July 1/2 1999 Royal Institution, London

It is said we are living in a golden age of cosmology. Slowly the way the universe is put together is unfolding before our eyes. This summer, Northern Europe will be a direct witness to the way spinning bodies inexorably move in predictable paths when the sun goes dark over Cornwall, the English Channel and in a line all the way to India.

Artists are playing a part in these realisations too. James Turrell is remodelling a massive crater that will capture the sun's light in a massive eclipse. Janet Saad-Cook is working with the Very Large Array in New Mexico to harness directly the sun's movements to create art and Cornelia Parker is planning to send a meteorite into space. Computer users around the world are harnessing their PCs to decode the messages coming from SETI - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.

'Cosmic Chances' will bring the scientists who are battling with the fundamental mysteries of the universe - scientists from NASA, the French Space Agency, Jodrell Bank and SETI into a series of unique exchanges with artists at London's historic Royal Institution in the Arts Catalyst's Science -Art Conference. Last year in 'Eye of the Storm' artists and scientists looked at controversial areas: genetics, nuclear physics, consciousness, space travel and sex. This year - the year of the eclipse - we focus on astronomy and astrophysics, the exciting discoveries about extra-solar planets and the chances of sharing the universe with other life-forms.

Speakers

Conference Chair Roger Malina, Director of NASA's Extreme Ultra-Violet Explorer Observatory and Founder/Editor of Leonardo, the art science journal, will update us on the hottest astronomical discoveries from space telescopes
Intelligent Light

Leading artist James Turrell will explore the fundamental nature of light and unveil the final stages of his extraordinary life-long project at the Roden Carter - an extinct volcano transformed by earthmovers into a massive artwork.

Why the Sun Shines and Continues to Shine
Marcus Chown of the New Scientist and author of 'The Afterglow of Creation and the forthcoming 'The Magic Furnace', explores the chance correspondences that keep the nuclear reactor in the sky running.

Drawing with the Sun. Janet Saad Cook, artist, will describe her project for the Very Large Array - an enormous field of radio-telescopes in New Mexico - as part of her Global Sun Drawing, a single globe-encircling work of art using the sun.

Heart of the Sun. David Wark, particle physicist, describes the search for the - as yet undetected - solar neutrino underway in deep chambers around the world. Life Spreading Through the Universe

Chandra Wickramasinghe, collaborator with Sir Fred Hoyle on 'Life in the Cosmos' and other books, introduces the provocative notions of panspermia, biological determinism and cosmological constraints.

Eclipses: A History of Night in Day Historian Frank James of the Royal Institution examines the significance of chronicles and records of eclipses through the centuries.

Natural Space Debris
Cornelia Parker, sculptor, describes the progress in her extraordinary project to return a meteorite back into space.

Life Outside the Solar System
Ian Morison, Jodrell Bank scientist and co-ordinator of Britain's role on the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence with the SETI Institute, updates us on the latest search with the big dish.

Our Life Inside a Superconductor
Sandra Chapman, astrophysicist from the University of Warwick, unveils our precarious connection with the sun - the solar wind, a hurricane or particles which blows from the sun at incredible velocities, buffeting and battering the earth and extending far beyond the furthest planet of the solar system.

Array
Ansuman Biswas, artist, describes his worldwide project for the Arts Catalyst's exhibition 'Searching', in which he propose to place an array of dishes thousands of miles apart in uninhabited places to collect whatever falls from the sky.

SETI for All
Amanda Baker, regional co-ordinator of the SETI League, explains how the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence is significant for the whole community.

Terrestrial Organisms in Extraterrestrial Materials: a Tool to Detect Martian life?
Andrew Steele is an astrobiologist working on a project for NASA. He hopes to investigate the first sample coming back from Mars.

Performance - Solar Wind
Anne Bean, artist, and Marcus Chown have been working on an art/science voyage which followed the path of the eclipse in the English Channel, with 36 participants recording their impressions, from which are emerging web-based internet and installation projects.

There was also a chance to win two participant places on our eclipse art-science cruise on three luxury launches which followed the path of the eclipse in the English Channel with performances, art and science activities and a champagne lunch.