July 20, 2010
Guerilla Highlights @ Lovebox
This past weekend we’ve been Lovebox guerillas in Victoria Park dressed variously as a banana, gorilla, scientist or spaceman. Based in and around the Catflap curated by madcap duo Bearded Kitten and hosted by the tutu-glitter clad Ben Watson, we wowed the crowds and they wowed us. Mutual wowing was much appreciated.
Special kudos must go to Andrew Szydlo, the best chemistry teacher you could possibly ever want. Helped by his former assistant and pupil Ben Dives, Dr Szydlo blew up plastic bottles filled with liquid nitrogen in dustbins, played violin music to change the colour of water, and drank liquid nitrogen. All the while talking about the chemistry of explosions, colour and how to make a ping pong cannon. We kid you not. He is amazing! We love him.
Other highlights included an investigation into the psychological and physiological experience of pain with the formidable Vivid Angel, who literally jumped on broken glass without wincing (though it seems that most of the audience were doing this on her behalf).
The talented Vid Warren lent his beatboxing and recorder skills to the bigger and better flame tube to help guerilla scientist Steve visualise sound in new ways, and designer Nelly Ben enabled Loveboxers to lift off! in her specially designed rocket chair alongside planetary scientist Sheila Kansani.
Jelly brain dissection also went down a treat, as did other investigations into the brain with neuroscientists Jessica Grahn and Adrian Owen. These ranged from discussions about brain scanning people in comas to the effect of music on the brain.
Look out for our charming biohackers in the next issue of GQ : designer Tuur van Balen and syn bio specialist James Chappell biohacked beer especially for Lovebox festival-goers in a simulation of synthetic biology.
A liars picnic, an A to Z of X and Y (the gender spectrum) with psychologists Polly Carmichael and Vicki Holt brought the intense weekend to a finish with a pink flourish.
More photos here.
By Jen
One Comment
I am really sad I missed this. It sounds amazing!