Public Events Listing: February 2015

 

Get rid of the winter blues by enjoying our selection of public events – many of them funded by our engaging science team. You don’t even have to leave the house to enjoy some of them, as we’ve some funded TV shows coming up in the TV schedules soon!

Film and TV

Mr Alzheimers and Me – CBBC Channel – 5.30pm, 4th Feb
The Bafta award-winning and critically acclaimed documentary series My Life returns to CBBC. Mr Alzheimers And Me follows three young people who tell their very personal stories of living with grandparents who have dementia. You can watch a trailer for the programme on YouTube.

The Secret Life of Four Year Olds – Channel 4 – 8pm, 10^th February
This observational documentary captures every exchange and all the raw emotion when a group of 4 year olds meet for the very first time in a specially equipped nursery. They are monitored by scientists – educational neuroscientist Dr Paul Howard-Jones (Bristol University) and developmental psychologist Dr Sam Wass (MCR Cognition & Brain Unit, Cambridge) – who provide insight to this pivotal developmental stage.

Ming of Harlem and Outlandish – Tate Modern – 6.30-9pm, 18th February
Screening of Phillip Warnell’s Ming of Harlem and Outlandish as part of the Tate Modern’s new film programme featuring individual artists. Ming of Harlem tells the account of Antoine Yates who cohabited in his high-rise apartment in Harlem with an alligator and a tiger called Ming for several years. Outlandish: Strange Foreign Bodies, will also be shown. The screening will be followed by a discussion between the artist and Jean-Pierre Rehm, Director of the FIDMarseille-International Film Festival Marseille.

Events

I Like Dreaming – Manchester Central Library – 4th February
A selection of short archive films exploring the crossover between art, bohemia and LGBT sexuality through a love of dreaming, fantasy, dressing up and going out. This unique 60 minute programme includes Kenneth Anger’s ‘Puce Moment’ (1949) in which a woman prepares for a walk by trying on gowns; James Scott’s ‘Love’s presentation’ (1966) about David Hockney’s etchings inspired by Greek poet CP Cavafy; plus a selection from the North West Film Archive. Curated by Erinma Ochu, a Wellcome Engagement Fellow.

GenomeSeqWeek – London – 9th-12th February
A week of events exploring how whole genome sequencing could impact your future.
The future of genomics – 9th February, 7-8pm: Follow @GeneticAll_UK on Twitter to hear journalist and broadcaster Vivian Parry OBE and bioethicist Dr Anna Middleton discuss breakthroughs in genetics over the past 50 years, and what the future holds.
Do you really want to know? – 10th February, 6.30-9pm: A screening at Genesis Cinema in Mile End of an award-winning documentary about three families who must decide whether or not to be tested for Huntington’s disease.
Launch of Genetic Alliance UK’s Patient Charter – 11th February: Find out what patients think by following the policy discussion live online.
Will genomic data be used or abused? – 12th February, 7-9pm: An evening of discussion and debate around how our personal genetic data could be used.

The Future of mental health: MQ Research Showcase – 11am-12.30pm, 5^th February
Places available at launch event for MQ: Transforming Mental Health’s first Annual Science Meeting. Leading experts, including new MQ Fellows will be presenting cutting-edge research aimed at improving the prevention, treatment, and understanding of mental illness. They will be joined by guest speaker, Professor Shitij Kapur, Dean of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King’s College London. Following the presentations, there will be a Q&A session and debate: ‘why mental health research matters’. To reserve a place contact info@joinmq.org

Can you train your brain? – Live Science at the Who am I? Gallery, Science Museum – until 12th February
Take part in a Live Science project exploring which level of difficulty in a video game is best for different age groups and help researchers from King’s College London develop video games designed to boost children’s attention span and improve their self-control.

Val McDermid in Conversation – 7-8pm, 26^th February
Inimitable crime writer Val McDermid will be in conversation about her book Forensics: The anatomy of crime, with author and journalist Erica Wagner. Produced to complement the exhibition, the book delves deeper into the mysteries of forensic science by drawing on interviews with top-level professionals and fascinating cases from history, from Jack the Ripper to the Madrid train bombings. This event is supported by BSL interpretation.

Performances

Phoenix Dance: Tearfall – various venues – 11th February-28th May
Tearfall is an exploration of science through dance, inspired by the biochemical make up of tears, and how their appearance and composition is affected by different emotional states. Developed in collaboration with Sir John Holman – part of the Trust’s Education Team – Tearfall looks at the differences between how tears function and how they are perceived, asking why we cry, and what happens when we laugh until we cry. The tour begins on 11th February at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Sexology Songwriting – online from 15^th February
Young people from across the country have teamed up with sex researchers and musicians in a project for people aged 16+ to combine sex research and songwriting as part of the Sexology Season. They have conducted their own research, which has inspired the songwriting process, and will be performing their songs at The Roundhouse in London. From 15th February 2015 you’ll be able to hear the songs inspired by this research when you visit The Institute of Sexology exhibition and online.

Festivals

SMASHfestUK – Deptford – 14th-22nd February
A brand new science and arts festival for young people, SMASHfestUK is piloting in South East London during the February half-term holidays, and is supported by a People Award. The festival is themed around a gripping story in which an asteroid is on a collision course with Planet Earth and a zombie invasion ensues. Real life visitors will have the chance to plan for Armageddon, whether it’s preparing to go underground at our Survival Supermarket Sweep, or singing for your lives at Armageddon Open Mic. SMASHfestUK aims to widen participation and build diversity in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) by engaging young people and hard to reach audiences.

Sexology Season – Brighton, Manchester, Glasgow – February-March
An eclectic national season will link events taking place inside and outside of Wellcome Collection’s London exhibition. The Sexology Season includes three programmes in Manchester, Brighton and Glasgow incorporating live performance, films, salons, archives, talks and literature events.

Exhibitions

The Institute of Sexology – Wellcome Collection – Until 20^th September
From Alfred Kinsey’s complex questionnaires to the contemporary National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), The Institute of Sexology investigates how the practice of sex research has shaped our ever-evolving attitudes towards sexual behaviour and identity. The exhibition is free, but timed tickets will be in operation at busy times.

History is now: 7 artists take on Britain – Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre – 10th Feb-26th April
In the first ever exhibition in an art gallery to investigate bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and its impact, Turner Prize nominee Roger Hiorns curates a section of History Is Now at the Hayward Gallery. Hiorns provides an artistic exploration of the disease and its human equivalent, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) incorporating biomedicine, agriculture, animal husbandry, food production and consumption.

A Cancer Landscape – ONCA Gallery, Brighton – 16th – 28th February
A Cancer Landscape is a collaborative exhibition, led by Sussex Community NHS Trust, presenting emotional cancer images that depict the paintings of artist Michele Angelo Petrone alongside physical, bio medical, diagnostic images from the Wellcome Medical Photographic Library. Also featured within the exhibition are the personal artworks of people affected by cancer, created during a series of workshops held at ONCA in 2014.

Forensics: The anatomy of crime – Wellcome Collection – 26^th February – 21^st June
Forensics: The anatomy of crime explores the history, science and art of forensic medicine. It travels from crime scenes to courtrooms, exploring the specialisms of the people involved in the delicate processes of collecting, analysing and presenting medical evidence. The exhibition draws out the stories of victims, suspects, and investigators of violent crimes, and explores our enduring cultural fascination with death and detection. The exhibition is free, but timed tickets will be in operation at busy times.

Investment – Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool – until 15th March
Tabitha Moses’ exhibition, ‘Investment’, has been extended again until March due a great response from visitors. The exhibition is based on Tabitah’s experience of infertility, assisted conception, and successful donor egg IVF.

Coming up

SICK! Festival – Manchester and Brighton – 2nd-25th March
SICK! is a festival that confronts the challenges of life and death, challenges that are sometimes rooted in bodies and minds that fail us, and sometimes in the complexities of living as members of an imperfect society. Supported by a People Award, the 2015 programme has a focus on issues of sex and sexuality, abuse and suicide, and includes dance, film, literature, debates, talks, discussions and performances.

Fiction – Battersea Arts Centre – 3rd-21st March
Fiction is the second performance by Glen Neath and David Rosenberg using binaural sound and absolute darkness. It is an anxious journey through the sprawling architecture of our dreams and an exercise in empathy.

Biophilia – London Electronic Arts Festival – 6th March
Bjork’s Biophilia Live will be screened at the London Electronic Arts Festival  as part of ‘Beats on Film’, and will be followed by a panel talk: ‘Technology and Electronic Music: Past, Present and Future’, with Will Gregory (Goldfrapp), Freida Abtan (Music Computing, Goldsmiths), and Guy Harries (Music Technology, UEL). The film was supported by a Small Arts Award.

Unseen: The Lives of Looking – The Queen’s House, Greenwich, 5th March-26th July
Contemporary artist Dryden Goodwin creates his first feature-length film, considering the act of looking. Charting a series of close encounters by the artist, the film focuses on three individuals with a particular relationship to looking: a planetary explorer, an eye surgeon and a human rights lawyer; the artist’s own gaze reflects on their endeavours, through his intense drawing and filmmaking activity. The solo exhibition will include drawings produced during the production of the film, as well as artefacts used by all four lookers in their work.