Jean Balchin • May 11, 2017 •
A pastel portrait of Gunner John Dyson by Henry Tonks in 1917, depicting the pioneering skill of Harold Gillies’s surgery. As an art history student, I am often asked to describe or praise artworks I’m not particularly fond of. This strangely captivating pastel portrait is not one of them. It reminds me of a softer Egon Schiele portrait, or deftly … Read More
Public Health Expert • Apr 12, 2017 •
Jenny Ombler, Dr Sarah Donovan (University of Otago, Wellington) Last month was the first time that the Public Health Summer School (University of Otago, Wellington) has considered art, and its relationship to public health. The Symposium featured artists, arts academics, an architect, and public health practitioners and academics. In this blog we consider some of the issues raised … Read More
Guest Work • Jan 01, 2017 •
French artist-provocateur Marcel Duchamp may have been on to something when he displayed a commercially-manufactured urinal signed by ‘R. Mutt’ as ‘art’ in his famous 1917 work ‘Fountain’, if a Dutch study published in September is anything to go by. The scientists say that just believing something is ‘art’ can completely change the way we perceive and respond … Read More
Guest Work • Dec 16, 2015 •
Harriet Hawkins, Royal Holloway Something needs to be done about climate change, that much at least 196 countries agree on. But as the next weeks, months and years see politicians, scientists and industry thrashing out what the “first comprehensive global treaty to combat climate change” means in practice, we collectively face some tough questions. The wrangling … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Aug 07, 2015 •
The first issue of Lateral Magazine is out. It features—what else—‘firsts’: “from childhood memories to the first world war, to breakthroughs in human genome editing to our first close look at Pluto, to the origins of science fiction cinema.” Categories include Art & Popular Culture, Life Science, Physical Science, Society & Education, and Philosophy … Read More
Aaron Schiff • Apr 08, 2015 •
The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index reflects health, education, and income levels for most countries of the world over time. As part of the Cartagena Data Festival, the UN is running a competition for visualisations of the HDI data. I decided to put together an entry, which you can play with here. The […] … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Mar 05, 2015 •
Saturday the 14th of March sees the debut of thinkScience*, a mini-festival of science being held as part of the Auckland Arts Festival family weekend and White Night. We may be starting small, but we have something for everyone! Interested in things that go whiz/bang or got any kids or grandkids that are? Then ‘Nanogirl’ Michelle Dickinson’s … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Jan 22, 2015 •
Last year I collaborated with artist Rebecca Klee for the Art in the Dark festival, held in Auckland, New Zealand, each year. Our piece, called Biolumination, featured several litres of glowing bacteria, some custom-made glass tubes and three aquarium pumps. A big thanks to Benj from Gather and Hunt who shot some … Read More
Ken Perrott • Aug 11, 2014 •
Saw this photo on the Guardian – see Accidental Renaissance: the photos that look like Italian paintings. The author says: “Currently doing the rounds on Twitter is the image below, taken from Facebook by artist James Harvey, whose tweet has been shared thousands of times. It depicts one of the fairly frequent brawls in Ukrainian parliament which, while undoubtedly … … Continue reading … Read More
Michael Edmonds • Apr 27, 2014 •
I came across several blogs (e.g. here and here) reporting that a kindergarten in New York has cancelled its students art show as it is more important to prepare students for college and their future careers. At first I thought this must be a hoax but some websites are claiming that the letter sent to parents and caregivers … Read More