University Lecturer explores the shape of the Universe through sculpture
Thursday, 01 September 2011
Dr Kate Allen, Lecturer and Sculptor, Department of Art
What shapes could the universe be? Does it have an ‘edge'? Is it infinite? Dr Kate Allen, Sculptor and Lecturer in the Department of Art is working in collaboration with musicians, dancers and mathematicians to explore these questions.
Dr Allen, along with composer Dorothy Ker, choreographer Carol Brown, and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy have produced a performance-based research project entitled, ‘The 19th Step' that explores different ways the ‘languages' of music, dance, sculpture and mathematics can talk to each other.
This summer Dr Allen and other members of ‘The 19th Step' performed a piece called ‘Everything and Nothing' at the Green Man Festival in Wales, inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' story The Library of Babel.
Mathematicians tell us the universe could have no edges, is the shape of a sphere - or perhaps a doughnut - and is infinitely recurring. But how can we know these things for ourselves?
‘Everything and Nothing' explores how history documents explorers and navigators as they charted the earth, a pursuit that continues through science and the imagination as we try to imagine the shape of the universe.
In ‘Everything and Nothing' a librarian is lost forever in a library of hexagons, an aviatrix and her navigator are suddenly and mysteriously lost as they attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937, and a reclusive Russian solves a mathematical conjecture after 100 years. These stories are portrayed by combining sound, music and image with mathematics to navigate a weird and wonderful path through the universe.
Dr Allen trained as a sculptor at Chelsea College of Art and Design. Her work investigates materials, image and culture, often using new technologies, working in collaboration with other disciplines across the University, and with community groups.