the-BA : Randomness and Certainty

How does being a scientist influence your understanding of life? Experience Randomness and Certainty, a new media artwork which juxtaposes hundreds of sound clips of interviews with scientists against a backdrop of imagery. Does context affect meaning? The screening will be followed by a panel discussion addressing the issues raised. What is it like to be a scientist in today’s society?

Randomness and Certainty is a time-based new media work exploring how context affects meaning. To create the piece, scientists from all fields were asked to describe their work and to answer the question, “How has your experience as a scientist influenced your personal understanding of life?” Segments from these interviews are included in a Flash-based installation in which they appear juxtaposed at random. They are heard over imagery relating to science, nature and man-made phenomena including images provided by the scientists themselves.

Since each time a particular interview segment is heard it appears with different images, the significance of what the scientist is saying is continually being modified. To what degree this affects what the scientist is saying is core to Randomness and Certainty, as is the tension between the subjective and the objective.

The world premiere of the installation version of this project was shown with full screen graphics, projected onto a large screen and was followed by a discussion of issues that the project seeks to explore.

Panel:
Shini Somarathne, science presenter
R. Beau Lotto, neuroscientist, University College London
Mark Lythgoe, neuroscientist, Institute of Child Health

This event is a collaboration between artafterscience (artist Zev Robinson and computer programmer Adrian Marshall), Barbara Zanditon and the BA.

Randomness and Certainty took place at the Dana Centre in October 2006.

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