May 16, 2012
Wearable Technogloy Workshop
This summer we are collaborating with tech artists MzTEK to create the world’s first Hacked Human Orchestra! Together we are transforming rags to riches, blending soft fabric electronics with creative technologists to produce a mobile electronic human orchestra.
MzTEK is a nonprofit collective with the aim of encouraging women artists to pick up technical skills in the fields of new media, computer arts, and technology. Together we will be hosting a workshop for women to come and learn how to create a musical instrument in a wearable technology workshop with guest electronic engineers.
When: June 30th, 11am
Where: The Centre for Creative Collaboration, 16 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NG
In the second act, later this summer at Wilderness and Shambala we will hack these instruments into outfits, stitching synths into shirts, turning trousers into trumpets and redesigning dresses into drums. For the final act, we will assemble en masse for an impromptu orchestral performance unlike any other, led by composer Florian Lunaire who will score our singular soundtrack as we wind our way throughout the festival.
This event is generously sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Paint The City
Ever dreamed of paint bombing the Gherkin?
Join engineers from Buro Happold to build a giant catapult and take aim at a target range of our city’s most iconic buildings. With the help of engineering expertise, learn to construct a medieval weapon of warfare, and see who can fling their paint-filled missiles the farthest. Come help us make an even bigger mess of a demolished site in East London.
When: June 23rd and 24th, 11am-4pm
Where: Just opposite the Canning Town Underground Station on a development site between Silvertown Way and Clarkson Road (formerly Montesquieu Estate), London, E16 1EA.
The event is powered by Industri[us], a collaborative action that reworks and revalues former waste products, transforming them into objects that are useful and desirable – check out their awesome short video about the project here. All catapults will be made from upcycled materials gathered from around Newham. If you would like to donate materials or indeed models to our reconfigured ‘London’ please contact Clare (clare@industri-us.org) or Kat (kat@industrius.org).
Part of the London Festival of Architecture.
December 1, 2011
Intergalactic Travel Bureau @ BBC Stargazing
Come find us at our Intergalactic Travel Bureau at Stargazing LIVE, hosted by the BBC in Charlton Park in Greenwich, London, this Tuesday January 16, 2012.
Read more about what our friendly agents will have in store for you in this New Scientist write-up of the last time our bureau was open for business, at the Royal Astronomers’ Ball in October.
November 27, 2010
Secret science in the cuckoo’s nest
As the nights got longer we left our summer themes of hedonism, escape and the wonders of the universe behind, choosing instead to delve into the history of psychiatry and our states of mind with the folk @Secret Cinema.
Getting acquainted with the psychosurgical side of mid-20th century psychiatric practices was eye-opening and downright disturbing. We interviewed practicing psychiatrists who had personal experience of actually administering ECT from the 1970s to now about their experiences. Responses ranged from “it’s horrible to administer” to “we only use it as a last resort,” but ultimately “we can’t deny that in some cases it is life-saving.”
Listen to Maurice and Mark share their thoughts on ECT.
In the context of the film, ECT was used as punishment – no anaesthetic, no muscle relaxant, no consent. These humane touches were developed in later on. Mark informed us that seizures induced by electricity applied to the brain could sometimes result in a broken spine as back muscles (the most powerful in the body) contracted so hard they fractured vertebrae…
Doctor Jon as seen through the waiting room blind
The connotations between this use of electricity for punishment (as seen in the film) make ECT seem very dark indeed. As to exactly how ECT works, a range of theories exist, but no one is really sure. Our investigations into lobotomy practices of the period to inform our lobotomy training session were even more worrying…
0