Wow - 3 days working at Kings on the Development Neuro
Academy Summer school. I ran a couple of workshops on day 1, exploring how to
navigate the tricky issue of team building through DNA, and developing ways of
communicating abstract concepts through anatomical models. It's a true pleasure
working with such fantastic, thoughtful people. Day 2 was awesome, I was part
of two workshops - one looking at data analysis of brain cells and thinking
about how we read information and the other, exploring how cells in the brain
come to exist and change by hypothetically building one in a dish! Really
enjoyed the mental gymnastics. It allowed me to reflect on and rethink some
current work and led to revelations on how to develop my own practice. I was
able to bring to the table ideas of ethics and practical concerns about bias
and prejudice. Superb discussions ensued. It was wonderful to be valued as an
educator and to learn from students, experiences that are rare. I wasn't able
to attend the whole week due to having to attend graduation and working on
timetables for next year at Norwich. But I was straight back for the
celebration and sharing on Friday after a day of admin on Thursday. The whole
day was an extraordinary experience. The focused energy of the enquiring
students was so infectious and a real pleasure and privilege to be part of. The
film is made up of one of the outcomes from day one. The brightly coloured
models come from my DNA workshop, building self-similar sets.
Saturday was all about exhibitions - dropped into
South London gallery to see Firelei Báez’s Sueño de
la Madrugada (A Midnight’s Dream) - there is some interesting works on 'found' papers and a
large installation. Sid and Jim had a couple of great works in Hot in
Here at The Bomb Factory. I particularly loved we're still everything
we always were. The work was both funny and poignant - a sculpture of a
melted ice sculpture, in theory created by their childhood selves imagining
what they would look like as adults - a great idea.
