
Day of Collisions at FACT
A FACT and CERN event presenting activities including the Roy Stringer Memorial Lecture – this year with Will Self as keynote speaker – an Arts at CERN roundtable discussion, and the preview of new exhibition No Such Thing as Gravity.
Event at FACT, Liverpool
Some events throughout the day require booking
10 November 2016, all day, throughout the FACT building
Yunchul Kim, Effulge, 2012. Image courtesy of the artist
On Thursday 10 November, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) in Liverpool will host Day of Collisions – a full day of activities investigating the relationship between art and science. The day is presented in collaboration with Arts at CERN – the official art programme of the cradle of the World Wide Web and home of the Large Hadron Collider – where the world’s leading physicists and engineers investigate the fundamental mysteries of our universe. This event is part of the three-year COLLIDE CERN FACT Framework Partnership, which includes workshops, events, and the International Residency Award COLLIDE, granting an artist a fully funded residency split between CERN in Geneva, and FACT in Liverpool.
Day of Collisions will include the the yearly Roy Stringer Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Amaze, and will host writer, political commentator and broadcaster Will Self to give a lecture on the relationship between art and science, followed by a Q&A session for the audience to participate.
South Korean artist Yunchul Kim, the winner of this year’s COLLIDE International Award, and his partner scientist from CERN, will discuss Kim’s residency project Cascade and their experience of, and the possibilities for, a meaningful art and science collaboration in a roundtable discussion. This will be the first public presentation of the residency, and the revelation of the partnering scientist. As the winner of the COLLIDE award, Yunchul Kim will spend two months at CERN in a fully curated residency hosted by Arts at CERN, followed by a residency at FACT, where he will be working in the experimental design and technology space FACTLab to develop his findings from CERN in collaboration with local audiences and communities.
FACT’s Director Mike Stubbs says: “It’s part of FACT’s mission to encourage curiosity and creativity, which are qualities that are essential within both science and arts. We’re delighted to be able to offer this opportunity to explore both fields on this day of activities in collaboration with Arts at CERN, and to present the Roy Stringer Lecture, in memory of FACT’s former chair and founder of creative technology agency Amaze – altogether highlighting FACT’s unique position at the nexus of art, science and technology.”
Day of Collisions also coincides with the opening of FACT’s new exhibition No Such Thing as Gravity (11 November 2016 – 5 February 2017) exploring the ever-changing limits of science, through art. Curated by Rob La Frenais, the exhibition will feature a wide range of works merging art with scientific experiments, new and future technologies, and exploring the borders between life and death, and the limitations of our consciousness. Artists include Tania Candiani, Yin-Ju Chen, Gina Czarnecki / John Hunt, Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand, Nick Laessing, Nahum Mantra, Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Helen Pynor and Sarah Sparkes, who will exhibit both new commissions and existing works as part of the exhibition, including a car fuelled by water, a ghost mimicking a robot, and portraits made of skin cells. This celebration of art and science offers visitors the opportunity to learn more about the artworks on display in an Artist Talk, where a number of the show’s artists will discuss their practices, followed by a panel discussion with curator La Frenais.
There will also be opportunities to participate in the event Voyage: A session for remembering, where artist Nahum Mantra uses hypnosis to explore the possibilities of producing an intimate experience of travelling to the Moon. In another workshop, Yin-Ju Chen will be teaching us the art of tarot cards, introducing mystic symbols to encourage participants to develop their trust in their intuition.
FACT is supported using public funding by Arts Council England, and Liverpool City Council. Day of Collisions coincides with the opening of new exhibition No Such Thing as Gravity, which is supported by Arts at CERN, Liverpool University, Taiwanese Ministry of Culture, and The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in London. The Roy Stringer Memorial Lecture is sponsored by Amaze.
Art & Science Day itinerary:
Galleries open 11am – 8pm for the opening of new exhibition No Such Thing as Gravity.
8am – 10am: Networking Breakfast
An opportunity to meet with colleagues from across the art and science sectors ahead of the day’s events. FREE / The Garden at FACT
11am – 11.15 Welcome by Mike Stubbs, Director at FACT and Monica Bello, Head of Arts at CERN
FREE / The Box
11.15am – 12.30pm: No Such Thing as Gravity Artist Talk
The No Such Thing as Gravity artists will discuss their work in the exhibition, followed by a panel discussion with the exhibition’s curator Rob La Frenais. FREE (booking required) / The Box
1pm – 2pm: Nahum Mantra Performance: Voyage: A session for remembering
In the workshop Voyage: A session for remembering, artist Nahum Mantra uses hypnosis to explore the possibilities of producing an intimate experience of travelling to the Moon. FREE (limited places available – booking required) / The Box
2pm – 3pm: CERN roundtable discussion
South Korean artist Yunchul Kim, the winner of the COLLIDE International Award – a new collaboration between CERN and FACT – and the CERN scientist Kim will partner with will discuss Kim’s residency project Cascade and their experience of, and the possibilities for, art and science collaboration in a roundtable discussion. Presented by Monica Bello, Head of Arts at CERN. FREE (booking required) / The Box
3.30pm – 4.30pm: Yin-Ju Chen Performance: Tarot Card workshop
Yin-Ju Chen will teach us the art of tarot cards, introducing mystic symbols to encourage participants to develop their trust in their intuition. FREE (limited places available – booking required) / The Box
4.30pm – 6pm: Roy Stringer Memorial Lecture 2016
Introduced by Mike Stubbs, Director at FACT, and Amaze Head of Digital Operations Services, Amanda Follit, writer, political commentator and broadcaster Will Self will give a typically provocative lecture on the relationship between art and science. The event will conclude with a Q&A session with the audience. £10.50+booking fee/ Screen 1
6pm – 8pm: Public preview of No Such Thing as Gravity
Official opening of the new ambitious exhibition No Such Thing as Gravity, exploring the ever-changing limits of science, through art. FREE / Throughout the FACT building
6pm – 7pm: Nahum Mantra Performance: Voyage: A session for remembering
In the workshop Voyage: A session for remembering, artist Nahum Mantra uses hypnosis to explore the possibilities of producing an intimate experience of travelling to the Moon. FREE (limited places available – booking required) / The Box
7pm – 7.15pm: No Such Thing as Gravity Opening Speeches
Speeches by FACT’s Director Mike Stubbs and VIP speakers to mark the opening of No Such Thing as Gravity. FREE / The Box