Aug 24 2009
Day in pictures @ Ultimo Science Festival
By Kate Hennessy
Some snaps from my meanderings yesterday through the Ultimo Science Festival precinct on Harris Street.
The very lovely 'Muse' building (known more prosaically as Ultimo TAFE Building C) & home to four festival exhibitions.
Does anyone know the history of this building? I’d love to know its origins…
Adrift was an installation piece exploring themes of water, drought, a landscape and a major city. My favourite part was the various sounds of water the artists worked in. Some were overwhelming - a dam perhaps - and some were much more delicate. Warning: go to the toilet first. Artists: Alison Clouston and Boyd
Small finch-like bird were featured as part of Adrift, along the walls here. Artists: Alison Clouston and Boyd
Such as this bird ... I'd be curious to know what the artist's intention behind this was. Artists: Alison Clouston and Boyd
Adrift again. Artists: Alison Clouston and Boyd
Find out more about Adrift.
SCINEMA is a festival of science films, curated by Cris Kennedy from CSIRO and Cosmos Magazine. This film was about the invention of penicillin and the later mutation of microbes to resist it ... it gives one a whole new appreciation of the "intelligence" of microbes, I assure you!
Find out more about SCINEMA. If you saw any other films as part of SCINEMA (a nationally touring festival) and you’d like to give a brief review, please get in touch.
Astronomers Without Borders have gathered the most stunning collection of photographs and time-lapse videos of stars, planets and celestial events. These are set as a backdrop behind or above iconic buildings, such as the Taj Mahal, or wonders on earth such as the Mexican desert.
One such 'World at Night' image. My apologies to the photographer that I can't credit this photograph here. I'll endevour to find out who took it and update this posting.
Find out more about The World at Night. If you attended the talk by astrophotographer David Malin on Saturday 22nd, I’d love to hear how it went.
Craft fans, knitters, hyberbolic mathematicians and people want to see the Great Barrier Reef without a trip to Cairns will all enjoy the Sydney Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum.
The Sydney Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef is a satellite project from a concept originating at the Institute for Figuring (IFF). From the IFF website:
“In 2008 the IFF was contacted by ‘In Stitches’, a collective of three young Sydney artists, who wanted to embark on a project to make a Sydney Reef. The three women – Michaela Davies, Claire Conroy and Charlotte Haywood – were all fiber artists of some renoun. Claire had learned about the Crochet Reef Project when she visited Manhattan and saw the exhibition at the World Financial Center Winter Garden of the New York Reef, the Chicago Reef and the Toxic Reef. Returning to Australia she conceived the idea of starting a Sydney offshoot. In early 2009 the group began holding its first workshops to teach others throughout the state of New South Wales to make their own hyperbolic corals.”
See reef co-creator and IFF co-director Margaret Wertheim’s TED talk about the “beautiful math of coral”.
It really is a sight to behold ... I can imagine the 'Do Not Touch' signs are requiring a full-time team at the Powerhouse!
You see, the higher order mathematics of hyperbolic space was once considered impossible to represent – until it was discovered that coral reefs were already doing the job
So now, you can see hyperbolic space represented in handmade stitches ... & learn how to crochet a piece of ‘reef’ yourself and have it added to the installation.
Organisers call it "A woolly celebration of higher geometry and feminine handicraft and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world".
Go see it for yourself. And bring your grandma! Hyperbolic mathematics aside, I sure wish mine could have seen this.
Find out more about the Crochet Reef.
There’s also a talk by Matthew Connell, Principal Curator, Science Technology and Industry, Powerhouse Museum on Wednesday on 26 August 12:30pm – 1:30pm. He will discuss the crisis started by the discovery of non-Euclidean geometries and how attempts to resolve it led to conception of the defining technology of our age.
