The collaboration that generated this work seeks to move beyond the usual arts/science conversations that are typically limited to written text and verbal discussion. Our approach is to try to integrate scientific and artistic practises, engaging in applied research, experimentation, and collaboration on outputs that can be visual, material, or experiential. We try to break down the ‘barbarism of specialisation’ [1] that motivates artists and scientists to remain within the comfort zones of their own disciplines and to avoid trying to communicate with each other. We seek to reduce the separation of the ‘two cultures’[2] through better understanding of the ways in which scientists and artists can work together.
[1] Jose Ortega y Gasset Revolt of the Masses (1930).
[2] CP Snow The Two Cultures. 50th Anniversary printing, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Sleep/Wake Theatre
2008 Wellington Fringe Festival
2009 Auckland Festival of the Arts
2015 La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, New York
https://theplaygroundnz.com/sleepwake/
The Waking Incubator (2010)
In this intensive 8-day workshop devised and lead by Sam and Philippa, 6 artists and 5 scientists worked together with access to a theatre space and a time isolation laboratory with technical support at both venues. The resulting exhibition was presented at the ArtSci Satellite of the XXXIV Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Neuroscience and Behaviour in Caxambu (2010) and at the World Sleep Congress in Kyoto (2011).
Collaborators: Professor Jean Flemming (Science Communicator/Reproductive Biologist); Dr Rosemary Gibson (Sleep Psychologist); Brent Harris (Live Artist); Professor Sally Morgan (Performance Artist/Painter); Anne Niemetze (Media Artist); Professor Anne Noble (Photographer); Dr Karyn O'Keeffe (Sleep Physiologist); Russell Scoones (Composer/Musician/Music Therapist); Dr Guy Warman (Chronobiologist); Professor Anna Wirz Justice (Chronobiologist).
It is virtually impossible to come out of the intersection ’the white space between the disciplines’ without a vastly expanded set of future opportunities, regardless of whether the actual idea was a success or a failure.’
Frans Johansson, The Medici Effect, Havard Business School Press (2006)
