Engaging Science projects

Summary of Wellcome Trust-funded projects with potential links to the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012

Projects with high relevance to In the Zone

Everything Flows
Large Arts Award, £154 160
Grantholder: Mr Steven Bode, Film and Video Umbrella
In the Zone investigates the time when an athlete attains a heightened state of performance, in which body and mind are operating in unison, at maximum impact and with optimum flow, with increased levels of confidence. The distinguishing feature of this elusive temporary state, and the various biomedical perspectives that inform it, will be highlighted in four newly commissioned moving-image artworks generated by four artist-scientist partnerships. The contributing artists and scientists are: Dryden Goodwin and Elsa Bradley; Cornford and Cross and Dr Richard Ramsey; Susan Pui San, Tali Sharot and Nicky Clayton; and Roderick Buchanan and Dr David Shearer. All four new works will be shown at De la Warr Pavilion in summer 2012.

Science Junkie: The Science of London 2012
People Award, £30 000
Grantholder: Mr Greg Foot, Science Junkie
'Science Junkie: The Science of London 2012' is a high-adrenaline, fast-paced science show to bring alive the role that the biomedical sciences will play in the London 2012 Games. A unique collaboration between the Royal Institution and Science Junkie, the show will feature daring demonstrations, full audience interaction and specially filmed clips to bring difficult-to-grasp concepts to life. The specially filmed clips will also appear on Ri Online, a new free online channel.

Face to Face with Sports Science
People Award, £30 000
Grantholder: Dr John Dickinson, Liverpool John Moores University
The Research Institute of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University has partnered with National Museums Liverpool and the Museum of Science and Industry to provide a series of interactive sports science events to engage and inspire the general public. The project aims to engage members of the public in a challenging, exciting and interactive manner by hosting exhibits at the museums, while also running targeted workshops for secondary school students. Interactive pods created for the events, across the sports science disciplines of physiology, motor control, biomechanics, performance analysis and psychology, will enhance knowledge by providing experiential insight into the translation of theory into practice.

Projects with some relevance to In the Zone

Invisible Breath
Large Arts Awards, £123 569
Grantholder: Ms Alice Sharp, Invisible Dust
Invisible Breath is a cross-disciplinary programme that will create new public artworks focusing on breathing and the impact of air pollution on our health and environment. Three artists will work with scientists Peter Brimblecombe, Frank Kelly, Mark Levy and Hugh Mortimer, who all research the effects of air pollution. Artist Dryden Goodwin will explore children's lung health through drawings and animation to produce a large public artwork; Faisal Abdu'Allah will create video artwork at the View Tube in east London; and Hehe will produce experimental performances developed during a residency at University of East Anglia at the Norwich and Norfolk Festival in 2011. Associated workshops with children's author Michael Rosen will inspire young people to engage, create, learn and experiment with the project's themes and artists' work.

Exhaustion
Small Arts Award, £29 800
Grantholder: Ms Rebecca Shatwell, Audio Visual Arts North East
'Exhaustion' will be a new artistic work that explores the human body under duress, from the perspectives of the artist, scientists, athletes and the public. Artist Richard Fenwick will make a new digital film with Dr Paula Ansley, her research team in the Division of Sport Sciences at Northumbria University and patients at a clinic for rehabilitating underperforming, chronically fatigued athletes. The film will be screened at (among other places) the AV Festival in March 2012.

Pigs Bladder Football
Small Arts Award, £29 804
Grantholder: Mr John O'Shea, Abandon Normal Devices
Through mutually creative and scientific experiments, artist John O'Shea and Professor John Hunt at the University of Liverpool's Clinical Engineering Unit will cultivate a uniquely captivating sculptural object: a 'football' grown from living cells. The voices of young people will be brought into the project from an early stage through engaging a youth sports team in specially devised hands-on workshops - transforming actual pigs' bladders into footballs. The numerous creative outputs will be presented publicly within the Abandon Normal Devices festival, which is part of the Cultural Olympiad.