In BRLSI News..

Searching for a shared mind at BRLSI

Experimental Multimedia (and multi-discipline) comes to the BRLSI this Friday February 12th at 2.30pm, as BRLSI's Chair of Trustees, Prof Julian Vincent (pictured), joins forces with Pavlov Experimental Medialab of Groningen, the Netherlands, in a performance workshop entitled Misdirection - the search for a shared mind between artists and scientists.

Julian Vincent explained how he got involved. "About 9 months ago, via a Dutch colleague, I was asked to take part in a SciArt event organised by Pavlov (www.pavlov.nl). They specialise in open-air, often anarchic, community events and in my instance they wanted to combine art and science, bringing ideas to people in unusual ways. I suggested origami and deployable structures as a theme, and after a little planning we staged an event in a piece of parkland in the middle of Groningen where I gave three short, themed, lectures and a designer and a musician filled in with two other presentations."

"The event was well received, and Nathalie Beekman (the ideas driver) asked me to be involved in another project, this time with with more advanced planning. Eventually I chose 'Misdirection' as the theme, developing an idea from The Selective Advantage of Art (the lecture/exhibition event given by Julian Vincent and artist David Lewis-Baker as part of last year's Darwin and Beyond BRLSI season) that patterned events lead you to expect a certain outcome."

Successful predictions
A biomechanical engineer as well as educator, Julian naturally looked for a practical benefit which visitors could get from the workshop. "I thought that if we could show how a pattern could deceive," he says, "then we could improve your ability to predict an outcome accurately, and so be more successful. To that end I've spent time in Groningen working with Mo Stoebe (a video artist) and Arnold Veekman (a composer) on a series of vignettes with several underlying and integrated patterns, some obvious, some only guessed at. We're hoping for reaction from, and discussion with, the audience, with us explaining our ideas and getting feedback on how we're achieving our aims."

Julian's role on the day is to provide a commentary, linking the visuals and sound into a coherent set of ideas and images. "Perhaps when we repeat this in the Netherlands," he says, "I'll be giving it in Dutch, in which case there'll be even more misdirection!" Entry to Misdirection - the search for a shared mind between artists and scientists is £4, or £2 for BRLSI members and students.

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