a short video about the project. To watch this, please: click here 

Natalie Ireland, Director of Manchester Science Festival and Kate Dack, Nowgen's Public Programmes Manager were delighted that the Seeking Perfection project was recognised for its creativity and the depth of the engagement process.

The Seeking Perfection project explored human enhancement - which provides a rich vein for public engagement, exploring issues such as boosting athletic performance, taking stimulant drugs to improve memory and using plastic surgery. A team of 15 young people worked with researchers, ethicists and artists over a six week period to develop a performance about enhancement with creative partners. This was delivered in unusual settings, such as busy shopping centres, to reach local communities who would not typically engage with biomedical science. Seeking Perfection successfully promoted engagement with local communities.


The performance was then taken to the Zion Arts Centre, complimented with a public debate on issues brought up in the project. Andy Miah, Sarah Chan, Mark Gasson and David James were on the panel and expertly discussed and debated the issues with a lively audience. 


The project team had diverse backgrounds, but they were able to share their strengths to allow everyone to try something new. The Seeking Perfection project is contributing towards building a society where all can realise their potential. In this project the young people worked successfully as collaborators with university researchers, artists and also with other professionals in the team.

Seeking Perfections performers take to the stage

Many of the teenagers involved described being more intrigued by science after the project. One said: “I thought when I finished school I would never have to think about science again, and I’ve learnt it’s around us all the time and I should maybe pay more attention. I might blink and the world could be a completely different place.”


Seeking Perfection relied on the talent and experience of researchers within the University of Manchester, the enthusiasm and creativity of young people involved and the artistic backgrounds of Contact Theatre and artists involved. 


This project was funded by a People Award from the Wellcome Trust and we thank them for their support.


Further information about the competition: click here

Exhibition call out: It’ll never work!

In conjunction with Manchester Science Festival this autumn, the fantastic Nexus Art Cafe have decided to celebrate the themes of invention, ingenuity and innovation in their next exhibition.

From the beauty of the blueprint to the enchanting rhythm of an ECG, the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics offer up a whole wealth of creative opportunity and inspiration.

Nexus Art Cafe are seeking artwork and imagery from artists, scientists, and engineers that showcases innovative and interesting ideas in a beautiful way.

Think inspiring infographics, magnificent maps, delightful diagrams and awesome anatomies – be it the stuff of hard scientific fact, or something a little more fantastical – the walls of Nexus will celebrate the creative side of these industries which so often gets overlooked.

If all this has sparked an idea or two, then get in touch. Please send an artist’s statement (no more than 500 words each), up to five images of the work you’d like to submit (max 1000 pixels square/72 dpi), and an artist’s CV to: submissions@nexusartcafe.com, with ‘It’ll Never Work’ as the subject title. Submission Deadline is 5pm on Wednesday 1st August.

Majestic Fragility: Our Earth's Polar Regions

Polar

Royal Northern College of Music
Sunday 23 October
First performance 3pm, Second performance 7pm
Cost & Booking: £10 (restricted view), £20, £25, £30. Booking required. You can also purchase tickets in person at the RNCM

Combining the majesty of the earth’s polar regions with a stunning live orchestral score, Polar is sure to be a unique and thrilling film and musical experience.

The Royal Northern College of Music’s largest screen will host white blizzards and humpback whales, while the Manchester Camera perform a specially arranged score conducted by John Harle.

Polar is an immersive event that will leave the whole family astounded.

Manchester Science Festival blogger Nija Dalal caught up with producer Andrew Glester in the lead up to the Festival premiere.

First off, tell me about Polar. What’s the event going to be like for festival go-ers?Polar is a combination of high-definition footage from the best natural history filmmakers in the world, the same people that make BBC natural history programs. All the archival footage we used is about the Poles, the arctic and the Antarctic. And we worked w/ The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and John Harle to compose the live score. At the Manchester Science Festival, the Manchester Camerata will be accompanying the film with a score by John Harle, made of music written just for Polar, along with other classical compositions.

The thing is, for every BBC documentary that gets made, there’s hours and hours of footage that doesn’t make it into the BBC programs. They’re interested in the showing the exciting 5 seconds of an attack, but we’re interested in the reality of life, which includes a lot of quiet moments.

Because it’s a live show, we have more leeway to do experimental things that you can’t see on television. For example, there’s a sequence in Polar which is about seven or eight minutes long, and it’s just footage of the Aurora Borealis, with a piece of really odd classical music.

We’ve taken footage that they shot for other documentaries but didn’t use, so even though the footage already existed, it’s never been seen before! We’ve made something new out of it.

The screen fills whole back of the Royal Northern College of Music’s stage. Polar is about being transported to world which most of us will never go to in the company of this incredible live music. The most amazing thing about it is that it’s a live event. You can’t see Polar w/out going to see it live.

How did you get interested in the Poles and decide to make this film?

I think Jacques Cousteau was right when he said “It’s easier to protect what you love.” We wanted to make things that inspire a love for our planet.  Or the people of our planet, or the wildlife, the nature. And not just our planet, the universe, everything.

As far as choosing to focus on the Poles, well, the magic of the Poles is that so few of us will ever get to go and experience that world. There’s a sense of going somewhere that you could never see, really, or you are very unlikely to see. And with Polar, it’s like being taken on a journey to that world, because of the huge scale of the screen.

The Manchester Science Festival is Polar’s second performance. It premiered at Liverpool in January. What was the reaction like?

Some people have said it was an honour to be at the concert, which was wonderful.

I think the amazing thing for us was seeing how many really young children, 3-5 year olds, were enjoying it. It’s not surprising, though, because the film is very visual, very interesting.

There’s a moment when the polar bear comes on screen for the first time, and you can hear the joy in the audience. Another time, some penguins are falling over and playing, and you can hear the audience just laughing along. Or you see the underwater world of a pod of beluga whales interacting, set to John Harle’s music.

There are moments that aren’t quite so joyful as well. But it’s all part of an emotional experience that’s unparalleled. You sit somebody down with a live orchestra, playing music they would never listen to in their house, you show them footage they’d never see on their televisions… you get something kind of unbelievable. You get these amazing long weird sequences, things that are different, like nothing anyone’s seen before. And those sequences are often people’s favourite parts of the show. Because it’s so different.  

The feeling you get from watching Polar is just like nothing else.

Apart from inspiring people to love the planet, you are also interested in the ecological impacts of your productions, right?

Yes, there’s something quite nice ecologically about this film, too. Travelling to these places would have a huge carbon footprint, whereas this footage was already filmed. We just made something new out of things that already existed.

And when we send the show around, we send a hard drive and a conductor. The footprint of the show is very small. I don’t want to shout too much about that, because the lowest footprint is of course no show at all.

I’m interested in low-carbon shows, though. I like the idea of maybe doing a cycle-powered show. 

Why did you think of having live classical music played to it? What is the connection between nature film and music for you?

In a way, Polar combines some great interests of mine. I’m a science geek, and I love classical music. I wanted, with Polar, to make something that people come and experience and have a wonderful time.

But the truth is that because the footage is so grand, stark, huge and inspiring, orchestral music just feels right.

What did you learn about the Poles as a result of this work?How do you think this film helps people engage with science?

Here’s how I look at it: I already know what the northern lights are, I’ve read about them.

In a way, I knew what they were, but in another… I didn’t.

I think that even if people know about the northern lights, if they haven’t seen them personally, there’s something visceral to be learned about them by seeing them this way…

The idea of Polar is to inspire people to want to know about the Poles.

I think it’s impossible to sit and look at the northern lights and not want to know what is really going on there…It’s impossible to look at polar bears and not be fascinated about their lives.

It’s near the start of the Manchester Science Festival and it might also be the start of a lot of people’s exploration of sciences.

The Manchester Science Festival presents Polar: An HD journey to the magical frozen oceans at the ends of our earth

Royal Northern College of Music, 124 Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9RD
Sunday 23 October
First performance 3pm, Second performance 7pm
Cost & Booking: £10 (restricted view), £20, £25, £30. Booking required. You can also purchase tickets at the RNCM.

Beautiful Bacteria, Visual Viruses, Fascinating Fungi!

Microbiology and Art
MadLab
Saturday 22 October – 10 November
11am – 5pm
Cost & Booking: Free. No need to book. Drop in anytime.

Looking up at the celestial night sky or at Hubble telescope images of the universe around us, the connection between astronomy and beauty is unquestionable.

But other fields of science don’t have such a ready connection between their research subjects and beauty. Take, for example, microbiology. The study of bacteria, viruses, and fungi likely makes most people think, “Germs! Get them off me!” rather than “Ooh, that’s lovely…”

Joanna Verran, though, is out to change all that. For the 2011 Manchester Science Festival , Joanna has put together an exhibit of artwork inspired by and featuring microorganisms and infectious diseases.

After all, many microorganisms are beneficial to us, and gorgeous as well!

Manchester Science Festival blogger Nija Dalal got on the phone with Joanna, to discuss this exciting and intriguing exhibit that brings together science and art.

First off, can you describe what the event will be about?

The exhibit will demonstrate the links between science and art, specifically microbiology. The artworks were produced by science undergraduate students and citizen-scientists to illustrate the often unrecognized connections between art and science

And what exactly is microbiology?

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, the tiny living things like bacteria, virii, fungi. They are incredibly small, and have to be seen through a microscope.

Microbes can be very beautiful and very important… and there are more of them than anything else on the planet! And they’re not all there just to make us ill—many of them play the important role of breaking things down. If they didn’t exist, we’d be over our heads in rubbish on this planet!

Did you know there are 10 times more microbial cells in and on the human body than there are human cells?

That’s amazing! I knew there were a lot, but that’s astounding! What kind of artworks can festival goers look forward to seeing at the exhibit?

There are a lot of exciting artworks being shown. For example, one of my students recreated an X-ray image of a virus using sequins. It’s really beautiful. Another piece is an embroidered quilt about scarlet fever, and it also draws on Little Women, because a character in that book, Beth, dies of scarlet fever.

There are also some fascinating photographs. Overall, the exhibit will be a very visual, very artistic way to engage with science. Hopefully, people will find a new way to think about science and microbiology, because art can help to communicate scientific understanding in an unexpected way.

The exhibit features work by your undergraduate science students and by a group called DIYBIO… What is DIYBIO?

DIYBIO is a Wellcome Trust Funded group, run by MadLab (Manchester Digital Laboratory) and Manchester Metropolitan University. The group exists to encourage citizen-run science. DIYBIO held a competition among their members for artworks that related to microbiology. The winning submissions are in the exhibit.

They’ve developed an interactive microbe map of Manchester, which can show visitors where different microbes were found around the city, mostly probably from people’s hands.

So could it be that people who come to see the exhibit may have unwittingly contributed to it?

Absolutely. You may be seeing your own microbes on that map!

Why did you choose to use academic and amateur work?

Science students tend to get pigeonholed into just doing science work, and this lets them use other talents, brings in different talents and provides a different way of communicating science. For the person looking at the work, it could be a less threatening way of looking at science.

What do you think art offers microbiology? Can art sometimes show things in a clearer way or a more dynamic way?

I think the artworks make people look at science differently, think about the message differently. That can be very interesting.

Do you think art can help people get interested in microbiology?

Yes! Microbiology is a really interesting subject and this gets people to look at it in a way that’s more accessible and helps you to make links you wouldn’t otherwise. You’d never think of the similarity between something like an xray of a virus and a cultural product like sequins, but once you’ve seen the artwork, you can see how beautiful and sparkly the original xray image looks.

I really hope this exhibit inspires people to do and think about science and art as interconnected.

The Manchester Science Festival 2011 presents Microbiology and Art
MadLab, 

36-40 Edge St, Manchester, Greater Manchester M4 1, UK

Saturday 22 October – 10 November
11am – 5pm
Cost & Booking: Free. No need to book. Drop in anytime.

Join in QR-3D

QR-3D is an experiment in textiles and digital technology.

QR codes are grid-like images used in the same way as barcodes. They can be read by mobile phones and contain text, usually an internet address.

What happens when those codes are recreated in textiles? Does the texture of the thread and fabric stop the codes from working? How far can textiles be manipulated before the functionality disappears?

QR-3D invites anyone, anywhere to join in and find out. Simply choose a website, turn it into a QR code and recreate it in textiles.

Instructions for all of these steps are included in the project's website http://www.qr-3d.weebly.com/

Some of the works created will be selected for the exhibition QR-3D, held at Cornerhouse during Manchester Science Festival.

The deadline for submitting your work is Sunday 31st July so get making.

Image: Do Androids Dream of Electronic Embroidery, Rachel Rose