Upcoming events
DARK SKY PUBLIC PROGRAMME
MAY-JULY 2012
TALKS
Speculations
Scientists and cultural commentators use specific art works in the Dark Sky exhibition as a launch pad for informed discussions based on their working practices and research expertise. Convened by Christina Barton (Director of the Adam Art Gallery and co-curator of the Dark Sky exhibition)
Wednesday lunchtimes at the Adam Art Gallery
12 noon-1pm
Free entry
2 May: Bad science
Artist Simon Ingram and Melanie Johnston-Hollitt (physicist and Senior Lecturer, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences) discuss Ingram’s radio astronomy and the challenge of bridging the art/science divide.
16 May: Heaven is a place on earth
Chris Marshall (theologian and Associate Professor, School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies) and Michael Hannah (scientist and Associate Professor, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences) depart from Colin McCahon’s Venus and Re-entry: The Bleeding Heart of Jesus is Seen above Ahipara to discuss why we consider heaven to be above us.
30 May: Off the grid
Terry Galuszka and Jennie McCormick talk about the contribution amateur astronomy has made to scientific advances, in relation to the work of contemporary German artist Wolfgang Tillmans.
6 June: Day in a lifetime
Geoffrey Batchen (co-curator of Dark Sky, photo-historian and Professor of Art History) and astrophysicist William Tobin consider the differences between viewing the Transit of Venus in 1874 and 2012, followed by a special viewing (weather permitting) of the Transit with assistance from the Carter Observatory. Equipment provided.
27 June: Matariki dawns
Pauline Harris (Post Doctoral Fellow, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences and Chair of the Society for Māori Astronomy, Research and Traditions) and Takirirangi Smith (Researcher in indigenous knowledge, School of Māori Studies Te Kawa a Māui) will share understandings of Māori cosmology and the revitalisation of Māori star lore in response to a photograph by Wellington photographic artist Ann Shelton.
4 July: Star time
Luke Smythe (art writer) and Denis Sullivan (Professor, Physics, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences) look into German artist Thomas Ruff’s work to consider what we can learn from the transmission of star light.
POETRY
Passages: Reading around the Transit
Adam Art Gallery
Wednesday 13 June 2012
6pm
Free entry
A panel discussion with readings. German and New Zealand poets respond to the Transit of Venus 2012 celebrations at Tolaga Bay, exploring the process of writing about this extraordinary astronomical phenomenon. Co-organised by the Goethe Institut, New Zealand, with funding from the German Federal Foreign Office.
The poets are Hinemoana Baker, Glenn Colquhoun, Chris Price, Uwe Kolbe, Brigitte Oleschinski, and Ulrike Almut Sandig. Chair Bill Manhire.
For the second part of this reciprocal exchange, the German and New Zealand poets will meet again in October in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, working together in a translation workshop organised by Literaturwerkstatt, and presenting the results at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2012.
FILM SCREENING
Nostalgia for the Light
Carter Observatory
40 Salamanca Road, Kelburn, Wellington
Wednesday 23 May 2012
5pm
Cost includes entry to Carter Observatory exhibitions:
Adult $18.50 / concessions $13.50 / child (4-16 yrs) $8.00 /Free to star pass members
Special screening of Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light (90mins), a politically charged and cinematic documentary relating astronomy to the consequences of human behaviour in the Atacama Desert, Chile. One night only at the Carter Observatory, Botanic Gardens, Wellington.
SOUND CHECK
Space Weather
Marco Fusinato (AUS) and Bruce Russell (NZ)
Adam Art Gallery
Thursday 5 July 2012
7-9pm
$5 entry
In the last week of Dark Sky, the Adam Art Gallery presents the sonic ‘dark matter’ of Marco Fusinato’s guitar manipulations and Bruce Russell’s free ‘noise’ improvisation as responses to the Dark Sky exhibition. The performances are bound to add another dimension to the experience of viewing the exhibition.
For all Dark Sky public programme enquiries contact
Therese Lloyd
email: therese.lloyd@vuw.ac.nz
ph: +64 4 463 5229