1.
Create a piece of artwork to depict any aspect of one of the two topics.
You can use any medium, including textiles or modelling. If you make a fragile piece, please keep it small enough to be transported safely. Prizes will be awarded purely for artistic merit, but preference for the artist in residence placement will be given to the candidate who can best communicate the scientific aspects of the topics. This can lead to an 'artist in residence' placement.
or
2.
Create a movie or game to illustrate any one of the topics.
The project should be visually appealing and educational. This can lead to an 'artist in residence' placement.
The organisers would be delighted to talk with you about your project.
Fill in the comments and questions section of the application form and we will get back to you or Email Yvonne Vallis
The competition will be externally judged by distinguished artists and scientists.
Normally, three winners will be chosen and cash prizes will be awarded; £100 for first place, £75 for second place and £50 for third place. You will be asked to attend a prize giving ceremony at the MRC and we will retain the artwork of the winning entries. If your art is also part of the requirements for your GCSE, AS, A level or IB course, you will have it returned to your school or college for marking.
We will interview the winners and select people for the summer placements. These funded placements will be in a science laboratory, interacting with scientists and generating artwork to communicate science, and will last for 3-4 weeks each. The artwork could be used to explain ideas at international conferences, public understanding of science events, journal covers or book illustrations; there are many possibilities.
We will retain the copyright on any images you produce during your placement but you will always be credited for your work.
We will select students from among the winners of the art competition to spend between 3 and 4 weeks in the lab over the summer.
There are two types of placements:
Artist in residence
You will spend the first couple of days talking to people in the lab about the different projects they are working on. We will then meet to discuss ideas and see which projects are good to follow up on. The artwork is generally done at home. You will produce concept pieces & then we meet again to discuss how the ideas are evolving and to fine tune the science. You take the projects to completion.
Digital artist/animation specialist
We envisage this placement working in much the same way as the artist in residence placement, although there is more scope to do some of the graphics work at a desk in the lab, if you wish.
Here is a link for a digital art representation of what happens in cells (link).
This link shows very useful animations of what happens in cells and although we do not seek this level of quality we would love to see to see how students think animation/graphics can be used to communicate complex details in science. It is clear that in the future these types of representations will be increasingly used to communicate how we function at a molecular level.
BRIEFS:
Methods of a Mass Murderer: The Black Death
In 1347, plague swept across Europe. In the worst known epidemic in human history, approximately 45% of the population of Europe died.
Plague is caused by a bacteria, which lives in fleas, which are then carried on rats and which can also feed off of humans. What makes plague so deadly and so contagious, when other bacteria are not? Why should we care, when the Great Plague happened 663 years ago?
Artists are asked to use art to convey a sense of how the plague bacillus kills – not just the buboes and coughs and sneezes, but how it targets the immune system. Artwork might also convey a more general sense of vulnerability to a particularly clever pathogen – eg HIV, cholera etc.
They died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in ... ditches and covered with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug. And I, Agnolo di Tura ... buried my five children with my own hands ... And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world.
Neurodegeneration – The Silent Killer
Neurons, the main communication cells in our brains, do not generally divide or renew themselves. If large numbers of neurons die, especially in a particular area of the brain, function is irreparably compromised or lost.
Neurodegenerative diseases are the result of cell death in specific parts of the brain. It is now clear that many of these diseases are the result of proteins becoming subtly changed so that they no longer stay dissolved in cells, but aggregate and tangle within the cell and within the spaces between cells.
The idea is to use art to look at the science behind the human condition. You should consider that different areas of the brain have different functions and not all areas are affected by any one disease. You might also wish to consider some of the factors that are thought to influence the development of these conditions. You might consider imagining scientifically plausible ways of designing innovative treatments.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.