--FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
June 29, 2010
Contact: Tatiana Brailovskaya, Director of Communications, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences 207.633.9633 brlvsk@bigelow.org
Making Pictures to Describe the Invisible: July 13 Bigelow Laboratory Café Scientifique
WEST BOOTHBAY HARBOR, ME – Scientific artist Glynn Gorick will be the guest speaker at Bigelow Laboratory’s July 13 Café Scientifique gathering at 6:00 p.m. in the Opera House, 86 Townsend Avenue in Boothbay Harbor.
Gorick’s talk is titled Making Pictures to Describe the Invisible, and will consider how art and science can work together in addressing two broad questions: “how does science work?” and “can a single cell change the planet?”
“Indirectly, I will also be asking what we regard as art. Are we all artists? And are we all scientists?” Gorick said. “I would suggest that we all operate in a remarkably clever and scientific way, from learning how to navigate the grabbing of an ice cream to being able to drive through a city. I think scientists induce and deduce how to study and model the oceans in a similar way.”
Gorick was born in Manchester, UK, studied at Bangor University in North Wales, and has worked as a science school teacher in England, Zambia, and Papua New Guinea. He became interested in agricultural studies as a way of linking biology and nutrition studies with practical work on small school farms. During this time, he began making paintings of the material world, then added living organisms, with humans as the third stage in the progression.
The UK’s Natural Environment Research Council, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) have all commissioned Gorick to make images illustrating their environmental research projects. He was invited to show his paintings at the four Gaia Science Conferences convened in Oxford, England to discuss all aspects of Earth systems science, and recently he completed a large picture showing the multiple aspects of the Global Ocean Observing System.
The Laboratory’s Café Scientifique gatherings are informal discussions about scientific issues and society, current research, and the latest news from the field. The Café Scientifique movement began in 1998 in England, and has spread quickly throughout Europe and the United States. There are now over 150 science cafés organized over 42 countries. The Laboratory’s cafés are free, open to the public, and a cash bar is available. The Laboratory’s 2010 Summer Café Scientifique gatherings will be held at 6 p.m. every Tuesday from June 29 through August 24 at the Opera House. The full schedule and program are available online at www.bigelow.org/about/calendar/cafe-scientifique-summer-2010.
An internationally known center for global ocean research, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences conducts research ranging from microbial oceanography -- examining biological productivity in the world’s oceans at the molecular level -- to the large-scale biogeochemical processes that drive interactions between ocean ecosystems and global environmental conditions. These programs have taken Bigelow scientists around the world to every ocean and the polar seas. Illustration: Detail from a poster by Glynn Gorick for his July 13, 2010 Café Scientifique in Boothbay Harbor. Courtesy of Glynn Gorick.
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