Exhibition: Testing Ground
Testing Ground
From Tuesday 20 September 2022
Testing Ground is an exhibition of five collaborative projects between King’s College London researchers and creative practitioners, it reveals how conversations between artists, researchers, and wider communities can change the ways we think about and engage with the world around us.
You can explore their work by visiting Testing Ground at Science Gallery from Tuesday 20 September 2022, for more information about visiting the gallery please click here.
These projects have been developed through King’s Artists, a residency scheme which places artists within faculties across the university. Learn more about them here.
Healthy Scepticism
Who? Caitjan Gainty from the History Department at King’s College London, and Agnes Arnold-Forster from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. With partners Centric Community Research, as well as film-maker Rita Conry, one of the project’s artistic collaborators.
What is it about? Healthy Scepticism is a multi-disciplinary project that seeks to map and understand the role of scepticism in medicine, both past and present. It brings the history of medical scepticism into conversation with community researchers in Brixton and artists working in film, photography and printmaking. These multiple viewpoints amplify the voices of people that have been placed – or placed themselves – outside of the medical mainstream, and shine a light on how listening to these voices can help promote positive, inclusive and effective healthcare change
What is it? Healthy Scepticism is an installation of portrait photographs and video interviews with Brixton residents, along with documentary videos about UTIs and screen prints that have been created in interactive workshops.
Particle Shrine
Who? Teppei Katori from the Department of Physics at King’s College London with musician and composer Christo Squier and creative technologist Chris Ball.
What is it about? Cosmic rays are high energy particles that shoot through space, colliding with molecules in the atmosphere and showering the Earth with other tiny particles such as muons and neutrinos.
The installation takes live data from five cosmic ray detectors installed at Science Gallery and from the Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory in Japan to transform these invisible particles into an audio-visual experience like no other.
What is it? Particle Shrine is an installation where light and sound is created from live data via five cosmic ray detectors. Alongside the work, you can watch a video interview with the artist and collaborators to learn more about them and the work they do.
Additional event: Christo, Teppei and their musical collaborators will be performing at an evening event at Science Gallery London on 21st October, that you can book for free here.
Seeing the Unthinkable
Who? James Millen from the Department of Physics at King’s College London with artist Steve Claydon.
What is it about? Their installation features diamond nanoparticles visibly levitating in a ‘trap’ produced by an electrical field. The housing for the experiment that Steve has created emphasises ideas of artistic, cultural and historical ‘value’. The installation invites you to consider how the ‘spectacle’ of science contains meanings and significance beyond the scientific.
What is it? Seeing the Unthinkable is an installation that shows diamond particles floating that are created by an electric field.
Testing, Testing
Who? Francesca Happé from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London and artistic practitioner Peter Shenai.
What is it about? Neurodiversity describes the natural variation in how people think, process information and emotions, and interact with the world. This includes the average or ‘norm’, described as ‘neurotypical’, and ‘neurodivergent’ processing styles such as autism and ADHD.
Their collaboration challenges traditional and neurotypical perceptions of ‘intelligence’ by exploring the history of visual intelligence tests and subverting their conventions in a series of interactive displays, mock tests and a short animation.
What is it? Testing, Testing is an installation of animation, large scale collage as well as interactive tests.
The SIM Project
Who? Dr Zeena Feldman from the Digital Humanities Department at King’s College London and artist/anthropologist Liz Hingley with jewellery designer Sofie Boons and Frank Menger of the Centre for Print Research, UWE.
What is it about? The SIM Project views the SIM card as a precious portrait of intimate relationships that connects the vast majority of the world’s population. Interactive workshops are at the core of the SIM Project and lead its direction. Small groups of invited participants explore how the SIM card shapes their sense of identity and community. Through a process using early 19th century photographic methods, digital imagery and silversmithing, participants disrupt the automated nature of smartphone production and create a unique, wearable artwork.
What is it? The SIM Project shares a display of cameos that were created in interactive workshops, as wearable artworks in the shape of SIM cards, stamped with QR codes. They are on display in both their physical form as small intimate pieces of jewellery as well as light box images that capture the details of the pieces with the hands that made them.