Creative Collaboration: Bringing Science and the Arts Together

Focusing on projects across the University of East Anglia, Norwich University of the Arts and the Norwich Research Park, you will hear how collaborations between science and the arts have helped scientists view their research from new perspectives, given artists fresh inspiration, and helped both researchers and artists engage with the public in exciting and innovative ways.

Recommended ages 12+

Watch live on YouTube and again for 7 days after the event

Set up a YouTube account and log in during the event to join the live chat where you can ask questions and share your thoughts!  

Please note that as this is an 'At Home' programme, some contributors may be joining us remotely, and as such the events will not be broadcast standard quality. If there are technical connection issues - please bear with us! Thank you.    

Speaker biographies

Dr Simone Immler (UEA Faculty of Science) is a research scientist in the School of Biological Sciences and Group Leader in Evolutionary Genetics, working with Phenotypica, ‘Interacting with genetics and evolution and being able to perturb the processes as they play out allows us to see the processes with our own eyes and form new understanding.    

Neus Torres Tamarit is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection between art, science and technology. Ben Murray is a researcher in artificial intelligence at King's College London, where his focus is deep learning applied to medical data. He works with Neus Torres Tamarit as part of Phenotypica, an initiative for art and science that they both created in 2016. Their objective is to create evocative artworks and immersive experiences about science that engender an emotional response so that audiences react to scientific concepts and practice as a human experience. They create immersive, interactive artworks about genetics, evolution and AI.

Jake Montanarini (UEA alumnus – Faculty of Arts and Humanities) is a game designer and lecturer at NUA. He has been working with UEA Faculty of Science PhD students, using game design skills to capture their research into analogue games. His work is about communication and designing something creative that allows the reader / player / audience to think about something in a different way. Games naturally give players a degree of agency over a topic and can increase engagement in what are usually quite complex narratives of research.

Laurie Kerr (PhD student at the Tyndall Centre for Change Research at UEA) is researching new mobility innovations for low-carbon alternatives to the use of the private car. Laurie focuses on the ‘adopters’ of these innovations, with the potential for the innovations to be adopted at scale by spreading through processes of social influence. Laurie’s research forms part of the ERC-funded ‘Social Influence and disruptive Low Carbon Innovations’ (SILCI) project.

Sarah Phillips has worked in a variety of public health laboratories for over ten years. Since moving to the Hall Laboratory at the Quadram Institute in 2017, she has participated in a range of public engagement events which involve scientists, artists and other local creatives working together to be able to engage others about the exciting research being conducted at the Quadram Institute.

Jennie Pedley is an artist and an NHS physiotherapist and has recently been working as artist in residence at the Quadram Institute at the Norwich Research Park. Her artwork explores issues concerning the health of the body and the environment. Her new film ‘Particulate Matters 2.5’ – commissioned by the Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck, London University – can be seen here as part of the exhibition ‘Lessons in Lockdown’ until Friday 6 November. It will then be available on her website. Made during lockdown, it uses the body as a setting for COVID-like forms crowned with domestic and natural objects, creating an intimate exploration of links between the pandemic and pollution.

Q&A lead by Dr Jenni Rant and Prof Anne Osbourn

Dr Jenni Rant began experimenting with different types of science communication whilst studying for her PhD at the John Innes Centre in 2005. During her time as a postdoctoral researcher she was able to combine outreach with her laboratory work. In 2012, after five years of volunteering for the Science Art and Writing (SAW) Trust, Jenni decided to take on a full time role as SAW programme manager.

Prof Anne Osbourn is a Group Leader at the John Innes Centre and Director of the Norwich Research Park Industrial Biotechnology Alliance. Anne founded the Science, Art and Writing (SAW) Trust, a cross-curricular science education outreach programme. The trust specialises in supporting scientists in the design and delivery of innovative public engagement projects working with professional artists and writers.

Find out more about how UEA's Faculty of Science equips students with the skills to succeed: https://echo360.org.uk/media/f822b646-4de0-4ff9-a85d-0a6f7cb770e7/public

Main image: Still from 'Particulate Matters 2.5' film by Jennie Pedley, commissioned by the Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck, University of London, 2020