Scientists and artists work together to explore the Sense of Science
Posted on 20 January 2004
Sense of Science, a collaboration between scientists from CNAP at the University of York and a group of four artists from different artistic disciplines, will offer artists the opportunity to work experimentally in new contexts. The project has been developed in partnership with Arts Council England, Yorkshire.
The artists will generate new works through their collaboration with CNAP researchers and their experiences in a laboratory environment. Exploring themes ranging from the use and understanding of science to perceptions about science and scientists, the artists’ work will engage with scientific ideas and help to make them accessible to a wider audience. The works produced by the artists during the residency will be showcased at a variety of both science and arts events around the Yorkshire region over the next 12 months.
Four artists from different disciplines all taking part in a single residency is unusual and this multidisciplinary artistic approach to exploring the scientific environment will stimulate some exciting and collaborative thinking. The artists involved in the residency are Andrew Cleaton (composer and musician), Lizzie Coombes (photographer), Lucy Cullingford (dancer and choreographer) and Ruth Ben-Tovim (site-specific artist working with a range of creative media).
Professor Dianna Bowles, CNAP’s Director said: ‘We are delighted to welcome four talented artists into CNAP, this will be a fascinating project leading to a greater understanding between the arts and sciences. The project is of benefit to CNAP providing us with new ways of explaining science to different audiences.’
Alison Andrews, Performing Arts Officer at Arts Council England, Yorkshire, commented: ‘This important project has come about through a genuine exchange of ideas between scientists and artists interested in the issues arising from each other’s work. Arts Council England is committed to supporting innovation and we look forward to an exciting year with CNAP discovering just how fruitful partnerships between artists and scientists really can be.’
Notes to editors:
- CNAP is a plant and microbial gene discovery centre in the Department of Biology at the University of York. It aims to solve problems for industry, society and the environment through its research (www.cnap.org.uk). One of CNAP’s central objectives is to increase public engagement with bioscience through a programme of high quality outreach activities. Full details of all outreach activities can be found on www.understandingbiology.org
- Arts Council England, Yorkshire is the region’s funding and development agency for the arts distributing public money from Government and the National Lottery. Arts Council England, Yorkshire has invested £25,000 to support the Sense of science project.
- Biographical information about the artists:
- Andrew Cleaton is an accomplished composer and producer based in Leeds. Having gained a Masters Degree in Music Technology (from the University of York) he has worked across a number of different settings including commercial music, community music, education, disability arts, public funding and arts management. Andrew's work draws upon his love of music from different genres - classical, world, jazz - and is imbued with a strong sense of place and an electroacoustic understanding of sound design.
- Lizzie Coombes has worked as a professional photographer for 13 years. Her commissions include an exhibition on rural issues, projections for Opera North and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and an 18-metre exhibition on Leeds for The Millennium Dome. Lizzie worked in Russia and Poland for The Prince's Trust but after maturing past their age limit set her sights on Yorkshire. She has spent time behind bars working in prisons, creating a series of photographs for a new opera, and has taken copious personal images for on-going projects around family. Lizzie has developed two key strands to her work; photographing people and spaces. She has taken thousands of portraits, which have been shown in a wide variety of venues. Lizzie has recently illustrated a children's song book which has won a national award and hung a permanent exhibition of portraits in a school in Hull. She is currently working on a project in swimming pools, which involves a lot of swimming and not much else. Lizzie is based in Leeds.
- Lucy Cullingford trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Bretton Hall College. As a freelancer she has choreographed productions for Hull Truck Theatre, The Everyman Theatre and The Lawrence Batley Theatre. She has co-devised and collaborated on education projects with The Live Theatre, Opera North and The Yorkshire Dance Centre. She has also devised several site-specific projects that were performed in nightclubs, and Leeds train station. Lucy is based in Leeds.
- Ruth Ben-Tovim uses a range of creative mediums to create site-specific artworks with communities. She co-runs Encounters in Sheffield, an arts and regeneration organisation that takes over disused shop spaces, using them as bases to collect and make work with local residents about everyday life. She was recently artist in residence at the Gallery Oldham exploring issues around bio-ethics as part of the national sci-art project ‘Clean Rooms’. Before moving to Sheffield in 2000, Ruth was a lecturer at Brunel University and the artistic director of Louder Than Words Productions, a London-based theatre company that worked closely with the Young Vic Theatre. Ruth is based in Sheffield.