14 May from 18:00 – 21:30
Contenedor Cultural Universidad De Málaga
Objectives:
—To create an open discussion on the art-science dialectic: Is art a result or a way of doing things? If so, is it applied in research and knowledge transfer.
—To design a relaxed context that would bring profiles connected in a different way to art and science, to see how art can contribute to improve science and vice versa and how this process can be brought closer to society. Is art the vehicle for science to be co-created with society?
—To foster boundaries for future collaborations between profiles.
—To collect valuable data for the next steps of the project, highlighting thoughts and strategies on how to connect art and science.
—To identify art-science boundary spanners and examples of good practices that can be further explored and analyzed through the project.
The first Rock it Café in Malaga was part of a larger scientific-cultural event, co organised with the Doctoral School of the University and the Vice-Rectorate for Culture (Doctoral Fest). The Rock it Cafe offered attendees an experience of open debate around the art-science dialectic.
The possibility of intervening in science through artistic creation was introduced by the experience “Music and pathologies. The romanticising of illness through Rock’n Roll”. Cristina Díaz, a doctor at the San Carlos Hospital and lecturer at the Complutense University, shared the design of a subject that uses music and its history to explain medical pathologies.
Afterwards, the subject was addressed in an open conversation, moderated by Juan Aguilar, Professor of Arts at UMA, with a roundtable that gathered different science-art profiles: Enrique Viguera, Professor of Genetics at UMA; Isabel Barbancho, Professor of Signal Theory at UMA, Paz Villar, Institutional Relations of the SohoCaixaBank Theatre, and Tony Punk, music producer from Madrid.
Interventions of the audience were collected though an interactive mural in the room, A Manual Thinking, a methodology developed by the Barcelona-based designer Luki Huber.
Quotes that Stuck With Us
Juan Aguilar. Professor of Arts, creativity trainer, UMA.:
“Creativity is an ability, a capacity inherent to human beings. It is not written in any science, in any field of knowledge.”
“These types of sessions can also allow us, in some way, to disassemble myths, to disassemble beliefs that almost always surrounds creativity.”
Paz Villar. Head of Projects and Institutional Relations at Soho Theatre:
“Creativity is present in all processes and in all disciplines, since we have to solve creative processes all the time and in different ways, innovating.”
Enrique Viguera. Scholar and science communicator, UMA.:
“Rigour and limited degrees of freedom in scientific processes differentiate scientific and artistic creation. While there is room for imagining hypotheses, scientific execution must be ‘tremendously rigorous’.”
“It is necessary to take science out of the laboratory and bring it to society, to the citizens ‘who finance research through taxes and have the right to know what is being done.’ Academic and reference person in science popularization”
Isabel Barbancho. Scientific and musician:
“Creativity is related to the need to ‘know how to sell’ a research project in order to obtain funding, in a similar way to how a play seeks to please an audience”
Tony Punk. Music producer and musician:
“There is an analogy between the scientist who writes a paper and the musician who composes a song. Both use established languages following ‘acquired patterns’ or breaking them”
Salvador Pérez Moreno. Head of the Doctoral School of UMA.:
“Creating spaces for interaction between disciplines, between profiles, with issues that are of interest and that lead to open debate is extremely important for the advancement of knowledge and for it to be useful, not only for academia but also for society”
Who Came, What Emerged
Around 100 participants, mixed profiles. More than 50 PhD students and young researchers, around 15 artists, professors from the faculty of Arts and art students. Between 10-20 citizens with different profiles connected somehow to the university or the speakers. About 20 researchers from different departments of the university of Malaga and connected to the Doctoral School
The atmosphere of open debate, co-creation and enjoyment that was generated during the event. Talking about relevant topics in a language that was accessible and understandable for everyone, which allowed the participation of young and senior profiles, enriching the outcomes.
The event concluded with an energetic Rock’n’roll concert by Mochingo Blues Band, celebrating the spirit of creativity and collaboration. Its success highlighted the importance of creating spaces for cross-disciplinary exchange.
