Opera North and The University of Leeds’ Cultural Institute have recently revealed the shortlist for the DARE Art Prize. The annual £15,000 award is in celebration of the tenth year anniversary of the partnership between Opera North and the University and challenges both scientists and artists to collaborate on innovative approaches.
Dominic Gray, Projects Director, Opera North, stated: “All five of the shortlisted finalists presented compelling and eye-opening visions, and we look forward to naming the first DARE Prize winner in February.”
Marina Rees has been exploring and charting the skeletons of whales through the use of sound. Her proposal focuses on the communication methods between aquatic mammals with plans to received live transmissions from marine environments, and to transform the Chorus of Opera North into a whale choir.
Working from San Francisco and Berlin, Samuel Hertz is a composer and performer and hopes to collaborate with both the School of Earth and Environment and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Research in Music on a presentation involving a frequency so low it may be felt and effect the mood and emotions of the audience.
Gary Zhexi Zhang is currently involved in a project investigating slime mould and studying its “swarm intelligence” and “social” behaviours. There is a possibility that there could be a performance with Opera North, using the slime’s behaviour as a model for the process.
Melanie King is currently working on her PhD at the Royal College of Art, and centralises her composition around the work of Professor Tom Hartquist of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leeds. She proposes an investigation of optical and perceptual illusions based on the University’s own surveys.
Employing their backgrounds in sculpture and illustration respectively, Robin Dowell and Joanna Lamphard have developed a project around the classifying of emotions with a scientific perspective. They are eager to work with psychologists, physicists and bacteriologists in the form of images, books and sculptures.
Stephanie Bennett
(Image: Leeds University)