http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/ en jo.fells@artscatalyst.org Copyright 2012 2012-06-20T19:00:54+00:00 http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/kosmica9/ http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/kosmica9/#When:19:00:54Z Each KOSMICA  session is unique: bringing together the cosmically curious and culturally quirky space community for a social mix of art–space programmes - a film screening, performance or live concert with a short presentation, talk and debate about alternative and cultural uses of space. Wednesday 20 June 2012, 7-10pm June's  KOSMICA Ju will focus on gravity and mircogravity.  We will confirm speakers and performers in the evening's line up by the end of May.  To make sure you're one of the first to hear who'll be presenting on 20 June, sign up to our e-bulletin and we'll send you an e-shot when bookings open.  Sign up: http://www.artscatalyst.org/about/sign_up_form The KOSMICA series is curated by Nahum Mantra and The Arts Catalyst, and is endorsed by ITACCUS, the International Astronautical Federation's Committee on the Cultural Utilisation of Space. Websites     2012-06-20T19:00:54+00:00 http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/jon_adams_residency/ http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/jon_adams_residency/#When:08:47:33Z Jon Adams' artwork explores sense and sensitivity through the 'hidden' and plays with perceptions of normal and the inaccessible. A geologist by training, Adams’ seeking of the hidden in his art often reveals his naturally systematic thinking: his inclination and ability to uncover systems within everyday interactions and landscapes. In this residency and research project, Jon Adams sets out on a personal, artistic and scientific investigation of his own Asperger's Syndrome, through a series of conversations, observations and experiments, working in collaboration with Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, where Adams will have a residency. Rather than a specific pathology, Baron-Cohen sees autism as being on a continuum in the general population. He proposes that certain features of autistic people - ‘obsessions’ and repetitive behaviour - previously regarded as purposeless, are conversely highly purposive, intelligent (hyper-systemising), and a sign of a different way of thinking. He argues that high-functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome need not just lead to disability, but can also lead to talent. This collaborative research project has emerged from an initial meeting between Jon Adams and Simon Baron-Cohen at an Arts Catalyst/Shape project Alternative Ways of Thinking at the Cheltenham Science Festival in 2011.  Website links Jon Adams Simon Baron Cohen Supported by Wellcome Trust Arts Award 2012-05-01T08:47:33+00:00 http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/kosmica8/ http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/kosmica8/#When:19:00:12Z Each KOSMICA  session is unique: bringing together the cosmically curious and culturally quirky space community for a social mix of art–space programmes - a film screening, performance or live concert with a short presentation, talk and debate about alternative and cultural uses of space. Friday 20 April 2012, 7-10pm In April's KOSMICA, space scientist Dr Lucie Green explores the atmosphere of the sun, artist Chooc Ly Tan scrutinises physics, and Guess What play music inspired by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and Persian astronomer Al-Khawarizmi. Plus a screening of Semiconductor’s stunning short film Brilliant Noise.  Dr Lucie Green is a solar researcher who studies activity in the atmosphere of the Sun, in particular, immense magnetic fields in the Sun's atmosphere. These sporadically erupt to form a coronal mass ejection. Lucie is based at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL's Department of Space and Climate Physics. She sits on the board of the European Solar Physics Division (ESPD) of the European Physical Society and is a member of the Royal Society's Education Committee. Chooc Ly Tan is an artist living and working in London. Her multidisciplinary practice includes performance, video, text and sculpture. Part of her inquiry is the arguable role of physics, which is scrutinised through materiality and time-based media to question its attributed functions. Tan’s often-playful experiments explore fragility, with matter that coexists in states between order and chaos, for example, gravity or materials that repel or work against each other to create tension and volatility. Guess What was formed in 1968 (2005) by Luke Warmcop and Graham Mushnik They started out working indoors only, producing obscure metaphysical music and soundtracks. In 1972 (2009) their first LP was recorded and released on Catapulte. Titled Yuri Gagarin - 12 Modern Odes To History's Greatest Spaceman, it explores the inner-world and outer-world of Gagarin and his adventure. In 1973 (2010), they discovered the mighty "Giallo" cinema, and recorded some Italian-sounding music, due out in 1975 (2012) on Imagenes. In the meantime, a new focus is keeping them busy: the Persian mathematician and astronomer Al-Khawarizmi, and music from the Middle East. Semiconductor is UK artists Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. Over the past fifteen years they have become known for developing a unique and innovative body of moving image works, which explore the material nature of our world, how we experience it and how we create an understanding of it: questioning our place in the physical universe. The KOSMICA series is curated by Nahum Mantra and The Arts Catalyst, and is endorsed by ITACCUS, the International Astronautical Federation's Committee on the Cultural Utilisation of Space. Websites Dr Lucie Green Chooc Ly Tan Guess What semiconductor     2012-04-20T19:00:12+00:00 http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/nakedmatter/ http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/nakedmatter/#When:19:00:01Z The Arts Catalyst is delighted to present talks by artists Kira O’Reilly and Oron Catts.Kira O’Reilly talks about her artistic experiments using modern biological technologies, including culturing skin from non-human animals, and how this led to subsequent performance work, including her durational performance with a dead pig, Inthewrongplaceness, and subsequently a live one, Falling Asleep with a Pig. The latter she presented as part of Interspecies in Manchester and London in 2009. Oron Catts will discuss his new project Crude Matter. ‘Crude’ is the direct translation of the Hebrew word Golem, a creature created by magic, often with the sole purpose of serving its creator. In one popular account, the Golem grew stronger and stronger, but instead of heroic and helpful deeds, Golem became increasingly uncontrollable and even destructive. Artists' websites Kira O'Reilly Oron Catts 2012-03-16T19:00:01+00:00 http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/kosmica_paris/ http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/kosmica_paris/#When:15:27:32Z A new series of galactic gatherings for earth-bound artists, space engineers, performers, astronomers, musicians and anyone interested in exploring and sharing space in original ways. Every KOSMICA session will be unique: bringing together the cosmically curious and culturally quirky space community. Monthly KOSMICA evenings will bring together a social mix of art–space programmes - a film screening, performance or live concert with a short presentation, talk and debate about alternative and cultural uses of space. KOSMICA Paris - Sunday 11 March 2012, 6-10pm With a focus on Artists working with satellites, tonight's presentations will be made in a mixture of French and English, the line up includes: Roger Malina, astronomer, editor and Distinguished Professor of Art and Technology at the University of Texas, where he is developing Art-Science R and D and Experimental publishing research. Malina is the former Director of the Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille Provence and his specialty is in space instrumentation; he was the Principal Investigator for the NASA Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Satellite at the University of California, Berkeley. He also has been involved for 25 years with the Leonardo organization whose mission is to promote and make visible work that explores the interaction of the arts and sciences and the arts and new technologies. Marko Peljhan studied theatre and radio directing at the University of Ljubljana. He is professor in interdisciplinary studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Since 2005 he has been coordinating the design and utilisation projects, including the development of a polar orbit microsatellite, for the final Arctic and Antarctic Makrolab missions as part of the International Polar Year (2007/2008). Pelhjan is flight director of zero-g flights 1-3 with the Noordung group, and organiser of flight 1 with the GCTC with Kitsou Dubois Nelly Ben Hayoun considers ‘Surreal Interactions’ and proposes how we could embed creativity in our daily lives. With creations like The Soyuz Chair, Royal College of Art Design Interactions MA graduate, Nelly explores the possibilities of space tourism, weightlessness and the thrill of the unknown. Juan José Díaz Infante's Ulises is a nanosatellite being launched soon next year, conceptualised and developed by a Mexican group of artists during the past year: The Mexican Space Collective. Ulises is born out of the necessity of creation of parallel and alternate reality, explores the need of any citizen on Earth to be able to shape any future he wants not being dependant on the system. In this special Kosmica evening we will show the personal journal of the mission’s director, a day-to-day intimate journal of his different experiences as the shaping of this project has taken place. A story worth telling. Regina Peldszus asks - how will we actually live in space?  Regina Peldszus’s work in space architecture and design explores the psychological challenges of isolation and monotony of space crew on extended exploration missions. And concerns human-technology-nature interaction in extreme environments, off-duty and medical design aspects in space and their spin-offs. She is based at the Design Research Centre and the Astronautics & Space Systems Group, Kingston University London.   KOSMICA Paris 10 pour finir et commencer #5, La Société des Curiosités, 24 Place Sainte Marthe, Métro: Colonel Fabien or Belleville. Paris, FRANCE18h – 22h Dimanche 11 mars 2012 – manifestation gratuite Cette manifestation, la première édition à Paris des rencontres galactiques Kosmica, est construite autour d’Artistes travaillant avec des satellites, et présentera:Roger Malina, Director, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille/CNRS (2000-2004) et co-investigator NASA Far Ultraviolet Explorer Program.“Interactions surréelles”, avec Nelly Ben Hayoun, qui propose des moyens de faire entrer la créativité dans notre vie quotidienne. Avec des œuvres telles que la Chaise Soyuz, Nelly explore les possibilités du tourisme spatial, de l’apesanteur et de l’excitation de l’inconnu.Le travail de Marko Peljhan s’intéresse au développement d’un microsatellite à orbite polaire pendant le projet Makrolab en Arctique et en Antarctique. Pelhjan est le directeur de vol des vols zéro-g 1-3 avec le groupe Noordung, et organisateur du vol 1 en collaboration avec le GCTC et Kitsou Dubois.L’Ulysse de Juan José Díaz est un nanosatellite qui doit être lancé prochainement.  Ulysse est né de la nécessité de créer des réalités parallèles et alternatives, et explore le besoin que ressent tout citoyen sur Terre d’avoir les moyens de donner forme à un futur de son choix, sans être dépendant du système. Lors de la soirée spéciale Kosmica, nous exposerons le journal personnel du directeur de la mission, un journal intime quotidien relatant ses différentes expériences alors que le projet prend forme. Une histoire qui mérite d’être racontée et écoutée !Regina Peldszus qui demande : comment, concrètement, vivrons-nous dans l’espace ? Une exploration des difficultés psychologiques de l’isolation et de la monotonie vécues par les équipes spatiales lors de leurs missions exploratoires prolongées.Le project KOSMICA est soutenu par ITACCUS. Cet événement se déroulera avant l’assemblée annuelle ITACCUS hébergée par la Fédération Internationale Astronautique, un organisme qui réunit les organisations du monde actives dans l’espace. Artists' websites Regina PeldszusNelly Ben Hayoun Marko Peljhan Juan José Díaz Infante 2012-03-11T15:27:32+00:00 http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/kosmica_liverpool/ http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/kosmica_liverpool/#When:19:00:58Z Each KOSMICA session is unique: bringing together the cosmically curious and culturally quirky space community for a social mix of art–space programmes - a film screening, performance or live concert with a short presentation, talk and debate about alternative and cultural uses of space.  For the first time The Arts Catalyst brings KOSMICA to Liverpool to coincide with the exhibition Republic of the Moon. This month's KOSMICA is programmed by Nahum Mantra, Sue Corke (UK) and Hagen Betzwieser (Germany) of Republic of the Moon exhibitors WE COLONISED THE MOON, and will focus on Women in Space. The all-female-up includes presentations by Dr Iya Whiteley, Space Psychologist (IACE Ltd, Director; UCL Centre for Space Medicine Consultant), Hilde de Bruijn of the Moon Life Foundation, Bee Thakore of the Planetary Society and Ulrike Kubatta whose film She Should Have Gone To The Moon, a unique documentary portrait of the American pilot Jerri Truhill, will be screened. KOSMICA: Dr. Iya Whiteley KOSMICA: Hilde de Bruijn The Moon Life Foundation is a project initiated by visual artist Alicia Framis. It is a critical interdisciplinary platform giving way for a revolution in cross disciplinary thinking about art, architecture and design in order to imagine and create a new life environment. Moon Life Foundation aims to find new ways of thinking about Earthly problems and expand our thinking beyond existing modes and values such as recycling and re-enactments, its activities include the Moon Life Concept Store, the first shop on Earth with products for life on the Moon, developed by artists, designers and architects at the Moon Academy.  KOSMICA: Bee Thakore KOSMICA: Ulrike Kubatta Ulrike Kubatta will introduce her film She Should Have Gone To The Moon and will talk about the process of making it.  The film documents Jerri Truhill's remarkable story of as a wife, mother and aviator, and her part in Mercury 13 to become one of the first women to be trained by NASA to go into space.  The film is about Jerri Truhill's ambition to conquer the unknown and the Kubatta's fascination with a woman who dared to break down all barriers in aviation.  Set against the historical background of the Space Race, the documentary both constructs an intimate portrait of Truhill and explores a unique chapter in American culture and society.  More about KOSMICA Review artfeast Review thedoublenegative KOSMICA is endorsed by ITACCUS, the International Astronautical Federation's Committee on the Cultural Utilisation of Space. Artists websites WE COLONISED THE MOON Sue Corke (UK) and Hagen Betzwieser (Germany) Moon Life Foundation Ulrike Kubatta The Planetary Society 2012-01-31T19:00:58+00:00 http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/trust_me_im_an_artist/ http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/trust_me_im_an_artist/#When:18:30:18Z Trust Me, I'm An Artist is a series of events, taking place in international settings, that investigate ethical issues arising in some art and science collaboration and consider the roles and responsibilities of artists, scientists and institutions At each event (before a live audience), an internationally known artist proposes an artwork to a specially formed ethics committee (following the rules and procedures typical of the host country). The committee then debates the proposal and reaches a decision. The artist is informed of the decision and, with the audience, they can discuss the result with the committee. The proposals selected raise interesting questions for science ethics committees, and will help to reveal the mechanisms that drive this usually hidden process, enabling the public to understand the processes behind ethical decisions and to explore the role of artists working in scientific settings. This is the second event of the series and features artist Neal White. Outline Neal White works across media, and in no particular medium at all – creating projects with the Office of Experiments that develop collaborative, social and critical spaces using art methods and art materials. His work operates along the fine line between how art thinks and the effect that art has as a social practice. He has been associated with 0+1, formerly APG, Artists’ Placement Group, for several years. Maintaining that art has always pushed the boundaries of the possible in terms of models of social collaboration and networking, his work looks at how these models can engage with other kinds of knowledge producing structures. Neal White is an Associate Professor in Art and Media Practice, The Media School, Bournemouth University. He is also a Research Fellow at Chelsea College of Art and Design (UAL) where he works with Critical Practice Research cluster. The historical scene May 1959 on the opening of Yves Klein's exhibition Le Vide (The Void) at Gallery Iris Clert in Paris. Crowds thronged as Yves opened his highly controversial exhibition – that featured a seemingly empty white gallery space. Those lucky enough to gain access, were in for an unexpected treat. "Special blue cocktails were served: a mixture of gin, Cointreau and methylene blue prepared for Klein by La Coupole, the famous brasserie. As Klein intended, the cocktails caused the urine of drinkers to turn blue for about a week, roughly the planned run of the show." More recently Since this event took place in 1959, Methylene blue as a stain has been established as toxic. However, it is also a component in several medications (Trac Tabs, Urised, Uroblue) used to reduce symptoms of cystitis, and in other forms for the treatment of methemoglobinemia. It is our intention to re-create the event as an experiment to establish what are the safest, or least toxic dosage of methylene blue in an alcoholic cocktail required to turn urine blue, if only for a limited period. The effect of this will be monitored, and the dosage will be controlled during the trial. The setting of the trial is a gallery – the visitor becomes a consensual participant  - an informed Self –Experimenter. In a managed process of consensual participation, the visitor is faced with a choice to consume an artwork that contains the ingredients of Methylene – with only the clinical information. Or to keep the artwork they are given as an intact form, signed by the artist. The experiment is proposed on the one hand as a rational and logical approach to create a cultural experiment on the basis of a clinical trial under closely monitored conditions. On the other hand it is proposed as a challenge to the limits and practices of ethics as articulated across art and science practice - in its engagement with the politics of consent, belief and institutions themselves.  Proposed for the deregulated spaces at the service of art and life itself, our aim is to question the physical site of an artwork, the scale of an artwork and our willingness to commit beyond the visual to an embodied experience of art. Our hunch, based anecdotal approach, is that pharmacological research is also a dimension of experience not limited to science, edging us inward from the visible toward the teetering edge of the void. Booking All welcome, reserve a free place here. Collaborators The project “Trust Me I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of Art/Science Collaboration” is led by artist Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with Professor Bobbie Farsides (Chair of Ethics, Brighton and Sussex Medical School) in collaboration with the Waag Society and The University of Leiden. This event is presented in partnership with The Arts Catalyst.  The first event took place in December in Leiden, the Netherlands, and the third will happen in March in Dublin, Ireland. See www.artscienceethics.com for more information 2012-01-27T18:30:18+00:00 http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/crash_-_moonlanding_workshop/ http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/crash_-_moonlanding_workshop/#When:15:32:34Z The moment of landing is the most precarious. When we send machines into space a crash is what we fear the most. Massive investments of time and resources in technology, hope and ambition, obliterated. But in art failure can be a beautiful concept, the stimulus of new possibilities, an iconic dramatic pivot. Taking inspiration from unplanned disasters with satellites and robots sent to observe, explore and record, We Colonised The Moon will work with teams of young people to build machines with a terminal end in mind. We will shoot high speed film of the crash impacts and award a prize for the most aesthetic. This three day workshop will see a group of young participants from the FACT Freehander programme, film and edit a documentary-style fim called Crash. 2011-12-16T15:32:34+00:00 http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/republic_of_the_moon_artists_breakfast/ http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/republic_of_the_moon_artists_breakfast/#When:10:30:09Z Artists Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Leonid Tishkov, Liliane Lijn and Andy Gracie discuss their work with curator Rob La Frenais and FACT's Mike Stubbs. £4/£3 (FACT Members and concs), buy tickets online here. 2011-12-16T10:30:09+00:00 http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/primate_cinema_apes_as_family_nottingham_contemporary_screening/ http://www.artscatalyst.org/experiencelearning/detail/primate_cinema_apes_as_family_nottingham_contemporary_screening/#When:19:00:40Z In Primate Cinema: Apes as Family, the artist imagines a primate social drama in a contemporary urban context and shows this to a chimpanzee audience. Her two-screen video installation juxtaposes the drama enacted by humans in the guise of apes (of a young female city ape befriending a group of outsiders) with mesmerising footage of the reactions of its ape audience at Edinburgh Zoo. As the watchers of the watching chimps, we perceive - or we imagine - fascination, puzzlement, and flashes of anger in their responses. Sited in different spaces in Los Angeles and Edinburgh we are never sure whether we are seeing a lab, zoo, wildlife park, rumpus room or post-apocalyptic landscape inhabited by half chimp/half humans. Mayeri’s intriguing and amusing story-and-response structure contains darker undercurrents in its contemplation of the lives of our captive close relatives. To make Primate Cinema: Apes as Family artist Rachel Mayeri collaborated with comparative psychologist Dr Sarah-Jane Vick, testing different styles and genres of film to gauge chimps’ responses and discussing issues around cognition and communication in research primates.  Booking Admission free, online booking www.nottinghamcontemporary.org Partnerships Primate Cinema: Apes as Family, a collaboration between Rachel Mayeri and Dr. Sarah Jane Vick, has been commissioned by The Arts Catalyst. Support Wellcome Trust Arts Award, Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies and Arts Council England. With the kind support and collaboration of Edinburgh Zoo's Budongo Trail. Websites Rachel Mayeri Nottingham Contemporary 2011-12-07T19:00:40+00:00