Bringing data to life at the Ultimo Science Festival

????????Art and science combine to bring data to life in new UTS exhibition as part of the 9th annual Ultimo Science Festival.

Living Data: Evolving Conversations showcases the work of more than 30 scientists and artists to celebrate art and science for both fueling imagination and challenging established ideas. Exhibits take many forms including animation, dance, ‘living’ laboratories of specimens, interactive installations, drawing, music, painting, graphic work and sculpture. Visitors to the exhibition will also be invited to get creative and contribute their responses to a ‘graffiti’ wall.

The exhibition is co-curated by UTS researchers in the Faculty of Science, Dr Lisa Roberts, Creative Fellow, Climate Change Cluster and Anita Marosszeky, Associate Fellow, Compassionate Conservation. Scientists involved include: William Gladstone, Martina Doblin, and Christian Evenhuis. Roberts says “A lot of people are surprised to hear that scientists can also be creative and that artists might be inspired by science, but in my experience the two fields can work together very well and we are seeing more collaborations that reveal the creative process in science as well as art.”

This year, Roberts and Marosszeky will be conducting an experiment during the exhibition. Through collection and analysis of data they will test the hypothesis that exhibits expressing both feeling and thinking are most likely to convey accurate information. Roberts says, “Scientists also want to know if visitors respond to exhibits in the ways that their authors intend them to be understood.”

“We will invite people to draw on the walls around the exhibits to contribute their thoughts, comments, and stories. By the end of the exhibition we hope to have great graffiti walls created by collaborating scientists, artists and visitors, in response to the different ways we express our understandings.”

Central to the exhibition is a UTS living laboratory of algae for developing sustainable biofuel. With its green glowing vial of photosynthesising cells, “this exhibit is potent with symbolic meaning”.

The exhibition is free and runs on from September 3 to 12 at the UTS City Campus. For more information see the Ultimo Science Festival website.

Image: Ultimo Science Festival.

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