On 2nd February 2024, super/collider gave a talk about their work at Kindred House, Margate, invited by Sophie Anne Gibbings.
They discussed their practice, touching on themes of deep time, astronomy, ecology, grief and sustainability.
SPACE Ilford
10 Oakfield Rd, Ilford IG1 1ZJ
(rear of Redbridge Town Hall)
February - June 2023.
Gallery open Weds 11am – 5pm, Sat 11am – 3pm
exhibition opening:
wednesday 8 February, 4 – 7.30pm
This project, funded by Arup, saw students from Beal High School in Redbridge co-create work alongside Arup experts, artist collective super/collider and the River Roding Trust. Together they explored the human impact on the River Roding in Redbridge and the wider environmental issues.
Inspired by Arup’s commitment to consider the influence of the built environment on the natural world, the students drew on the differing experiences of time, scale and senses to explore the river from the perspectives of both human and non-human animals.
Over a number of weeks, the students visited the river, walking along the banks to consider the different types of pollution, including litter, noise, water, air and light, and their effect on the natural environment. Using hydrophones and simple light refraction techniques, they were able to explore what it might be like for species living under the water to navigate artificial light and dark spaces created by our built environment. They used infra-red photography to depict the environment through the eyes of species living within the habitat, while microscopes attached to student smart phones helped them discover the world in close-up. Students documented their work via drawings and photographs, using environmentally sustainable materials to create prototypes, images, and natural cyanotype prints of their discoveries. They recorded their emotional responses in booklets and audio recordings, all of which are on display in the exhibition.
Curated by super/collider, the exhibition invites visitors to consider the way we interact with the world around us, both individually and collectively, encouraging us to consider the actions we can take to shape a better world for ourselves and our future. A Tree of Hope will flourish throughout the duration of the show, collecting visitors’ thoughts and feelings, messages of hope and calls to action.
This project was funded by Arup
with thanks to
Arts Council England, River Roding Trust Arts Associate Andrew Brown, River Roding Trust, Beal High School and super/collider
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Arup
Dedicated to sustainable development, Arup is a collective of designers, consultants and experts working globally. Founded to be humane and excellent, we collaborate with our clients and partners using imagination, technology, and rigour to shape a better world.
Dima Zogheib
Trained as a landscape architect, Dima is a specialist in sustainable, resilient and inclusive design with international experience. She has delivered complex and large-scale landscapes and nature-based interventions from concept through to delivery, as well as smaller-scale community initiatives. She also advises clients and city governments on strategies, plans and guidelines for cities and districts to help them respond to critical agendas such as urban resilience and inclusive planning.
Notable projects she led and contributed to include Tirana’s 2,500ha Orbital Forest, a commission with the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), advising the bank and the Municipality of Tirana and building the design, technical and economic case for the forest, a Meanwhile Use research report for the Greater London Authority, resilience strategies via Arup’s work with the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities programme for more than 20+ cities globally including in South America, Effective Policies for Green Cities with EBRD, Cool Spaces Initiative for the Greater London Authority, Sustainable placemaking through food in London, a design strategy for children and youth in Belfast city centre, a Green Infrastructure design strategy for Thimphu (Bhutan), a landscape masterplan for the University of Sarajevo, and designing nature-based solutions for various public realm and urban development projects.
Hasnaa Shaddad
Hasnaa is a member of the blast engineering and structural resilience team in Arup. She has a strong background in Mechanical Engineering and computation specialising in high pressure gradient computational fluid dynamics. She now focuses on modelling blast wave propagation in the built environment for a range of blast engineering projects. Hasnaa also set up and has been running multiple outreach programs across the UK since 2014, aimed at teaching and mentoring underprivileged children and helping them pursue a career in STEM.
Maria Elges
Maria is a UX designer, who believes that design has the power to change the world, as long as we, the designers, take on responsibility for our work and consider the businesses, the customer, and the wider context in one holistic process. She brings an empathic design approach to the table along with the enthusiasm to use her strategic design skills to generate a positive impact on people’s life and the environment. Maria has experience in advertising, publishing, and UX/UI; working on a range of international client based and self-initiated projects with a focus on design culture, urbanism and systems.
Sofia Paredes Estrada
Sofia is a landscape architect within the Cities Planning and Design team at Arup in London. Sofia’s international background in Mexico, Brazil, Spain, and Sweden has shaped her interest and understanding of people, place, and historical context. She is an advocate for sensitive, resilient, and inclusive public spaces that integrate the ever-changing social and environmental dynamics of urban life. Sofia has worked on a wide range of residential, commercial, and mixed-use developments of varying scales, as well as small- and large-scale competitions in the UK, Asia and Australia. Sofia is actively engaged in a range of community engagement projects within Arup, with a focus on local London schools. She is dedicated to engaging young people with STEAM subjects, through the lens of the climate emergency, to create a more sustainable and equitable future for all.
Sophie Liu
Sophie is a multidisciplinary designer, whose practice consists of research, visual storytelling, interactive media and community engagement. She is interested in using design to enable communities to tackle issues that matter collaboratively, developing designs and strategies to enable positive change. At Arup, she develops visuals, workshops and digital engagement tools to engage the public, in developing strategies and designs influencing users, systems and cities.
Emily Walport
Emily supports clients to understand what a transition to the circular economy means for their business, and in identifying the first steps to take to accelerate the transition. A chartered, senior materials engineer Emily has a wealth of materials sustainability expertise, from embodied carbon and life cycle assessments through to ecotoxicity and biomaterials. She recently co-authored ‘Circular Biobased Construction in the North East and Yorkshire’, overviewing the current bio based construction industry in the region and evaluating the potential to scale.
Invited Speakers
Inessa Lomas
Inessa is most passionate about expanding the value brought through a considered and inclusive design to the built environment and its inhabitants. Inessa Lomas joined Arup’s London lighting team in March 2016, and from 2023 holds the position of Senior Designer in the Landscape Architecture Team. By combining her skills in art, design and architecture, Inessa brings innovative ideas to projects throughout different scales and stages of development. Working with all design team parties involved, she is keen to provide full support and deep understanding of values that drive the best projects forward.
Lizzie Gardner
Lizzie is an aquatic ecologist with nine years of experience in the environmental sector and has developed a wealth of ecological knowledge and environmental consulting expertise, especially via her completion of a multidisciplinary PhD at University College London (UCL). Her study focussed on the ecology, hydrology and management of freshwater lake and wetland systems in the context of climate change and European policies. She has also published a number of scientific research papers in the coastal, freshwater and terrestrial environment space, including in the Journal of Coastal Conservation and Irish Geography. At Arup, Lizzie applies her extensive ecological consulting experience to developing highly complex biodiversity strategies and providing ecological design advice throughout the planning, design and implementation stages of development projects.
Ola Kamel
Ola graduated with an M.Eng Architectural Engineering, worked in different engineering disciplines and is a BREEAM Associate. This background has served her in her current role as a Lighting Designer, where she addresses each project with the mixture of the outlooks: technical, design and sustainable. Ola seeks to work on innovative forward thinking projects that can challenge the norms and have a wider positive impact.
Phillipa Stanley
Phillipa has a Master’s in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Exeter. Together with Arup’s Civil Engineering team, Phillipa has played a part in the development of the City Water Resilience Approach (CWRA) – assisting cities to manage their water systems. She has co-authored and project managed the publication of a White Paper for the 50L Home Coalition, on a Circular Water Future. She is currently working on a Climate finance diagnostic for the water sector, the CWRA in three major African cities and is providing technical specifications for the development of drinking water fountains. She has experience as a water consultant for GIZ in Tanzania, where she developed a framework to improve urban water resilience, focusing on industrial wastewater management systems. Phillipa has a background in Civil and Environmental Engineering with experience in the water sector, focusing on water strategy, advisory, innovation and technical applications.
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Beal High School is a mixed 11 – 18 comprehensive, with over 2,600 students. With 360 pupils organised into 12 forms, and over 800 students in our Sixth Form, Beal High is one of the largest secondary schools in England. In 2014, Beal converted to Academy status and established the Beacon Academy Trust. This partnership incorporates Beal High School, The Forest Academy, the Beacon Business Innovation Hub, and the NELTA SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) to provide quality learning experiences. Beal High School is currently working towards an Arts Mark Award accredited by Arts Council England.
Beal High School is exceptional. It is a diverse, vibrant community with a strong sense of mutual respect and high expectations and an inclusive culture. Our students experience a rich, varied curriculum which unlocks their potential, ensuring outstanding outcomes and confident progression for all.
The Beal High Sixth form offers a wide range of courses to support students’ interests and career progression. The participating students were selected from the A-level courses Fine Art, 3D Design and Photography.
Marianne Carlton is an Art Coordinator and teacher of Art and Photography at Beal High School. Working as an art educator since 2005, she has led and contributed to a range of art partnerships and outreach projects. She believes collaboration within the Arts is fundamental to the personal growth of young people, building resilience and helping them connect with a wider community.
Within her role as Art Coordinator, Marianne is currently supporting Beal High School achieving Artsmark status, accredited by Arts Council England.
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super/collider
Directors: Louise Beer and Melanie King. Both artists live in Thanet, Kent. Collaboratively, Louise and Melanie have curated 7 national and international artists residencies, 80 exhibitions and 80 events about art and science and have collaborated on numerous artwork commissions.
Founded in 2006, super/collider is an independent agency that celebrates and champions the connections between science, culture and creativity. Working in and with people from the creative industries, we explore science and bring its wonders and wisdom to new audiences through events, expeditions, books and artwork. super/collider has been commissioned by Space Studios (2022), Signal Film and Media (2022), Imperial College London (2020), Well Projects (2020), Bompas and Parr (2018).
Louise Beer is an artist and curator, born in Aotearoa New Zealand. She uses installation, moving image, photography and sound to explore humanity’s evolving understanding of Earth’s environments and the cosmos. Louise is currently a co-investigator on a Vera C. Rubin Observatory Grant at the University of Canterbury Mount John Observatory, NZ where she is developing an artists residency with planetary astronomer Dr Michele Bannister. She has recently completed her CreaTures Art/ Tech/ Nature/ Culture Curatorial and Creative Residency and BigCi Environmental Art Award Residency in Australia. Louise is currently developing a commission for Derby Cathedral for FORMAT23 Photography Festival.
Melanie King is a working class artist and curator, originally from Manchester, UK. She is co-Director of super/collider, Lumen Studios and founder of the London Alternative Photography Collective. Melanie is a PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art (2015-2022). She is Lecturer In Photography at Canterbury Christ Church University. Melanie is interested in the relationship between the environment, photography and materiality. Melanie intends to highlight the intimate connection between celestial objects (sun, moon, stars), photographic material and the natural world. Melanie is currently researching a number of sustainable photographic processes, to minimise the environmental impact of her artistic practice, informed by the Sustainable Darkroom movement.
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Andrew Brown is an artist and educator based at SPACE Studios, Ilford, and is Arts Associate for the River Roding Trust. He uses analogue, digital, alternative and historic photographic processes alongside soundscapes, documents and objects to explore the impact on communities of rapid changes in the built and natural environment in east London. Recent commissions include SPACE/Aetreum, UP projects and the Arts Council, and collaborative work with East London Textile Arts, Humorisk CIC and Thames Ward Community Project. Following a career in education, he studied photography at Falmouth University and is now working towards a Doctorate in Fine Art at the University of East London.
The River Roding Trust was formed in 2019 with the mission of preserving, protecting and restoring the River Roding for public benefit. Working with the local community, the Trust has removed tonnes of litter from the river, planted hundreds of trees, monitored and campaigned against water pollution, and organised activities to improve public awareness of, access to and care for the river.
We are pleased to announce that our biodiverse/earth commission created with Jenna Lawson and John Hooper will be shown again at Imperial College London as part of Imperial Lates.
our biodiverse/earth commission by Imperial Lates explores human impact on the forests of Costa Rica. we present biologist Jenna Lawson’s findings as an immersive audio-visual experience, journeying from tropical rainforests untouched by human hands to disturbed plantations of palm and teak, where a haunting silence exists due to the loss of life as natural forest ecosystems are removed
it is our hope that from this experience, you can better understand the sheer diversity of life in our world, and the startling loss when we destroy these incredible ecosystems for everyday products that we all use, while immersing yourself in the sounds of the natural world. the results from Lawson’s research will be used to understand the threats that exist and guide the protection and restoration of native forests, connect forest fragments and increase populations of the spider monkey.
Visit the Curating Climate: Nature NOW exhibition at Grizedale Forest Visitor Centre from Mon 26 September – Sun 30 October 2022. We present an exhibition of photographic prints, a wall of Polaroids, an audio-video installation and a collaborative zine. The curation of the exhibition was inspired by the conversations we had with the participants about their experiences of the forest, and their thoughts about the climate crisis.
super/collider were commissioned by Signal Film and Media with Forestry England to co-produce a new artwork with local participants. super/collider and the local participants explored experiences of forest spaces. we looked into the different histories of Grizedale Forest and how it is being managed in the face of the climate crisis, with a series of visits between May and August 2022.
super/collider will be presenting a talk about our audio visual project, biodiverse/earth that was made in collaboration with John Hooper and Dr Steven Aishman.
‘Immerse yourself within the sights and sounds of a forest ecosystem under threat with this digital artwork created by art collective super/collider.
Biodiversity/earth is an immersive audio-visual experience that explores humanity’s impact on the forests of Costa Rica. It was created by art collective super/collider working with Imperial College London ecologist Jenna Lawson, who is working to save the endangered spider monkey. Taking Jenna’s field recordings, the artists created an immersive journey that conveys the beauty in the diversity of life and what we lose when we destroy these incredible ecosystems.
At the Great Exhibition Road Festival, you can experience biodiversity/earth for yourself as well as hear from its creators in conversation amongst the sights and sounds of the forest.
This event is taking place in South Kensington and will also be live streamed so that you can tune in to watch live online from your home. When selecting your ticket, please be careful to check whether you have a ticket to join us at the event in South Kensington or to watch along online.’
super/collider will be participating in “Expanding Dialogues: Arts and Engineering” at Brighton CCA.
Our talk will be Sat 02 October from 1.15 to 2.15pm. See booking information here.
Exploring the question, What if artists taught a module to engineers/ what if engineers taught a module to artists?, we have designed this collaborative event to explore cross-disciplinary teaching methods between arts, engineering and design.
The programme consists of four keynote lectures and three artists/ engineer collaborative workshops across the two days. Find out more on the Brighton CCA website.
This event is a collaboration between Brighton CCA and Advanced Engineering Centre, University of Brighton and has been generously supported by the Advanced Engineering Centre, University of Brighton.
Nan Shepherd in Space: Writing the Earth and Cosmos in The Living Mountain
Online Event - Tickets Here
When Nan Shepherd wrote The Living Mountain, she was poised between two moments in earth and human history. Her geological imagination was shaped by scientific discoveries into the deep age of the earth and the forces that shaped mountains, carved valleys and brought living species into being. But she was also writing on the cusp of a new age: one in which human activity would leave traces on this seemingly eternal landscape and begin to disrupt wider global natural systems, from the hydrological system to the carbon cycle. In this talk, I'll explore Shepherd 's temporal and planetary imagination - from the marks mountain industries were leaving on the Cairngorms, to the attempt to imagine the earth and cosmos as one integrated, living whole.
Dr Samantha Walton is Reader in Modern Literature at Bath Spa University, where her research focuses on links between nature and mental health, and the environmental humanities. Her latest books are The Living World: Nan Shepherd and Environmental Thought (2020) and Everybody Needs Beauty: In Search of the Nature Cure (2021)
Wed, 15 September 2021
10:00am – 11:00am BST
In 2017, we observed the merger of two neutrons stars for the first time. In order to understand the stars that resulted in this violent encounter, we need to understand the stars that lived nearby,
In this talk, Dr Heloise Stevance will show you how we can use state of the art simulation and data analysis codes to infer the full story, from the birth to death of these exotic explosions.
Originally born and raised in France, Heloise moved to the UK to study Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield. After working as a support astronomer at the Isaac Newton Group in La Palma for a year, she obtained her Masters of Physics in 2015. She subsequently started a PhD studying the 3D shape of Core Collapse Supernovae, and earned her title in Spring 2019. In July of that year, she joined the University of Auckland as a Research Fellow to research the evolution of massive stars to better understand how they die and produce Supernovae and Kilonovae.
join us online for super/science episode 13: Finding Asteroids with Dr Maggie Lieu
It's believed that an asteroid 10km in size wiped out the Dinosaurs. As of April 2021, there are over 25,000 near-Earth objects and many of these are a potential risk to life here on Earth, but in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, there is believed to be over 2 million asteroids, some of which can reach 1000km in size! Scientists are actively searching for new, and tracking known asteroids. Often, they won't know for sure where an asteroid will hit or how big an impact it will make until a few days before the collision. When so much is at risk, how can scientists ensure that we are safe from a fate just like the dinosaurs?
Dr Maggie Lieu is a research fellow in Machine Learning and Cosmology at the University of Nottingham where she lectures the Machine Learning in Science MSc program. Prior to this, she worked at the European Space Agency in Madrid on the Euclid mission, a space telescope that is due to launch in 2022. Her main research interest is in clusters of galaxies and their role in helping us understand the Universe and the nature of dark matter. Besides academic research, Maggie is an avid science communicator who runs the science youtube channel Space Mog.
This event will be accessed via Zoom.
Image Credits:
Above - NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona; Writer Daniel Stolte, University of Arizona
Below - Dr Maggie Lieu
Matter, with a necessity inherent in its nature, constantly engenders thinking creatures […] thought is an intrinsic property of matter.
– Cosmology of the Spirit, Evald Ilyenkov
Infinite in time and space, the recycling and resurfacing matter of our planet creates sentient beings time and again. In the ground below our feet, geological underworlds offer a space to consider a shared planetary consciousness: the sentient and non-sentient; organic and mineral; the living, dead and those of the future.
Sophie J Williamson explores entangled ancestral voices amongst ever-turning geological matter. Reading deep-time narratives secreted amongst the permafrost, geological strata and celestial dust of outer space, how might our dialogues with deep-time redirect our futures?
Sophie J Williamson is a curator based in London. Since 2013, she has been Programme Curator (Exhibitions) at Camden Art Centre. From 2009–13, she was part of the inaugural team at Raven Row, and previously worked on various international biennales. Her writing has appeared in frieze, Art Monthly, Elephant and Aesthetica. She was Gasworks Curatorial Fellow (2016) and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Curatorial Fellow (2020).
Her anthology, Translation (Documents of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press) brings together writings by artists, poets, authors and theorists to reflect on the urgency of building empathy in an era of global turmoil. Her current independent research project, Undead Matter, is focused on the intimacy of dying and its dialogue with the geological.
This event will be accessed via Zoom.
Image: Dirk Spijkers
Join us online for super/science episode 11: Light in the Darkness: Black Holes, The Universe and Us with Heino Falcke
Award-winning astrophysicist Heino Falcke is a key leader of the greatest scientific achievements of all time—capturing the first image of a black hole with the coordination of telescopes and scientists around the world. Prior to this, black holes existed in the popular imagination merely as a distant concept, but Falcke’s vision has now allowed everyone to witness these celestial wonders. His new book LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS: Black Holes, The Universe, and Us chronicles the journey of this monumental achievement, exploring both the scientific and symbolic significance of black holes, as well as the human quest toward the frontiers of science and beyond.
Heino Falcke is a German professor of radio astronomy and astroparticle physics at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He is winner of the 2021 Henry Draper medal from the US National Academy of Science and of the 2.5M€ Spinoza Prize, the highest science award of the Netherlands. He was co-founder and chair of the science council of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration and leads one of the international team involved in the project. He was knighted by the Dutch king in 2014, and in 2019 the International Astronomical Union, IAU, named asteroid 12654 (Heinofalcke) after him.
LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS: Black Holes, The Universe, and Us
***This event will be accessed online. We will send you the Zoom link before the event.
Book Tickets
Join us to hear from Niamh Shaw about the creation of her latest book 'Dream Big' from Mercier Press. What do you do with impossible dreams? When do you let them go? Niamh Shaw, scientist, engineer and performer, had always felt that something was missing in her life. Stepping away from a full-time academic career, she initially thought that it might be acting. But when in that career, she knew that she still hadn't found what she was looking for. While making her first theatre show, looking at her life choices and childhood ambitions, the realisation that she still wanted to fulfil her childhood dream to go to space, but had done nothing to achieve this goal, was painful and disappointing for her. Why had she given up on this dream? She realised that if she didn't pursue it, she would spend the rest of her life regretting that she had given up on herself. And so this 40-year-old woman from Ireland began an art and science journey she is determined to finish.
Niamh Shaw is a communicator, writer and explorer of space activities and her work focuses on sharing the 'bigger perspective' of space to envisage a healthier, fairer and more equal, sustainable planet. Based at International Space University in Strasbourg Niamh wants to use the perspective of space to consider smarter and more sustainable alternatives for all Earth citizens. A polymath with 2 degrees in engineering, a PhD in science and almost 20 years of performance & writing experience, and recently launched a new podcast series 'Humans of Space' and an online family video series 'Galaxy Squad'. She has spoken at prominent events including WIRED Live UK, NASA Johnson Space Centre (USA), TEDxUCD and New Scientist (UK). Her first book 'Dream Big- an Irishwoman's Space Odyssey' from Mercier Press was published in March 2020 and launched virtually during Space week after a 6-month delay due to the pandemic. She writes regularly for BBC’s Sky at Night magazine. Niamh continues to work on her project 'Walking Slowly to Space', a global walking project to meet & chat with diverse communities, & share & exchange ideas about science, space and the wider message of a safer, healthier & fairer planet for all.
Find Niamh's book Dream Big here.
We will send you the Zoom link before the event.
04 December
4.30PM - 7PM GMT
join us for the first part in our new super/collider Margate Science Festival in association with Faith in Strangers.
tickets £11.37 or £3 unwaged/low-earner / buy tickets here - If you do not have funds to buy a ticket, please do let us know. ticket sales for this event go towards the running costs of super/collider.
our first ever event will focus on the concept of deep time. we will hear from Robert Macfarlane, Timothy Morton and Flora Bowden. this event is supported by Arts Council England.
during the event, we would like visitors to consider the ecological deep time history of Margate and the surrounding areas. the chalk cliffs of Margate were built up by ocean sediment over many thousands of years. as we walk along the cliffside, we view a physical manifestation of layers of compressed time.
within this event we will consider how thinking on a "deep time" scale can alter our perception of our environment. can long term thinking help us to make better decisions that allow us to value and care for our environment?
Robert Macfarlane
Robert MacFarlane will be in conversation with Flora Bowden. Macfarlane will also read from his new book Underland: A Deep Time Journey, published in May 2019. hailed as "the great nature writer of this generation" (Wall Street Journal), Robert Macfarlane is the celebrated author of books about the intersections of the human and the natural realms. in Underland, he delivers his masterpiece: an epic exploration of the Earth's underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself.
Robert Macfarlane is the author of Underland, Mountains of the Mind, The Wild Places, The Old Ways, Landmarks, and The Lost Words, co-created with Jackie Morris. Mountains of the Mind won the Guardian First Book Award and the Somerset Maugham Award and The Wild Places won the Boardman-Tasker Award. Both books have been adapted for television by the BBC. the Lost Words won the Books Are My Bag Beautiful Book Award and the Hay Festival Book of the Year. he is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and writes on environmentalism, literature and travel for publications including the Guardian, the Sunday Times and The New York Times.
Timothy Morton
Timothy Morton will discuss deep time in context with a number of his texts, including “Dark Ecology: For A Logic of Future Coexistence” and “Humankind: Solidarity with Nonhuman People”.
Timothy Morton is Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University. he has collaborated with Björk, Jennifer Walshe, Jeff Bridges, Olafur Eliasson, and Pharrell Williams. he co-wrote and appears in Living in the Future's Past, a 2018 film about global warming with Jeff Bridges. he is the author of Being Ecological (Penguin, 2018), Humankind: Solidarity with Nonhuman People (Verso, 2017), Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence (Columbia, 2016), Nothing: Three Inquiries in Buddhism (Chicago, 2015), Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minnesota, 2013), Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality (Open Humanities, 2013), The Ecological Thought (Harvard, 2010), Ecology without Nature (Harvard, 2007), eight other books and 200 essays on philosophy, ecology, literature, music, art, architecture, design and food. his work has been translated into 10 languages. In 2014, Morton gave the Wellek Lectures in Theory.
Flora Bowden
Flora Bowden is a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art who works across printmaking, painting and sculpture. her work draws on a broad range of research including scientific history, archaeology, digital archives and museology. It is concerned with the multiple temporalities of the image, with the interplay of various pasts and presents in the space of the image, and with the questions of vulnerability, openness and suggestibility that they raise.
her work has been exhibited at galleries including at GroundWork Gallery and APT Gallery among others, and she has taught at institutions including The Royal College of Art, Rice University and Gothenburg University.
Timeline
4.30pm - Introduction by super/collider and Faith In Strangers. Talk by Flora Bowden.
5pm - Talk by Timothy Morton & Q+A
6pm - Robert Macfarlane and Flora Bowden In Conversation, Q+A.
About Faith In Strangers
Faith in Strangers' provide a platform for a diverse range of contributors. Faith In Strangers will create a cultural programme that includes music, film, immersive performance, installations, experimental digital art, academic talks, food & drink, workshops and more. Faith In Strangers is a multi-use space in Margate, housing arts and cultural events as well as a shared workspace for creative individuals.
this event is curated by Louise Beer and Melanie King.
***This event will be accessed online. We will send you the viewing link on the day of the event. ***
Image by Melanie King.
30 November
7PM BST
Join us for the ninth episode in our new online event series, super/science.
Watch Online.
during this event, Lucy Newport will lead the group through a yoga class, and Paul Hill will do a live telescope viewing.
we’ll ease into the event with a 30-minute yoga class, moving through a gentle lunar inspired flow of poses to help us feel calm, get out of our heads and ready to learn more about our beautiful Moon. you don’t need any previous yoga experience to enjoy this class, just a bit of space and your most comfortable clothes to move around in.
everyone will also be sent the recording of the lunar inspired class after the event so you can bring this practice more into your daily life. there will be an optional, relaxing moon themed playlist for those who have a Spotify account.
after the yoga session we will hear from astronomer Paul Hill, and view Moon visuals created using Paul’s own telescope.
Paul is an elected fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, co-presenter and writer of Awesome Astronomy podcast, a Space Ambassador for ESERO and has appeared on BBC News and Radio to discuss a range of astronomy and space issues.
Lucy guides yoga with an emphasis on listening to our own bodies and responding to what we most need ourselves. this helps us find feel-good movement and enjoy calming pauses for our bodies and minds, building strength and mobility whilst letting go of stress and tension.
as well as teaching under the name of Living Green Yoga, Lucy helps desk workers at sustainable organisations feel happier and healthier whilst giving more back to the planet with her new online yoga programme, Cultivate.
@livinggreenyoga www.cultivateyoga.co.uk
image credits: Melanie Magdalena and Lucy Newport
23 September
7PM BST
Join us for the eighth episode in our new online event series, super/science.
Tickets £5 / Buy Tickets Here
how is the ocean reacting to climate change? from a sailing boat to the web we'll explore how the chemistry of the ocean is changing with dramatic consequences for marine life. we'll explore the digital artwork 'Diving into an acidifying ocean', which was realised in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture and is a web experience that uses data to visualise the process and the consequences of ocean acidification.
Cristina Tarquini is an Italian art director + creative technologist based in Paris, designing visual storytelling for immersive experiences. her digital practice is getting more and more focused on climate and social issues that are reshaping the 21st century. Cristina's work has been shown internationally at Somerset House, Experiments With Google Arts & Culture and Ars Electronica.
This event will be accessed on the Zoom platform.
images: Google Arts & Culture
on sat 29th august at 11am, join us for an online talk by RISE UP CLEAN UP.
watch online here
As lockdown eased towards the end of June, people started to flock to Margate's beaches in their thousands. The weather was beautiful and all those who had planned European get-aways this summer, suddenly found themselves trapped in the UK. Margate, with its beautiful sand beaches and easy transport links to London, became the obvious holiday destination for people desperate to escape the house after months of lockdown.
Over one weekend in late June, over 100,000 people visited Margate and Main Sands beach. The beach was left covered in rubbish.
It was clear that Margate's infrastructure was in no ways prepared for this unprecedented rise in tourism. The litter collection teams were overwhelmed, toilet facilities proved inadequate and security guards had to be deployed on the beaches. It was in this moment that RISE UP. CLEAN UP. was born.
Join us for a talk by Amy Cook of RISE UP CLEAN UP, to see how she plans to tackle plastic pollution in Margate, with community led initiatives. You can find out more about RISE UP. CLEAN UP. on their crowdfunder page.
The event will be accessed via Zoom.
27 August 2020
7PM BST
join us online for super/science episode 7: sound machines, with Hainbach and Lomond Campbell
Watch Online Here
the event will feature talks and live performances of Lomond Campbell's harmonographic synth, Hainbach's tape loops and test equipment. This event follows on from Sound Machines at Ace Hotel in 2018, with Look Mum No Computer and Graham Dunning.
Lomond Campbell got tired of trying to make it work in the city so took a chance and bought an old, decrepit 1966 school building that nobody wanted, deep in the rural highlands of Scotland. He took five years out to convert it in to a studio called The Lengths where he now works. Living quietly by a loch, he divides his time between making music and building music making contraptions. Amongst his past glories are winning a BAFTA and recording an album with an orchestra which was released by Heavenly Recordings.
Based out of Berlin, Germany, electro-acoustic music composer and performer Hainbach (Opal Tapes, Seil Records) creates shifting audio landscapes THE WIRE called "One hell of a trip". Using esoteric synthesizers, test equipment, magnetic tape and idiophones his music is both abstract yet very much a corporal experience. He has become known for his immersive live performances for and recently through his YouTube channel, where he brings experimental music techniques to a wider audience.
www.youtube.com/user/hainbach101
Tickets £5 / Buy Tickets Here
This event will be accessed on the Zoom platform.
Join us for the sixth episode in our new online event series, super/science.
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Kristina Pulejkova will present her work Wedding Journey. This event is in association with Exposed Arts Projects.
Wedding Journey is a live video performance that uses dance, narration and cg animation, to look at the mysterious life cycle and migration of the critically endangered European eel. Told from the eels’ perspective, the project aims to cast a light on the story of this critically endangered animal whose existence is threatened by human action and climate change. Here, the eels are taken as a metaphor for the human strife for self-fulfilment, the seek for the utopian place and state.
Drawing parallels between the lives of humans and eels in the wake of climate change, the piece deals with the struggles of overcoming borders and barriers, in a world where long journeys and migrations are increasingly becoming more difficult.
The script for the work is informed by interviews with Dr. Matthew Gollock, ZSL (Zoological Society London), chair of the AESG (Anguillid Eel Specialist Group) and research from Dr. Zoran Spirkovski, Hydrobiological institute in Ohrid, North Macedonia on the European eel living in the Ohrid lake.
Direction and concept by Kristina Pulejkova, choreography by Georgia Tegou, music by Glen Johnson. Dancers: Amy Dakin Harris, Rebecca Namgauds, Vanessa Michielon, Michalis Theofanous and Antonia Ptohides. Voice actors: Alexandra Wilkinson, Marija Kaeva.
The project has been developed with support through the FLAMIN Fellowship Programme, Arts Council England, Fenton Arts Trust (R&D). The final piece production is supported by the Ministry of Culture, North Macedonia.
Kristina Pulejkova is a Macedonian London-based artist whose practice is informed by science and technology. She is currently artist in residence at Somerset House Studios, London.
Kristina’s work explores how the use of technology might lead to greater forms of sustainability in human-nature relationships. Working across moving image, sound and installation, she aims to build subjective narratives based on scientific data and principles.
In her work, she tends to imagine voices – voices from creatures, objects and even atoms in order to try to inhabit non-human perspectives. Through use of immersive technology, Kristina’s works often deal with environmental issues, telling personal stories that place audiences at the centre of the scene, allowing for a protagonist perspective and a different way of seeing.
Exposed Arts Projects is a think-and-do tank that celebrates the power of arts-based research* to produce an informed multidimensional perspective on the contemporary human condition. It is set to nurture an innovative, mindful and just society that is driven to explore the creative alternatives to the status quo.
This event will be accessed on the Zoom platform.
Join us for the fifth episode in our new online event series, super/science.
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During this event, we will hear from Dr Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo about Cyanobacteria and the formation of a habitable world.
Oxygen is essential for complex life forms as it is used during aerobic respiration. During the early Earth there was no oxygen in the atmosphere, and the oxygen we enjoy today has accumulated as the result of biological activity. Blue-green algae, otherwise known as Cyanobacteria, were the first organisms that worked out how to perform photosynthesis - it is during this biological process that oxygen is released into the atmosphere. During this session, we will explore when Cyanobacteria evolved, how Cyanobacteria contributed to making our planet habitable, and why it took so long for complex life to appear in our planet.
Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo is currently a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Reader in Microbiology at Bristol University. She did her PhD in plant evolutionary biology in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. As a postdoctoral researcher, Patricia worked on the molecular ecology of Cyanobacteria at Bristol University. She then had a career break of about five years to look after her young family and returned to science with a Daphne Jackson and Dorothy Hodgkin Royal Society Fellowships in 2011. In 2016, Patricia was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. Her research interests include photosynthesis, biogeochemical cycles, climate change, microbial comparative genomics, evolutionary biology.
This event will be accessed via Zoom. We will send you the meeting link about 15 minutes before the event in order to keep it as secure as possible. Please also check your spam folder.
Images: Dr Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo
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super/collider and Turner Contemporary Margate present “Light Reflections” with artist Armelle Tulunda and astronomer Paul Hill.
Armelle Tulunda will introduce her most recent project. While studying at École Nationale Supérieure d'Art et de Design de Nancy, she wrote her dissertation, Le sublime cosmique, on the significance of astronomical images in our ways to imagine, and connect to outer space. Armelle will discuss how writing this dissertation led her to create a new body of works using scientific imagery as raw material. Within her work, Armelle uses illusory objects, sound recordings from Voyager, environmental issues, natural and artificial light.
Following Armelle’s talk, Paul Hill will explain in detail about solstices and equinoxes, as well as the phases of the Moon and why we see them as we do. Paul will also explain about the sunset, discussing why we see the vibrant colours within the famous sunsets of Margate.
Paul Hill will tune in from his home town in Wiltshire, providing a live stream of the Sun from his telescope. During this event, we will discuss the celestial objects that we can see in the sky.
Armelle Tulunda is an artist who finds inspiration in astronomy, optics, scientific research and philosophy. Her practice includes works on paper, light installations, photography and video. She questions scientific images and the consequences of the evolution of technologies used in astronomical tools. Throughout her work, Armelle investigates our evolving relationship to the unknowable. Previous projects include exhibitions in Nancy (FR, 2020), London (UK, 2019) as well as a residency in Atina (IT, 2018).
Paul Hill is an elected fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, co-presenter and writer of Awesome Astronomy podcast, a Space Ambassador for ESERO and has appeared on BBC News and Radio to discuss a range of astronomy and space issues.
Join us for the fourth episode in our new online event series, super/science.
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In April, the space probe BepiColombo came to less than 13,000 km from Earth, steering its trajectory as part of a long journey towards Mercury, the ultimate destination of its scientific mission. During this gravity-assist flyby, the probe snapped black-and-white views of our planet, joining in the space-era tradition of picturing our cosmic home from space. This talk will take viewers on a journey from Earth through planets, stars and galaxies, and discuss the astronomical perspective on our home planet. The talk will also touch upon the BepiColombo mission, a European-Japanese collaboration to investigate Mercury's mysteries, and the science data gathered during the recent Earth flyby.
Claudia Mignone is an astrophysicist, science writer and communicator, originally from the south of Italy. After researching the expansion of the Universe for her PhD at the University of Heidelberg, she engaged full time in public outreach, covering various science communication roles as a contractor for the European Space Agency and working with space missions like Rosetta, Gaia, BepiColombo, and many others. Claudia is passionate about telling the stories of the great women and men that investigate the cosmos, and often collaborates with artists to research new approaches to scientific narration.
Ticket Cost: Pay as you feel donation, starting at £1.
This event will be accessed on the Zoom platform.
Ticket Link Here.
Join us for the third episode in our new online event series, super/science.
During this talk, you will learn about the ecology of the Margate Coastline, in association with Resortful and South East Creatives.
This talk with Alice Morley will allow people to learn more about the exciting variety of marine life we have around the Thanet Coast, which is often hidden beneath the waves! Here we will discuss some of the local species we can see on the shores across Kent, as well as the different habitats that species call home. This talk will also touch on the historic and cultural aspects of some offshore sites around the North Kent coast, and we will discuss the importance of marine conservation zones and how they can help to protect and preserve our fascinating marine environment for future generations. Following this talk, super/collider co-director Louise Beer and her partner John Hooper will observe marine objects under a microscope.
Alice Morley is a Marine Conservation Officer at Kent Wildlife Trust, with a background in Marine Environmental Management. After finishing her degree, Alice spent a couple of years living and working in Yorkshire before moving down to Kent. Her current role with Kent Wildlife Trust is varied and includes aspects such as commenting on marine and coastal planning proposals; campaigning for stronger marine protection and advocating for better management of marine conservation zones; providing environmental advice to offshore developers; delivering marine consultancy projects; and organising events such as shore surveys and invasive species control events working alongside volunteers and citizen scientists.
This event was accessed on the Zoom platform.
Photo by Peter Neumann on Unsplash
Join us for the second episode in our new online event series, super/science.
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During this online event, we will hear from theoretical cosmologist Roberto Trotta about his book The Edge of the Sky, which explains the Universe using just 1000 simple words.
From the big bang to black holes, from dark matter to dark energy, from the origins of the universe to its ultimate destiny, The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the most important discoveries and mysteries in modern cosmology--with a twist. The book's lexicon is limited to the thousand most common words in the English language, excluding physics, energy, galaxy, or even universe. Through the eyes of a fictional scientist (Student-People) hunting for dark matter with one of the biggest telescopes (Big-Seers) on Earth (Home-World), cosmologist Roberto Trotta explores the most important ideas about our universe (All-there-is) in language simple enough for anyone to understand. A unique blend of literary experimentation and science popularization, this delightful book is a perfect gift for any aspiring astronomer. The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the universe on a human scale, and the result is out of this world.
Roberto is a Professor of Astrostatistics in the Astrophysics Group at Imperial College London, an Academic Fellow of the Data Science Institute at Imperial College London and the Director of Imperial’s Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication.
***Roberto will donate his share of money raised through tickets to Help Musicians Corona Virus Hardship Fund.
image NASA/JPL/California Institute of Technology
are there other life forms in the universe? join us for an exhilarating talk by Dr Jill Stuart and moon viewing event with Paul Hill.
Presented in association with Uncommon.
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Humanity regularly sends information from Earth out into the universe that may be picked up by potential extra-terrestrial intelligence. Should we be sending such messages? If so, how do we represent ourselves in such messages? In searching the universe, what do we find out about ourselves? Dr Jill Stuart explores into her research that covers sending messages into outer space and listening for messages from outer space through SETI and METI systems. After the talk, Paul Hill will be speaking about how the tides on Earth and the movement of the Moon are intrinsically connected through tidal locking. What is the Moon and where did it come from? how has the Moon affected life on Earth and how has it influenced our own human evolution and culture? is the Moon crucial for life on our planet or could we survive without it? after Paul’s talk, we will look at the crescent moon and Venus through several different telescopes. To end, Paul Hill will show the moon on a live stream, through his telescope.
Paul is an elected fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, co-presenter and writer of Awesome Astronomy podcast, a Space Ambassador for ESERO and has appeared on BBC News and Radio to discuss a range of astronomy and space issues.
Dr Jill Stuart is an academic based at the London School of Economics. She specialises in the politics, ethics and law of outer space exploration and exploitation. Dr Stuart is a Trustee of METI International, an organisation that focuses on sending messages from Earth to potential extra-terrestrial life. She is Editor in Chief of the journal Space Policy and was the 2015 Recipient of the British Science Association's Margaret Mead Award.
Tuesday 05 May 2020, 7pm.
This event will be accessed on the Zoom platform.
image AS08-14-2384 Apollo 8 Hasselblad image from film magazine 14/B - Lunar Orbit, Trans-Earth Coast
join us on 27 November 2019 for a solargraph workshop, part of The Sun exhibition at the Science and Industry Museum. we will be making solargraph cameras which capture long exposure pinhole camera photographs of the sun’s path. our workshops will take place at 7.30, 8.15 and 9.00.
within the Sun Late event you can also make your own rainbow diffraction sunglasses, get up close with exotic animals who use the Sun to their own advantage and visit an inflatable planetarium. find out more about The Sun Late on the Science and Industry Museum website.
Image Credit: Solargraph, Anthony Carr.
Image Credit: Sun, Geoff Elston
join us for a collaborative exhibition between super/collider and Sail Britain about the fragility of our oceans
join us at the Science Museum for an evening with Mia Maxwell, who will lead a zine making workshop on menstruation.
Wednesday 26 June 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
Science Museum
Exhibition Rd
South Kensington
London
SW7 2DD
Mia Maxwell’s zine workshop aims to deconstruct our ideas of gender and menstruation in a self reflective and discussion based space. The workshop highlights issues of periods for trans, gender non conforming and non binary people who menstruate.
Mia Maxwell is a zine maker and founder of FEM Zine, a platform, publishers and events space which aims to diversify media. This year, Mia published the ‘THEY. HE. SHE. PERIOD’ zine for Ovar It, an exhibition at protein studios. Mia’s zine tells stories of non-binary, gender non conforming and trans experience of periods.
Image: Joel Felipe
Join us for an evening exploring the oceans with talks and screenings by artists Kasia Molga and Amy Cutler and a live visual performance by Kristina Pulejkova.
Tue, 19 February 2019, 19:00 – 21:00
Miranda Bar, Ace Hotel
100 Shoreditch High Street
London
E1 6JQ
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Kasia Molga will present her film ‘Coral Love Story: Chapter #1 | Getting Acquainted’, which is about a wearable artwork, constantly scanning the data from the marine stations of the Great Barrier Reef. The artwork has been featured in the local media such as BBC News and specialised news on tech and media arts such as AdaFruits blog. This project is also a first official project launching Electronudes – a new design and creative tech studio set up by Kasia and her regular collaborators Erik Overmeire and Ricardo O’Nascimento.
Amy Cutler will present works inspired by the media archives of alien or deviant underwater spaces, including her jellyfish short, ‘The White Princess’, a response to the mesmeric “dances” of Painlevé’s marine documentaries, particularly Amours de la pieuvre (1965), and Cousteau’s scuba-documentary Le Monde du Silence (1956). ‘Glaucus’ is a musical setting of Gosse’s The Aquarium: Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea(1854), where the scientific writing of the field-observer is tinged with wonder / revulsion at encounters with small, aberrant sea creatures in the “fairy-land” underwater or by the sea’s edge. The film ‘Leave Me on a Rainy Afternoon’ is a love letter to the dazed atmospherics of cloud systems, 1970s geography trips, the observation/notation of rainclouds, and their links to emotion and pathetic fallacy. It includes dark sky footage from early meteorological archives, the U.S. national oceanic and aeronautical organisations, public domain pedagogical material, radio broadcasts, 16 and 35mm offcuts from expeditions, music and animations.
Kristina Pulejkova will present a live visual performance around the topic of the eel migration, focusing on their journey across the ocean. The performance is inspired by her research on the eel’s mysterious life cycle that she undertook as part of the FLAMIN Fellowship programme, supported by the Arts Council England and the Fenton Arts Trust. Kristina worked with choreographer Georgia Tegou to develop a dance piece that imagines the eels’ act of love.
It is thought that all European eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea, in the western Atlantic. No matter where they live, once sexually mature, they turn a silvery colour and make their final arduous journey to this one location, driven there by instinct. Yet, there is no scientific evidence of where exactly the eels are spawning nor what the act looks like. Scientists have so far only speculated on the occurrence of this mysterious event.
Kristina is a London-based multimedia artist who works at the intersection of art, science and technology. Working mainly with moving image and installation, she aims to build a subjective narrative based on data and principles from the scientific disciplines of astronomy, physics, biology and ecology. Her main subjects of interest are time, ecosystems and mechanisms, looking for connections between man and machine, the organic and the mechanical.
Kasia is a Design Fusionist working on intersection of art, design, technology and science. She explores emerging trends in technologies and how they can influences human perception or and relation to natural environment and convey the notion of “collaboration with nature”. Her versatile experience of working across design disciplines gave her unique ability to comprehend, communicate and connect complex concepts and ideas. She translates them into tangible, multisensory and visual experiences, immersive environments, installations and hybrid visual/physical interfaces, design fictions or speculative futures narratives. Kasia has exhibited worldwide, most notably: Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, V&A Museum, FILE, Ars Electronica, TRANSNATURAL (NL), Meta.Morf (NO), ISEA (Istanbul, Turkey), Translife Media Arts Triennial (Beijing, China), MIS (Sao Paulo, BR), Dutch Design Week (NL); and is a recipient of many international awards, grants, nominations and accolades, among many others: Wellcome Trust Award, Ars Electronica 2012 Honorary, Creative Industries NL, European N.I.C.E Award, RESHAPE 2017 Honourable Mention, LES RESPIRATIONS 2016 Special Prize for Human Sensor. Her work was featured in on and off-line magazines and TV Programmes, such as Huffington Post, The Guardian, Wired, Dutch Technology Review and BBC.
Dr. Amy Cutler is a cultural geographer, film-maker, and live performer who works with ideas of geography and nonhuman others. Her writing often draws on unsettling ideas of nature by ‘hacking’ or resetting original source narratives and pedagogical voices, from radio to nineteenth century science textbooks, including her recent Oh What Monsters tour of insect femme fatales, with French pianist and composer Delphine Dora. She also curates the international touring concert NATURE’S NICKELODEONS, supported by Live Cinema UK, which uses live cinema projection, re-scoring and performance to investigate the ways in which public concepts of nature are produced by social screening practices; this has premiered as a special event at Sheffield Doc/Fest (2018) and at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (2018). Her recent work includes a collaboration with data artist Anna Ridler and musician Leafcutter John, in which a neural network trained on romance novels reinterprets the ‘birds and the bees’ of original Disney nature documentary footage; the resulting film, ‘All Her Beautiful Green Remains In Tears’, has been installed at BBC Broadcasting House (2018) and at Somerset House Studios (2018). Cutler currently lectures on animals in the Visual Cultures department at Goldsmiths University.
Image Credit: https://unsplash.com/@connorcreates_
Join X-Ray Audio and sonic innovator Thurston Moore for a unique evening celebrating rebel sounds, bootleg technology and cold war culture in film, words and music cut live with vintage recording devices at Ace Hotel London Shoreditch, on 16 January 2019 at 7pm.
RSVP
Tickets: £13
The evening will begin with a talk by X-Ray Audio, followed by a live recording of 3 x 3 minute songs by Thurston Moore.
Many older people in Russia remember seeing and hearing strange vinyl type discs when they were young. The discs had partial images of skeletons on them, were called “Bones” or “Ribs” and originated in the Cold War years of the Soviet Union. In an era when the recording industry was ruthlessly controlled by the State, music-mad bootleggers had found an incredible alternative means of making illegal copies of forbidden recordings – they repurposed used X ray plates obtained from local hospitals.
‘They are images of pain and damage overlayed with the sounds of pleasure, fragile photographs of the interiors of Soviet citizens inscribed with thematic they secretly loved.’
The X-Ray Audio project explores this amazing world of forbidden music, cold war culture, bootleg technology and human endeavour with an online archive, a book, documentary, live events and a travelling exhibition. In this special live event, X-Ray Audio will tell the strange story of the Soviet bootleggers and demonstrate the art of cutting music to x-ray with very special guest Thurston Moore.
The project was formed by musician Stephen Coates and photographer Paul Heartfield who have taken it to the Museum Of Art, Tel Aviv, New Hollandia, St Petersburg, Garage Museum Of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Magazzino Delle Idee, Trieste, Millenium Arts, Belfast, The Horse Hospital, London and many more institutions.
Thurston Moore moved to NYC at eighteen in 1976 to play punk. He started Sonic Youth in 1980. Since then Thurston Moore has been at the forefront of the alternative rock scene since that particular sobriquet was first used to signify any music that challenged and defied the mainstream standard. With Sonic Youth, Moore turned on an entire generation to the value of experimentation in rock n roll – from its inspiration on a nascent Nirvana, to Sonic Youth’s own Daydream Nation album being chosen by the US Library of Congress for historical preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2006. Thurston records and performs in a cavalcade of disciplines ranging from free improvisation to acoustic composition to black/white metal/noise disruption. He has worked with Yoko Ono, John Zorn, David Toop, Cecil Taylor, Faust, Glenn Branca and many others. His residency at the Louvre in Paris included collaborations with Irmin Schmidt of CAN. Alongside his various activities in the musical world, he is involved with publishing and poetry, and teaches writing at Naropa University, Boulder CO, a school founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman in 1974. Thurston also teaches music at The Rhythmic Music Conservatory (Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium) in Copenhagen.
Presently he performs and records solo, with various ensembles and in his own band, The Thurston Moore Group (with mbv’s Deb Googe, Steve Shelley & James Sedwards). In 2014, the band released The Best Day which critics described as “optimistic and sun-drenched in beauty” and “[has] experimental attitude dovetailed with instantly accessible pop melodies.” The Best Day was a record defined by positivity and radical love.
The Thurston Moore Group’s new full-length album, Rock n Roll Consciousness was recorded in The Church studios in London with producer Paul Epworth. The songs are expansive, anthemic and exploratory with lyrics that investigate and herald the love between angels, goddess mysticism and a belief in healing through new birth. Ranging from opener “Exalted”, an unfolding and emotional journey in homage to sacred energy and exaltation, to “Cusp” a charging, propulsive piece with a feeling of Sonic Youth mixing in with My Bloody Valentine. “Turn On” is a pop-sonic poem to holy love both intimate and kosmiche to the contemplative mystery of life-defining time travel in “Smoke of Dreams”. The record concludes with “Aphrodite”, a strange and heavy no-wave rocker in salutation to the idol of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.
Join us on 5 Dec, 7pm for “sound machines”, part of super/collider’s “science of sound” series at Ace Hotel. There will be live performances of DIY sound machines from Graham Dunning and the opportunity to handle creations by Look Mum No Computer.
RSVP here
Graham Dunning will perform “Mechanical Techno” which comprises of several looping records which spin on the same axle, ensuring they stay in time. Dunning then layers up groove records, audio triggers, analogue synths and mechanical percussion such as cowbells or cymbals. The result is a fascinating live performance which can never be exactly replicated. Look Mum No Computer will perform, demonstrating how the machines work. He will then set up a range of DIY sound machines, including modular synths, the a hundred oscillator megadrone, a lightsaber theremin and circuit bent furbies, so that you have the opportunity to try the machines out for yourself.
Graham Dunning is a self-taught artist and musician, His live work explores sound as texture, timbre and something tactile, drawing on bedroom production, tinkering and recycling found objects. He also creates visual work, video and installations drawing on these themes. Graham has performed solo and in ensembles across the UK, Europe and Canada, and exhibited in the UK, Europe, New Zealand and USA. He teaches Experimental Sound Art at the Mary Ward Centre in London and also gives various independent workshops. He has released through Entr’acte, Seagrave, Tombed Visions and more.
Look Mum No Computer is a London based live electronic artist who takes his home made machines on the road to play music. He’s a multi disciplinary artist with exhibitions of his work under his belt as well as many live shows; from squat raves in Berlin to Warehouse setups in London. You might have seen some of his inventions floating around the internet, from bikes that have synthesisers, to 5000 Volt Jacobs ladders and Tesla coil drum machines.
