Black Box³: Unboxing
Thursday 30 November, 09:00 - 15:30, Lipman Experimental Studio
BLACK BOX3: Unboxing is a one-day event hosted by CNoS and Applied Sciences to launch a new permanent micro-gallery and screening space for interdisciplinary projects at Northumbria University, with an invitation for artists and scientists to shape the content of future screenings.
Opening the door on the inner workings of scientific research, BLACK BOX is an interdisciplinary cinema project, screening film works inspired by and expanding upon scientific themes.
BLACK BOX3: Unboxing invites artists and scientists at Northumbria University to present short 10-minute ‘unboxing’ talks: to share their research (or reveal their wildest research dreams), invite questions and solicit interdisciplinary relationships. The event includes talks and film screenings from two existing collaborative projects between the Arts and Applied Sciences at Northumbria University, ‘unboxing’ talks, an opportunity for discussion over a light lunch and coffee (provided), and a joint working session to establish an interdisciplinary film community at Northumbria where work can be shared through the BLACK BOX screening programme.
For more details and booking contact: louise2.mackenzie@northumbria.ac.uk
Image: Adapted from 33 frames per foot, 2013, Vicky Smith
How would you ‘unbox’ your research for a public audience?
What are the ideas that excite you and might entice others?
If your research could become an interdisciplinary film project, what might that look like?
Playing on the popularity of unboxing reels, BLACK BOX3 - UNBOXING on the 30th November is both the launch of the new BLACK BOX3 micro-gallery space on the 4th floor of Ellison Building and an invitation for scientists and artists to reveal their research to new audiences.
The term BLACK BOX comes from systems theory, where an object provides an output that is of interest or use, without the need to understand the internal workings of the object. The curatorial project BLACK BOX uses the dark interior space of the cinema to open the box, allowing audiences to step inside and view, through the lens of creative practice, the concepts, themes and ethical relationships at play at the heart of scientific research.
BLACK BOX originated in 2019 as a joint project founded by artist Louise Mackenzie and geneticist Kasia Pirog for The Cultural Negotiation of Science and the Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University. Its first iteration as a pop-up sculptural cinema in the foyer of the Institute for Genetic Medicine in Times Square, Newcastle showcased films by artists and researchers involved in a creative and critical engagement with genetics, alongside films produced by scientists that provide insight into their research. BLACK BOX has since been presented at Summerhall Visual Arts as part of Edinburgh Science Festival in 2022. BLACK BOX3 expands the BLACK BOX project concept in relationship with the Department of Applied Sciences at Northumbria University to establish an interdisciplinary film community and introduce the BLACK BOX3 micro-gallery on the 4th floor of Ellison Building.
9:00 Arrival and Networking
9.30 Introduction to the BLACK BOX concept with Louise Mackenzie, Justin Perry and Katia Pirog
10:00 Film Screenings with Angela Sherry, Michelle Allen, Louise Mackenzie and Jessica Saville
11:00 Coffee
11:30 Unboxing Research: invitation to share your research via 10-minute ‘unboxing’ talks
12:30 Lunch and Networking
14:00 Joint Working Session on Interdisciplinary Film Community and Steering Committee
15:30 Close
If you wish to present an ‘unboxing’ talk, join the steering group or require further information on interdisciplinary film at Northumbria University, please contact Louise at Louise2.Mackenzie@Northumbria.ac.uk