The virtual ART + SCIENCE reading group
Science Gallery Dublin’s PhD researcher Autumn Brown talks about the Art + Science Reading Group, a collaboration between Science Gallery Dublin and the Trinity Long Room Hub.
The Art + Science Reading Group
Autumn Brown is the co-founder of the Art + Science Reading Group, a now-virtual cafe where researchers, artists and thinkers come to share ideas. Together with PhD candidate Amelia McConvillea, she organises a virtual space that explores the ways art and science shape one another and society. The initiative is supported by Science Gallery Dublin and the Trinity Long Room Hub.
During each session, the group discusses an article and an artwork alongside a guest. The series invites people from a variety of backgrounds to shed light on the online discussion while providing a personal perspective to some of the work shared. Originally the group met in Science Gallery Dublin’s café and built up a core group of attendees through word-of-mouth. Presented with the challenges of Covid-19, the event moved to an online setting, creating an opportunity to open the virtual café doors even wider, reaching a global audience.
“We have the potential to provide our communities with science support which sees them explore, critique, and build the world they want to live in. ”
Anna Dumitriu, Plague Dress, 2018, installation view at the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave (Fred Ernst, 2018)
Autumn is the first PHD researcher funded to develop her work inside Science Gallery Dublin. Using the gallery as her laboratory, she explores how the future is imagined and created at the crossroads of art and science.
Her research is built around four critical case studies, including an artist residency partnership between Science Gallery and Accenture, and science engagement through zine-making, but now Autumn considers the Art + Science Reading Group her unofficial fifth case study. She finds it deeply gratifying to see people from different backgrounds, from all over the world, in real time, sharing ideas and considers being challenged by complete strangers on a monthly basis a valuable learning experience.
WHAT WERE THE BENEFITS AND IMPACTS?
▶ Inspiring academic choices
▶ Personal development
▶ Inspiring creativity
▶ Public engagement
▶ Engagement with real research
Sources: Interview with Autumn Brown, Science Gallery Dublin’s website
Compiled by: Jahitza Balaniuk, Science Gallery International 2020
Activity date: 2020