Events

Science and Sensibility: Method Meets Art [Oxford, CfP extended to Sept 18]

Science and Sensibility: Method Meets Art

According to Richard Dawkins, “There’s real poetry in the real world. Science is the poetry of reality”. So why are art and science sometimes considered as two separate fields, rather than two different sides of the same coin? And who says that scientists, engineers, and medical researchers take interest only in matters within the boundaries of the laboratories and hospitals? How might the perspective of art provide fresh avenues for understanding and contribute significantly to the enrichment of scientific knowledge? For poets, writers, and artists there are no such boundaries, for there is poetic wisdom in scientific knowledge, beauty in anatomy, and concepts worth celebrating in writing. And for biographers and memoirists, the medical humanities offer experiences that are worth preserving in prose. Our forthcoming conference seeks to deconstruct the common divide between two seemingly distinct disciplines of art and science, building bridges instead of boundaries, and showing the importance of creatively contemplating, cherishing, and preserving the beauty of what we learn and experience.

This conference, therefore, aims to bring together scholars, creatives, and other arts-based researchers from different disciplines working on topics related to transdisciplinarity, with a focus on the bridging of science with the arts. You may be a scientist or a medical practitioner who writes poems and stories or takes on another art (such as music, sculpture, the visual arts, etc.) or alternatively, you may be a creative inspired by science, or a practioner in a field that utilises creative approaches for scientific purposes—so the intertwining of your thoughts, ideas, and creativity are welcome, and we can’t wait to hear about your work that combines your creativity with science!

Send us your proposals by August 31st.  Presenters can either share academic papers and/or creative work (poetry, prose, photography, music, painting, etc.), as we highly encourage arts-based research. We welcome proposals from scholars (of all disciplines), creatives, graduate students, practitioners and professionals.

So whether you are working on research bridging art with creativity, or you have a piece containing astronomical images, eco-poetry, aesthetic reflections on chemicals and substances, lunar photography, artistic depictions of the human body, alchemical musings, art and arithmetic, psychological fiction (or non-fiction), an ode to omicron, or any other creative pieces arising from “scientific” inspiration, please share them with us!

We welcome 15-minute presentations on topics related (but certainly not limited to) the following fields:

  • Fiction as a mode for knowledge
  • Transdisciplinarity in its various forms
  • Music-based practices
  • A/r/tography
  • Physics as an inspiration in literature
  • Chemistry and the culinary, literary or visual arts
  • Astrophotography
  • Alchemy as an art and science
  • Psychology and the arts
  • Symbolic healing
  • Ecopoetics
  • Anatomy in painting
  • The medical humanities
  • Poetry and medicine
  • Photography and medical technology
  • Ruminations based on scientific theories
  • Space poetry
  • Art therapy
  • Music and mathematical formulas
  • Viruses and philosophy
  • The human body
  • Mental illness and the arts
  • Quantum physics and artistic expression
  • Technological advancements and their impact on artistic creation
  • Mathematical patterns in visual arts
  • Neuroscience and creativity
  • Climate change and environmental art
  • Data visualization as an art form
  • Ethical considerations in scientific art collaborations
  • Evolutionary biology and literature
  • Augmented reality and immersive storytelling
  • Artificial intelligence and its role in creative processes
  • Bioart and biotechnology in artistic practice
  • Intersection of robotics and performance art
  • Astronomy and music composition
  • Psychology of color in visual arts
  • Medical imaging techniques and artistic interpretation
  • Intersection of archaeology and art history
  • Cognitive science and theater/performance studies
  • Genetics and contemporary art practices
  • Philosophy of science and its influence on artistic discourse
  • Ecological activism through artistic interventions
  • Anthropology and the representation of cultures in art
  • Social sciences and documentary photography
  • Nanotechnology and its implications for artistic materials
  • Ethnomusicology and cultural expressions of scientific knowledge
  • Marine biology and marine-inspired art forms

DARIAH Annual Event – Draft Programme [Announcement]

DARIAH Annual Event – Draft Programme Announced

DARIAH is pleased to share that the draft programme of the DARIAH Annual Event 2026 is now available. You can view it here: 

https://www.conftool.net/dariah2026/sessions.php

Please note that this is a preliminary version and may still be subject to minor changes as we continue to finalise details. We hope this will help you start planning your participation in Rome, and we look forward to welcoming you soon.

Register here for DARIAH Annual Event

Gaps and Silences in Cultural Heritage Collections [Feb 17 @ 16:00 GMT online]

Gaps and Silences in Cultural Heritage Collections

17 February (4:00 pm to 5:30 pm)

Join the Digital Humanities Research Hub (School of Advanced Study, University of London) for a fascinating discussion about ‘Gaps and Silences in Cultural Heritage Collections’.

Registration: https://www.sas.ac.uk/digital-humanities-research-hub/events/gaps-silences-cultural-heritage-collections

The Digital Humanities Research Hub (School of Advanced Study, University of London) cordially invites you to the next session of their flagship seminar series on ‘The Fragile Record’.

We live in an age of abundant data — and yet, it remains strikingly fragile and incomplete. This seminar explores the topic of ‘Gaps and Silences in Cultural Heritage Collections.’ We will discuss issues of inclusivity and bias from an interdisciplinary perspective and examine uncertainty, privilege and power in digital archives. How do these factors influence which stories are told and how they are represented in cultural heritage collections and related research?

Please find below a short biography of the participants

Mandana Seyfeddinipur is Director of Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, formerly based at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and part of the CLARIN-UK Consortium. The programme moved to Berlin in 2021, and remains part of the CLARIN Knowledge Centre for Linguistic Diversity and Language Documentation (CKLD).

Andrea Kocsis is Chancellor’s Fellow in Humanities Informatics, at the University of Edinburgh. She comes from an interdisciplinary and international background, and in her research, she combines heritage studies with data and network science. 

Giulia Taurino, Ph.D. is a researcher, artist, and curator specialized in AI for the management and preservation of cultural heritage collections. Her research focuses on forms of content organization in online repositories and digital archives, cultural implications of algorithmic technologies, and applications of AI in the arts, heritage and museum sectors. Past and present affiliations include the NULab for Digital Humanities and Computational Social Science, the Alan Turing Institute AI & Arts Interest Group, Getty Research Institute, metaLAB (at) Harvard, MIT Data + Feminism Lab, Brown University’s Virtual Humanities Lab. 

Lucy Havens is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University.  She received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2024, where she investigated how machine learning could help archivists identify gender biases in descriptive metadata.  Her research interests include human-centered AI, gender bias and empowerment, and AI evaluation, with a focus on GLAM use cases.

Futures in the Making: Identity, Speculation, and Digital Representation [Feb 10, online and in person, @12:00 GMT]

Futures in the Making: Identity, Speculation, and Digital Representation

Date & Time: 12pm, Tuesday 10th February

Location: Studio 3, O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance, University of Galway

The Masterclass Series continues with 

Aisling Phelan, an Irish multidisciplinary artist exploring digital doubles, speculative futures and human-machine interactions and entanglements.

In this masterclass, Aisling will present an overview of her artistic practice, tracing the research, processes, and technological explorations that shape her work in relation to identity, corporeality, and digital representation. Drawing on recent research into DeepFakes, doppelgangers, and robotics, the session will also invite participants to engage in speculative thinking around possible futures shaped by emerging technologies, using fiction and open-ended questioning as tools to reflect on contemporary technological anxieties.

Speaker Bio
Aisling Phelan is an Irish multidisciplinary artist exploring digital doubles, speculative futures and human-machine interactions and entanglements. Through 3D animation, AI, video, sculpture, and live interactive technologies, her work explores what it means to be human in an era of rapid technological advancement and pervasive algorithmic influence. 

Drawing from a transhumanist and speculative fiction perspective, Phelan explores how far we are willing to go in the pursuit of self-optimisation and the potential costs of such advances. Fusing the intimate with the artificial, her practice confronts the seductive promise of transcendence and enhancement, creating space for reflection on the role of current digital infrastructures in shaping how we understand ourselves and others.

In person: https://ti.to/creative-tech/masterclass-aisling-phelan

Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Fb4r-VXCTAOFEkSJdwm8iw

Upcoming Workshops:

Liing Heaney  – Tuesday, 17 February

Róisín Berg – Tuesday, 24 February

Tara Jaye Burke – Tuesday, 3rd March

Claire Healy  – Tuesday 24th March

Jane Cassidy – Tuesday 31th March

Immersive Storytelling in 360° [Feb 12, online & in person, @12:00 GMT]

Immersive Storytelling in 360°

Date & Time: 12pm, Wednesday 4th February

Location: Studio 3, O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance, University of Galway

This 2 hour workshop will explore 360° storytelling processes. Drawing on the artist’s experiences with making 360° pieces in multiple languages and within different contexts, James will share what he has learned while referencing his work along with other international artists making work in this realm. No experience needed, this workshop is for anyone interested in telling stories, and how you might go about it in the digital space – touching on narrative structure, plot, character and the use of text and audio.

James Riordan is Artistic Director of Brú Theatre. His work in the digital space includes Ar Ais Arís (2020) – a merging of Irish language literature on immigration and VR, which recently toured to the US and Canada. In 2024 he directed No Tempo por Agua, A 360° VR piece for Portuguese company Teatro Do Silencio which premiered in Lisbon. Ologon, a 360° musical experience shot throughout Mayo premiered in 2021. 

He was Digital Artist in Residence with University of Galway’s Centre for Creative Technologies in 2024 and has presented his work and facilitated VR workshops for multiple companies including Prime Cut (Belfast) and Central School of Drama (London) and Galway International Arts Festival.

Registration:

In person: https://ti.to/creative-tech/masterclass-james-riordan

Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ddeqz_QWR12QOhQ-sX4gJA#/registration

Upcoming Workshops:

Aisling Phelan – Tuesday, 10 Februaury

Liing Heaney  – Tuesday, 17 February

Róisín Berg – Tuesday, 24 February

Tara Jaye Burke – Tuesday, 3rd March

Claire Healy  – Tuesday 24th March

Jane Cassidy – Tuesday 31th March