opening today at Saville Row’s Hauser & Wirth gallery, Matthew Day Jackson’s new show features coloured skulls, re-covered LIFE magazines, a repurposed B-29 and this work: a long, panelled landscape based on a Mercator map that replicates the moon’s surface through laser etching on drywall
big news to end the year, with the confirmation that a new species of human – the denisovans – intermingled and even bred with our ancient ancestors. joining the ‘hobbit-like’ Homo Floresiensis on our family tree, the discovery reminds us that we have much to learn about our origins, our early travels and our fellow humans. happy holidays to you all, and we’ll see you in 2011!
_graphic derived from an illustration in Nature, showing the diverging branches of the human family from top to bottom: African, French, Han, Melanesian, Neanderthal and Denisovan
in Werner Herzog’s 2004 documentary The White Diamond, we are introduced to Dr Graham Dorrington – a London-based aeronautical engineer who builds airships to explore the ethereal canopy layer high above the world’s tropical rainforests. we caught up with Graham over on the reader this week to chat all things aerial ahead of the Treetop Odyssey event at the ICA this weekend
_the various strata of a typical forest
once every hundred years, there is a day you can write out as 10/10/10. in the 21st century, that day falls this Sunday, and to mark the occasion Eames Office will be celebrating Charles and Ray Eames’s classic Powers of Ten with screenings, events and the launch of a new website and educational initiative. originally released in 1977, the short film (below) puts things in perspective by zooming out from a picnicking couple in Chicago to the outer fringes of the known universe…
_ten
fifty years on from his famous two cultures speech, British scientist and novelist CP Snow would be pleasantly surprised to pick up Art + Science Now, a hefty tome covering the increasing crossover between science and various fields of art. on Tuesday 13 July, the book’s author Professor Stephen Wilson and featured artist Gina Czarnecki will be our guests at Science Fair™ – a special collaboration with our pals at The Arts Catalyst
_‘Species Reclamation’ by Brandon Ballengée
in the not-so-distant future, London-based architect Magnus Larsson dreams of a vast greenbelt stretching across the Sahara, providing eco-friendly housing while halting the drifting sands. sound impossible? it might be, if it wasn’t for Bacillus Pasteurii, a microorganism which can turn sand into solid sandstone. in Larsson’s mind, this simple biological reaction could create a vast network of hollowed out habitats across the Sahara, sculpted by the wind to provide cool shade and shelter
Magnus will be one of the speakers at our next live event, GREEN/SPACE
_Bacillus Pasteurii, in the lab
get up early or stay out late this month and you’ll be rewarded with one of nature’s grandest symphonies: the dawn chorus. starting around 4am, birds of all persuasions begin calling out to mark their territory and attract a mate – with blackbirds, robins and wrens soon joined by finches, doves and even owls. if you’re keen to learn more about which one’s which, you can join an organised breakfast event as part of International Dawn Chorus Day, or if you can’t be bothered, here’s what it sounds like in the UK…
_image from: Naumann, Naturgeschichte Der Vögel Mitteleuropas
we don’t often cover opera here on super/weekly, but then, it’s not every week that Swedish electropopstars The Knife team up with Mt Sims and Planningtorock to create a soundtrack to an opera based on Darwin’s On The Origins of Species using everything from Richard Dawkins’ gene trees to field recordings from the Amazon and bird songs. after debuting in Copenhagen in September last year, the opera itself is now touring, while the soundtrack’s out Monday on Brille Records
_tomorrowinayear_press2_NEW2
the Biochemistry Department at Oxford University is internationally renowned for its research on understanding of DNA, cell growth and immunity. working 24h a day, researchers will use the shiny new labs to learn more about how cells work, which has already lead them to breakthroughs in malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, avian flu, cancer, strokes and other illnesses
_photo: Keith Collie
throughout the building, specially commissioned art pieces bring the space to life, encouraging creative thinking and interdisciplinary working. visible here (L to R) are Annie Cattrell’s ‘chandelier’ of birds, Nicky Hirst’s Portal façade and Peter Fraser’s photographs of the building under construction
_photo: Keith Collie
designed by HawkinsBrown, the brand new building features high-tech labs arranged around a tall central atrium. timber-clad and naturally ventilated, its glass ceiling is lined with small solar panels, visible here
_photo: Keith Collie
we don’t cover life sciences half as much as we should, so super/collider jumped at the chance to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the new Biochemistry building at Oxford last week. an amazing fusion of art, architecture and leading-edge science, it’s a glimpse into new ways of encouraging creativity
_photo: Keith Collie
“a brain scan in 1999 triggered Susan Aldworth’s ongoing fascination with the relationship between the physical brain and the sense of self,” explains the press release for her upcoming show at Transition Gallery in East London. “since then, Aldworth has worked and collaborated with doctors, neuroscientists, artists and musicians in pursuit of this elusive subject.” her show, Scribing the Soul, will be complemented by two talks examining the relationship between art, science and the mind
_artwork: Susan Aldworth