Rencontres entre l’artiste Alistair McClymont et le physicien Ceri Brenner

An evening event with Alistair McClymont and Ceri Brenner about working together with high-energy lasers

Alistair McClymont recently completed a three-month residency at the Central Laser Facility – an opportunity made possible by The Arts Catalyst with Artquest.  Alistair’s previous work has included making night-time rainbows, suspending raindrops in mid-air and creating tornadoes with deceptively simple machines. A UK based artist working in sculpture, photography and video, McClymont describes these as ‘phenomena’ artworks, in which he tries to capture natural, often overlooked occurrences and evoke a sense of wonder.

He will be discussing his work and time spent at the CLF inkling working with scientists on experiments both as an outsider and insider and how this has influenced his practice.

The Central Laser Facility (CLF) produces some of the world’s most powerful light beams, providing scientists with an unparalleled range of state-of-the-art laser technology. These high powered lasers are used to recreate the extreme conditions inside stars and planets, others can reveal intricate detail on a microscopic scale enabling scientists to build up a complex picture of the exact molecular interactions that lead to disease.  The CLF also uses laser beam ‘tweezers’ capable of holding individual micro-droplets that make up clouds helping scientists gain an insight into climate change.

Making a Universe explores artistic and scientific practices that deal with contained and extreme environments

Artist Alistair McClymont creates poetic machines that contain ‘natural’ environments, making a universe of their own.  Scientists similarly create miniature stars that imitate the birth of stars.

Speakers

Dr Ceri Brenner is a Physicist who enjoys communicating the extreme and inspiring science that she and others carry out at the Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Ceri’s role at the CLF spans research, innovation and communication. In particular, she is studying a form of micro-sized particle accelerator that is formed when the most intense laser light in the world strikes matter, for applications in medicine, manufacturing and security. Ceri will discuss her work, research interests and her experience of having an artist working amongst scientists. She has been closely involved in facilitating the artists’ residency and will also give an introduction to the high energy density experiment on the Gemini laser that Alistair took part in during his residency.

Alistair McClymont as artist in residence has been following a team of scientists working with the Gemini Laser at the CLF studying different aspects of laser interaction. He describes the project, « My goal with this project is to investigate the strong similarity I see between scientists and artists, I wanted to do this by taking part in their experiment. My hypothesis is that both ultimately search for truth and both see beauty in that truth.

Makerversity
Somerset House
Victoria Embankment, West Goods Entrance
London
WC2R 1LA
UK

03/12/2014
6pm (doors) 6.30 talks start

More information : www.artscatalyst.org