“Writing and speaking about artists and scientists, creativity, the imagination and the latest developments in culture — in the media, online and in books, and at festivals, conferences and exhibitions.”
My work has been broadcast on the BBC and on international television and radio. My writing has been published internationally — from China’s leading cultural magazine, Modern Media Weekly, to the Art Newspaper, artists' catalogues and books.
Below is a selection of commissioned writing.
Scroll down further for speaking and chairing engagements.
Interview with the fashion designer Iris van Herpen celebrating her 10th year as one of the world’s most inspirational and future-thinking designers
Commissioned essay for Fondazione Prada’s solo exhibition ‘To the Son of Man Who Ate the Scroll’ by Goshka Macuga.
In/visible: the inside story of the making of Arts at CERN — Commissioned essay for Interdisciplinary Science Review edited by Philip Ball and Sian Ede.
My essay about how and why emotions have become the new truth, replacing facts, and the role technology plays. Included in the the catalogue Real Feelings: Emotion and Technology with co-editors and co-curators Sabine Himmelsbach and Angelique Spaninks.
My essay on Lighy, Photography, Physics and the Imagination which weaves together which weaves together reflections on the science of light, imagination, 4 meetings with Albert Einstein, and the work of 5 wonderful photographers - Marjolein Blom, Sjoerd Knibbler, Sameer Tawde, Chirag Jindal and Sheung Yiu. The essay is in the catalogue Related Realities of the Backlight Photography Festival 2020 - the Nordic Photography Triennale.
How contemporary art and physics relate to each other.
Extract from my introduction to the catalogue to the exhibtion of the same name which features the work of artists working with physics in different media. With essays also by Philip Ball, Gavin Parkinson Carlo Rovelli, Nicola Triscott. Published by Hatje Cantz https://www.hatjecantz.de/entangle-7394-1.html
Technology is making us sense-less due to the Tyranny of the Eye. This is what I aruge in this essay commissioned by the Finnish Cultural Institute for AISTIT / coming to our senses - a unique series of exhibitions and performances exploring the complexity and wonder of our sensorial perceptions which took place in Paris, London, Berlin, Helsinki and Ghent from March 2021 to mid-2022.
Published by Garret Publications 2021.
Chapter on the Studio Wall Drawings by the British Turner Prize-winning artist Keith Tyson who is known for a distinctive and diverse body of work including drawing, painting, installation and sculpture working across science and different knoweldge systems. This major monograph on his work was published by Thames and Hudson in 2022.
A copy of my keynote provocation delivered for the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and European School of Administration.
It challenged the acceptance of art and science as de facto positive, suggesting the need to dig deeper. It also highlighted new developments of best practice
Introductory Essay to the first major monograph on Mariele Neudecker, the German-born, Bristol-based artist working at the crossover of art and science. Published by Anomie Publishing 2021.
My interview with the pioneering muscian and musician Ryoji Ikeda features in this publication by PHI Centre, Montreal, Canada published in 2022. The Infinite documents the making of the ground-breaking immersive VR experience shot entirely aboard the International Space Station by PHI and EMMY® Award-winning digital entertainment pioneers Felix & Paul Studios.
Specialist areas are arts/science and technology, cultural leadership, artists and their work, the role of the imagination and the creative process.
Lectures on arts/science include at (SIAC) The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, day long workshops and lectures on cultural leadership for the Queen Mary University of London MBA and Postgraduate Global Governance degree, chairing discussions series on physics and the arts at the Onassis Cultural Foundation Athens, Greece, key note speaking on cultural policy and innovation at the European Commission Headquarters in Brussels and Aalto University, Finland. And many, many more.
Below is a list of international speaking engagements.
Chairing discussions and conferences — from individual author discussions at the Hay International Literary Festival to chairing conferences for the Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, the Contemporary Arts Society, and Counterpoint Arts — the UK based refugee and arts charity.
Listen to one of my favourite interviews at The Hay International Festival with the writers Miranda July and Marina Lewycka
Listen to one of my talks on the Power of the Imagination
