Para-lab Artists and Scientists workshop

Para-Lab and MIDAS collaboration

In January, the MIDAS team and artists from Para-lab came together for a half-day workshop. The upcoming collaboration will allow all participants to develop their understanding of the interrelationship between science and creativity.

Para-lab facilitates collaborations between artists and scientists, working in parallel to, but independently of, research institutions. For example, Para-lab has previously collaborated with University of Manchester scientists, including researchers from the MIDAS group resulting in projects such as the small moss collider. 

Introduction to Para-lab members

At the workshop, speakers introduced themselves and their practice, including Andrew Wilson, Margaret O’Brien, Anthony Hall and Sophy King. Following an introduction to para lab and their work, researchers and artists exchanged knowledge using a physical object related to their research or practice. Each participant had a few minutes in smaller groups to explain their object and work. They then worked collaboratively to place all objects into an order decided by the group. This allowed participants to explore the unexpected and diffuse connections between their work outside of disciplinary boundaries. Members of the MIDAS team and guests from other groups and disciplines brought a breadth of scientific expertise to discussions. The groups were invited to present their arrangements to the workshop in a mini-showcase of their discussion.

This new series of workshops will produce new works and fresh perspectives taking inspiration from contemporary art and scientific research. The upcoming series aims to break down disciplinary siloing of knowledge, allowing art and science into conversation and provoking participants to produce novel ideas intermixing artistic and scientific creativity.

Finding connections, (left to right) a fossilised stick, a book of crystallography, a manuscript image of St Æthelthryth, a nuclear fuel rod, and a paper produced at CERN.