The blending of cutting-edge biological research with live musical performance
Cellular Dynamics, a unique performance event that blends cutting-edge biological research with live musical performance, was showcased recently in Hong Kong at the brand-new British Council Festival of Ideas, SPARK.
Developed as a collaborative project between University of Kent colleagues Professor Dan Lloyd, Deputy Head of the School of Biosciences, and Daniel Harding, Deputy Director of University Music, Cellular Dynamics explores the visual culture emerging from cutting-edge research from the School of Biosciences and takes audiences on a journey of musical and scientific discovery about the fundamental processes within living cells.
Pianist Linda Yim will perform the music of Philip Glass, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and others, while Professor Lloyd will accompany the performance by directing a projection of spectacular research-derived images and videos in order to deepen our understanding of cell division, ageing, neurodegeneration, and infection.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Professor Lloyd described the event and how he hoped it would inspire audiences:
“We’ve got some really nice intersection between what is happening artistically and what’s being presented scientifically. That has been a really interesting process where I feel much more part of the fabric of the artistic process as well as the scientific one.”
“I love the idea that [audiences] go home and they’re asking questions about science and they’re wondering what they saw and they’re inspired, and sometimes moved by what they’re seeing,” he says. “[These things] are happening in my body at this time, at such a microscopic level, and it is being presented there as a visual accompanied by this music. That is my inspiration – that people go home and develop this questioning culture.”
Cellular Dynamics was performed at SPARK on 19th and 20th January 2019 and was recommended by Hong Kong website, localiiz, as one of the 6 Things Not To Miss at the festival.