Recently the Colyer Ferguson auditorium hosted a performance of the Cellular Dynamics project, a collaboration between the School of Biosciences and the Music department that blurs the line between science and art. A series of impressive images depicting cutting edge research in a laboratory environment, stand out due to their unusual composition and framing. The images were aligned with a carefully selected musical repertoire featuring Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass in a brilliant performance where music meets science. Originally a piano performance, on the evening it was performed by the University Cecilian Choir and String Sinfonia. Far from a simple music performance, this was an immersive experience – a performance where a choral mass related to scientific projections. The images were divided into sets corresponding to the four titles of the individual movements of the central music piece, Sunrise Mass, comprising The Spheres, Sunrise, Identity and The City. The themes are quite different from the images you would expect from a laboratory environment; however, once again, the creativity that was put into this project proved that there is indeed a connection between science and art. The projections reflected these themes perfectly and matched the music effortlessly in this unique performance.
The original piano version of Cellular Dynamics has been selected as part of the programme for the Cheltenham Festival (June), the Norwich Science Festival (October), and the Hong Kong Festival of Ideas (January 2019). There will be a two-week installation of the images at Beach Creative gallery in Herne Bay during the summer of 2018.
This wonderful project is a collaboration between a group led by Dr. Dan Lloyd in the School of Biosciences (PhD student Matt Badham, postdocs Dr. Karen Baker, Dr. Susi Schroeder) and Dan Harding from the Department of Music.