April 2013 public engagement events

You Are What You Ate at Pontefract Castle

Our regular scamper through upcoming science and medicine themed events funded through the Wellcome Trust’s public engagement awards.

First up, the ‘Wonder: art and science on the brain’ season culminates in a spectacular street fair and events offering at the Barbican in London over the next week. With talks, films, body illusions, knitting, comics, surgery, walking tours, 19^th century costumes, and an evening with Ruby Wax, there’s lots on offer. See the full schedule on the Barbican website. It’s all coinciding with the British Neuroscience Association’s Festival of Neuroscience – one of the biggest neuroscience conferences in the scientific calendar, which this year takes place also at the Barbican. The conference brings together hundreds of the world’s top brain researchers. Our sister blog ThInk will have comprehensive coverage of the conference and Wonder over the coming week from a team of reporters, including Guardian science blogger Mo Costandi. You can also follow the conversations on Twitter via the hashtags #BNAneurofest and #wonderseason.

Matters of Life and Death Medical Talks at Arnos Vale cemetery continue in April exploring the life or death role of medicine through history. ‘Angel of Death – The story of Smallpox’ takes place on Thursday 4th April, 7:30-8:30pm in Bristol followed by ‘Antivaccinationist and Antivivisectionist: Dr Hadwen of Gloucester’ on Thursday 18th April also from 7:30pm-8:30pm.

The first event of The False Memory Archive’s tour will be an afternoon of talks at the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh on 6th April from 1-4pm. Professor Richard Wiseman, Dr Caroline Watt and Professor Sergio Della Sala will give a series of presentations looking at the distortion of memory and autobiographical stories. The archive is a collection of false and distorted memories submitted by members of the public – further details of the project and the full tour schedule at: http://falsememoryarchive.com. Book via: http://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/whats-on/categories/talk/the-false-memory-archive-a-discussion.

Tales from Babel – Musical Adventures in the Science of Hearing is a new performance and research project from The Clerks music group. The concert programme will demonstrate through both performance and audience interaction the challenges of hearing different texts at the same time, or “the cocktail party problem”. The pilot presentation takes place on 5th April at 4pm at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, followed by a presentation at the Barbican on 8th April at 10am. Further tour dates: http://www.talesfrombabel.co.uk/concerts.

All About Me is a brand new gallery now open at Eureka! the national children’s museum in Halifax, West Yorkshire. ‘All About Me’ is a 900m² exhibition aiming to harness the latest knowledge and techniques in playful learning to captivate, stimulate and challenge children, aged from 0 to 11, and their families in science, health and well-being. The new gallery will include multi-sensory hands-on exhibits to encourage young people to explore how the body works and imaginative spaces and activities will invite them to enjoy and understand the uniqueness of their own bodies.

Cartographies of Life & Death (CoLD) is an exhibition marking the bicentenary of John Snow. It will explore the significance of Snow’s work, the field of disease mapping and its implications for society today in terms of public health, based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, between 13 March – 17 April, Monday to Saturday, 10am – 5pm. A mobile website can be used to follow the map of the exhibition and Soho area with audio at significant locations. Supporting the CoLD, there are Weekly Returns including street performances and lectures all beginning at the Broad Street memorial pump on Broadwick Street, Soho. Full exhibition and event details at http://johnsnowbicentenary.lshtm.ac.uk/exhibition.

The Edinburgh International Science Festival (until 7 April) has adapted six of its life science workshops for an adult audience – creating centrepieces for Science Festival Lates. Three sets of busks (on bikes!) have also been created that will be performing throughout the streets of Edinburgh, as well as at a range of cultural festivals across Scotland throughout the year.

Maker Faire UK will take place at Newcastle’s Centre for Life on 27-28^th April. For the first year an area within the festival will be dedicated to the DIY Bio project consisting of a ‘pop up community lab’ in the exhibition space featuring the world’s most renowned biohackerspaces with their home-made lab equipment and current projects. Maker Faire is a show and tell festival—a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning.

Melanie Jackson’s The Urpflanze (Part 2) is showing at Flat Time House until 12th May (Thursday-Sunday 12-6pm). In a series of moving images and ceramic sculptures, the installation explores mutability and transformation. It is based on the concept of an imaginary primal plant that contains the potential for all possible future forms. The exhibition will be open late on Friday 26th April, with Melanie Jackson in conversation with Esther Leslie from 6.30-8.30pm.

The Pigeon Theatre is collaborating with Cognitive Neuroscientist Dr Colin Lever in a new theatre performance, The Smell of Envy. The show uses older actors and their memories and is part cookery demonstration, part science experiment, part neuroscience lecture and part smell laboratory. The Smell of Envy is on tour around the country, finishing on 17th May with a performance in our very building! See http://pigeontheatre.wordpress.com for more details and the full list of tour dates.

Still on

Food For All Seasons at Wakefield Museum is running until 28 September.  Part of the You Are What You Ate project it introduces the people of medieval Wakefield through the food they grew and ate each season of the year. In the Middle Ages, the lives of rich and poor were intertwined. Times were harsh in 14th century Yorkshire, with war, famine and animal disease making life challenging for its inhabitants. Yet for those in control of Sandal Castle, peasants continued to plough the fields and sow the seeds of the future. Further details about the exhibition, related events (talks, festival stalls and children’s activities), and YAWYA in general are available at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/yawya/events/index.html.

PAIN LESS: the future of relief, an exhibition at the Science Museum runs until November 2013. It explores the future of pain relief and the different ways that pain management is being developed. Scientists now have new understanding of the link between the brain and the body and are investigating how this can help us to overcome pain in future.

Advanced notice

JULIUS, a multi-screen film produced by Elastic Theatre, will premiere at Spitalfields Music Festival from 7th-14th June before touring internationally. The film explores the nature of obsessional thoughts and the superstitious beliefs associated with them.

Jon Adams, an artist in residence at the Autism Research Centre, will be giving a performance and talk at the Arts Catalyst on 14th June. Jon’s work is a personal, artistic and scientific exploration of his own Asperger’s Syndrome.

Thanks to our Engaging Science colleagues Tom Ziessen, Meroe Candy, Jenny Paton and Helen Latchem for the info.

If you are inspired to go along to any of the activities listed here, leave a comment below and let us know what you thought.