TWO CULTURES: A forum on global cultural collaborations with art & science

Yiyun Chen, Sick Better 2015-2016. Current Asialink Arts resident based at Symbiotica
Yiyun Chen, Sick Better 2015-2016. Current Asialink Arts resident based at Symbiotica

Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Room Level 1, Sidney Myer Asia Centre Gate 4, The University of Melbourne Parkville, Victoria 3010

More Information

Louise Joel

l.joel@asialink.unimelb.edu.au

T: +61 3 9035 9605

  • Arts

Asialink Arts (AA) in partnership with The Carlton Connect Initiative (CCI)   present this one-day forum focused on sharing ideas, experiences and interrogating the role of art in science.

Science and scientific ideas have long inspired art and artists. By exploring the evolving world of art, science and technology; we must ask how the contemporary artist can engage meaningfully with scientific researchers and vice versa. 

The forum title is drawn from the seminal and somewhat controversial C.P.Snow publication ‘The Two Cultures’ from 1959 originally presented as a Cambridge University Rede Lecture. Its thesis was that "the intellectual life of the whole of western society" was split into the titular two cultures — namely the sciences and the humanities — and that this was a major hindrance to solving the world's problems. So what has become of this theory nearly six decades on?

As organisations seek innovative ways to ensure a prosperous future, the forum will look beyond the traditional STEM model and consider a new collaboration in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Art) predominantly driven by artists embracing the two cultures.

Join some of the Australia’s most innovative thinkers operating across the two cultures as we discuss the aim of this art and science movement, and what we hope to gain from this brave new world.

Keynote Address:   Margaret Wertheim- Set Theory: Parsing Possible Relations Between the Sciences and Arts (Science writer/ curator, artist, Director: Institute For Figuring)

Speakers include:  Dr Renee Beale (Creative Community Animator, The Carlton Connect Initiative); Sarah Bond(Director Visual Arts, Asialink); Cake Industries (artist duo), Yiyun Chen(artist); Dr Simon Cropper (research academic & Leader of The Vision Lab, the University of Melbourne); Stephen Haley (artist & Senior lecturer, VCA); Rose Hiscock (Director, Science Gallery Melbourne);Lisa Roet (artist); Erica Seccombe (artist); Dr Debbie Symons(artist);Kit Webster (artist).

RSVP by 10 November: Louise Joel l.joel@asialink.unimelb.edu.au

Program:

10.00-10.10am

Welcome

Lesley Alway, Director Visual Arts

10.10-10.20am

Introduction

Dr Renee Beale

10.20-11.00am

Keynote

Set Theory: Parsing Possible Relations Between the Sciences and Arts

Margaret Wertheim

11.00-11.30am

Morning tea (provided)

11.30am-12.45pm

Session one – Global Investigations

Lisa Roet, Kit Webster, Yiyun Chen, CAKE Industries, Sarah Bond (Chair)

12.45-1.30pm

Lunch (provided)

1.30-2.00pm

Science Gallery network (Melbourne)

Rose Hiscock, Director Science Gallery

2.00-3.30pm

Session two –Art + Science Collaborations

Stephen Haley, Erica Seccombe, Dr Simon Cropper, Debbie Symons, Dr Renee Beale (Chair)

3.30pm

Thanks and Close

 

image: Yiyun Chen, Sick Better 2015-2016. Current Asialink Arts resident based at Symbiotica