SHOW OPENING 2 DECEMBER 2011

Some bits

Jack explaining the concept of stability in physical systems. Behind, right, a simple diagram illustrating the consequences of small perturbations from equilibrium in stable and unstable systems; left, the straight, spiky tail of a kitten, which unlike a cat's does not buckle under its own weight.

Luke Hodgkin talks about the music of the Nintendo Gameboy, where some rather involved maths was employed to generate music with very little circuitry.

Janina´s talk on the electron transport chain, mitochondria and immortality.

Programme

OPENING, 6PM, Thursday June 30

Further opening hours:

1pm -9pm Sunday July 3

4pm-10pm Tuesday July 5

4pm-10pm Thursday July 7

+more to be announced

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Objects et cetera from
Maeve Brennan
Spartacus Chetwynd
Brian Moran
Janina Pedan
Amy Stickland (with Jack Brennan, partially)
Performance from Jack Harris

COSY PRESENTATIONS, 3PM, Sunday July 3
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Janina Pedan: Parasite Eve

--mitochondria and the immortal HeLa cell line

Adam Christensen: I once loved you in a parallel universe
--talk and screening on virtual reality


POLYGON WINDOW, 7PM, Tuesday July 5
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--an evening of shapes featuring
Jack Brennan: D'arcy Whentworth Thompson, Soap Films, and Spermatazoa
Leila Dear: Sacred Geometry and the Cosmic Yonii--workshop on Islamic and other sacred art; lesson on geometric constructions with a compass and straight edge, tools provided.

REALLY HARD TALKS, 6.30PM, Thursday July 7
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Luke Hodgkin: Mathematical Instruments in Wall Street, Afghanistan, and Marioland
-- Dr Luke Hodgkin taught maths and its history at the Universities of Warwick, Algiers, and most recently King's. He is the author of A History of Maths, from Mesopotamia to Modernity. Here he mentions, among other things, the technology used to create music for the low-memory games consoles of the early 90s.

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SYNTHESISER INTERLUDE !
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Mark Pilkington: Royal Rife's Oscillating Beam Ray – Adventures in Outsider Science
-- Mark Pilkington is the author of 'Mirage Men: A Journey in Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs' (Constable Robinson, 2010) and 'Far Out: 101 Strange Tales from Science's Outer Edge' (Disinformation Books, 2007), he also runs Strange Attractor Press and edits its Journal.

POLYGON WINDOW, an evening of shapes

Tuesday July 5

7 PM

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From Growth and Form

Jack Brennan outlines ideas from classicist, mathematician, and biologist D'Arcy Thompson's magnum opus, On Growth and Form. A fringe figure in his time, Thompson's beliefs in the underlying geometric harmony of nature echo the Pythagoreans more than his Darwinist peers, but his mathematical approach to biological analysis anticipates a host of modern developments, from biophysics to cybernetics. Here, Thompson's diverse viewpoints at a time of phylogenetic hegemony in research will be celebrated; so too his intricate and phonetically stunning prose:

"Among the alcyonarian zoophytes we have a great variety of spicules, which are sometimes straight and slender rods, sometimes flattened and more or less striated plates, and still more often disorderly aggregations of microcrystals, in the form of rounded or branched concretions with rough or knobby surfaces"

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Sacred Geometry and the Cosmic Yonii

Leila Dear presents a workshop concerning the principles of Euclidean geometric constructions and the generation of sacred tessellating patterns in Islamic art and elsewhere. Straight edge and compasses will be provided.

Facts & Systems July 3

3PM - Parasite Eve: Mitochondria and the HeLa cell line (immortal women part 2).

Janina Pedan will give a general introduction to mitochondria, a small organelle inside the cell, governing essential biological functions like sex, death and energy production.

The immortal qualities of Parasite Eve, a fictional computer-game character, which were based on scientific research related to mitochondria and their evolution, will be examined. Following up is the 'immortal' woman Henrietta Lacks whose cancer-cells have been artificially grown for medical research since the 1950's. The cell culture derived from her deadly disease has by now outnumbered her body weight hundreds of times, leading some people to suggest that these should be classified as a separate species. Both of these women are linked by fascinating biological processes that question the limits drawn between life and death.

SCREENING: Adam Curtis vintage documentary from 1997 about Lacks called 'Way of all flesh'.

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5 PM - 'I once loved you in a parallel universe'

- a talk and screening about virtual reality in film by Adam Christensen.

SCREENING: Anything from Adam´s extensive collection of virtual-reality films.