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3 February 2005
LEONARDO ANNOUNCES
CO SPONSORSHIP OF UK Arts Council England International Artists Fellowship Programme
Art and Space Science at UC Berkeley
Arts Council England, The Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley, California, and Leonardo Network are pleased to announce that two fellowships at the Space Sciences Laboratory in California have been awarded to the artists Liliane Lijn and Semiconductor.
The artists will each be spending a minimum of three months at The Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley in California during the next year. Working alongside scientists and educators, the fellows will have the opportunity to build their professional careers through sustained periods of research and experimentation at the forefront of space science.
Sir Christopher Frayling, Chair of Arts Council England said:
- "This unique new fellowship at The Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley gives us the opportunity to send some exceptional artists to what is probably the pre-eminent Space research facility in the world. We have seen how popular culture deals with space science - from Quatermass to Stephen Hawking appearing on The Simpsons - and we can now look forward to seeing a deeper and more subtle response to this fascinating field of study in the work of Liliane Lijn and Semiconductor. This is a terrific example of ‘art meets science’."
Isabel Hawkins, astronomer and Director of the Center for Science Education at The Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley said:
- "Knowledge of space science and understanding our place in the Universe has always served as a source of inspiration to humans across all ages and cultures. It is this same fountain of inspiration that elevates the work of artists and scientists to reach new levels of accomplishment. The Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley is privileged to have the opportunity to bring the creative genius of the Art Council England fellows into the heart of space science research."
Roger Malina, astrophysicist and editor of Leonardo said:
- "A new generation of artists has emerged whose knowledge of science and technology allows them to create work not only of artistic power, but with the potential of influencing future science and technology. We are delighted to team with Arts Council England and The Space Sciences Laboratory to help provide contexts where a new kind of innovative art-science collaboration can emerge."
In a joint statement from Semiconductor, founding artists Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt said:
- "This fellowship is such a unique and exciting opportunity for us. To be able to engage with scientists working with the outer most limits of human knowledge and observe the way they work, puts us in an exceptional position as artists, one which we could have only previously dreamed of. Immersing ourselves in this environment will really shift the boundaries of our world and throw up new challenges for us and our work."
Liliane Lijn said:
- "Since the early 1960s, my work as an artist has been inspired and informed by developments in the world of space science. Being awarded the first fellowship to be an artist in residence at The Space Science Laboratory in Berkeley has now given me a wonderful opportunity to interact directly with a group of scientists
working in areas of research which I find most stimulating. I very much look forward to this collaboration and the exchange of ideas that it will bring."
For further information contact Alex Holdaway on 020 7973 6459 or alex.holdaway@artscouncil.org.uk
Notes to editors
Liliane Lijn was born in New York in 1939 and studied archaeology at the Sorbonne and art history at the École du Louvre, Paris (1958). She became an artist in residence in a plastics factory, experimenting with fire and acids and working with light, poetry, movement and liquids between 1961 and 1963. Lijn was one of the foremost exponents of kinetic art using plastics, liquids and light in the early 1970s. She has featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Britain, Europe and Japan, and is represented in important public and private collections in Britain, France, Australia and the United States. Her work was featured in the exhibition ‘This was Tomorrow: Art and the ‘60s’ at Tate Britain during 2004, and from 23 April – 25 June 2005, the Mead Gallery at Warwick Arts Centre will be holding a major exhibition, Liliane Lijn: Works 1959 – 1979.
Founded in 1997, Semiconductor are the UK artists Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt. They make films and digital animations out of sound using abstract landscapes and architecture as a means to describe aural and visual interpretations of the world. Live Digital performance is one strand of Semiconductors output; they also produce surround sound installations and single screen Sound Films which are exhibited at galleries, festivals and biennials worldwide.
This initiative is funded by Arts Council England’s International Artists Fellowship Programme and the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley with support from NASA and Leonardo Network.
Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts. Between 2003 and 2006 we will invest £2 billion of public funds in the arts in England, including funding from the National Lottery.
International Artists Fellowships Programme
Across the arts, there are few opportunities for professional artists to undertake practice-based research abroad free from immediate production demands of a commission, exhibition or performance. Since September 2001, the Arts Council has been running a programme of international fellowships, underpinning its commitment to the individual artist and cultural diversity. The primary goal is to allow artists across the art-forms to work on the edge; to cross borders and to challenge their own thinking. It is seen as a long-term investment in artists, buying them precious time to engage new cultural, geo-political and technological forces.
Selection for these fellowships at the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley was by competitive application. The fellowships offer specialist support and funds for practice-based research, accommodation, food, travel and a small stipend whilst at UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. The Arts Council’s International Artists Fellowship Programme is open to artists working in any art form with significant professional experience who are living and working in England.
The Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
The Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) was established in 1966 at the UC Berkeley campus through a grant from NASA to foster a broad and far-reaching programme of space research and exploration. SSL is the University of California’s premier space sciences research facility and one of the pre-eminent university laboratories in the United States for space research. Its goals are to foster outstanding research in space-related sciences, to develop the next generation of space scientists, and to enhance science education and the scientific literacy of the general public. Research at SSL is led by UC Berkeley faculty and SSL Senior Fellows, and focuses on experiments and observations carried out in space. Since its inception, SSL has participated in over 50 NASA space science missions as well as many international space missions. To learn more about past and current SSL research projects, please visit: http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/arts/home.html.
The Leonardo Network was originally founded in the mid-1960s by Frank Malina, an eminent astronautical pioneer and kinetic artist. Members and founders of the network have included Jacob Bronowski, R. Buckminster Fuller, C.P Snow, C.H Waddington, Frank Oppenheimer, John Cage. Current members include Roy Ascott, Richard Gregory, Lynn Hershman, Annick Bureaud. The network was founded by an earlier generation interested in the use of new media and the sciences in the arts. The print journal Leonardo was the first project of the network. Publication of Leonardo began in 1968. Leonardo is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal that seeks to document the work of artists involved with the sciences and technology, and of scientists and scholars interested in the implications of techno-science on the arts and culture. Over more than 30 years, Leonardo has documented the work of some 3,000 artists, scientists and scholars. Each issue is now published both in print and simultaneously on-line with access via the Leonardo Electronic Almanac web site (http://mitpress.mit.edu/LEA). Other publications include the Leonardo Book Series at MIT Press. The Leonardo Network also produces numerous web sites, conferences and projects, and issues prizes and awards.
Updated 25 February 2005.
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