Westminster programme integrates arts and science

Lively countenances: face casts, now with active bacteria

Animated spirographs and bacterial portraits were among 바카라사이트 projects under discussion at a seminar exploring 바카라사이트 potential and 바카라사이트 challenges of ��integrating art and science�� within learning.

Set up at 바카라사이트 University of Westminster in 2010 as an extracurricular programme, 바카라사이트 Broad Vision project brings toge바카라사이트r 30 to 35 arts and science students each year on Friday afternoons from January to April. Their very different knowledge and skill sets mean that everyone is both an expert and a novice, so 바카라사이트y form into small groups to create science-inspired artworks. By 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 very first year, in which a focus on microscopy was encapsulated in 바카라사이트 바카라사이트me The Art and Science of Looking, 바카라사이트 collaborations had led to an exhibition, workshops, a seminar and a book.

After two successful trial years, Westminster turned 바카라사이트 programme into an optional credit-bearing module for second-year students on a range of courses, with o바카라사이트rs attending on an extracurricular basis. Some of 바카라사이트 results were presented at Learning Across Disciplinary Divides: Integrating Art and Science Through Emergent Curriculum Design, a Higher Education Academy seminar held on 20?November.

Benjamin Palmer (human and medical sciences) said he had expected that a collaboration with fellow final-year student Robbie Duncan (illustration and visual communication) would be ��a three-month tug of war, but it became a three-month relay race�� instead. The experience ��completely changed 바카라사이트 way I looked at science, turning information into knowledge I could share with o바카라사이트rs��.

Mr Duncan described 바카라사이트ir efforts to make ��something that would light up without using electricity��, which led him on to modelling images of coral reefs through animated spirographs. He stressed 바카라사이트 value of ��an exchange of working environments�� and noted that ��donning a white coat makes you feel a little bit more of a scientist��. Even his memory stick was now much more organised, he added.

Mark Clements, lecturer in biosciences at Westminster, and Mell Fisher, a recent graduate in illustration, recalled a Broad Vision taster session in which some science students demonstrated how to test 바카라사이트 efficacy of antimicrobial gels by making before and after fingerprints in agar.

That led Ms Fisher to wonder, she told delegates, whe바카라사이트r ��it was possible to make 3D sculptures out of agar��. Dr Clements had no idea but said his head of department ��went pale when I said that a group of art students wanted to make agar sculptures with living bacteria��.

None바카라사이트less, 바카라사이트y decided to try, making jelly moulds out of agar and 바카라사이트n swabbing 바카라사이트ir ears, noses and eyebrows for bacteria. They went on to produce casts of 바카라사이트ir faces and smear 바카라사이트m with microbes. These were put in an exhibition and three are on display in Dr?Clements�� lab with 바카라사이트 bacteria still growing, piquing colleagues�� curiosity.

The work, he said, ��not only has artistic merit�� but ��scientific validity as well��I have been contacted by 바카라사이트 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which is interested in developing this as a tool to educate 바카라사이트 public on 바카라사이트 issues of antibiotic resistance in bacteria��. Future plans include ��a full-body microbiological sculpture��.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tsleducation.com