Wellcome Trust brings Dirt to the Secret Garden Party
20 July 2011
Guerilla Science, the Trust's partners in grime, are running a series of dirty events and displays across the weekend festival, from displays of bioluminescent bacteria and dirty brain scans to orang-utan sniffing and competitive scurrying in the form of cockroach racing.
There'll be a Microbial Menagerie, with microbiologist zookeepers attending to the flora and fauna of the human body, and the chance to get those dirty secrets out in the open with Alyn Gwyndaf, whose Dirty Bin Man of Love promises meditations on revellers' inner dirt. And if those sprinting cockroaches weren't enough, a cornucopia of creepy crawlies will also be on hand (and legs), as entomologist Tim Maynard and psychologist Fran Meeten explore reactions of disgust and aversion with the help of some tarantulas, scorpions, snakes and maggots.
Those avoiding shower queues will find a kindred spirit in the smelly tweeter, who dodged soap for forty long days and recorded his experience. Noses will be put to the test as olfactory comparisons are made between boy and man, man and women, and orang-utan and guerilla. Dirty life-drawing and fabulously filthy trivia in a Dirty Sexy Quiz will reward the unclean of body and mind.
At sunset on Friday there will be a spectacular feast of filth, with a Dirt Banquet traversing the physical, biological, ethical, architectural, social, political and temporal dimensions of dirt. The menu will feature such delights as bottom-dwelling oysters and yonic pannacotta, and diners will hear experts dishing the dirt on the nature of filth. Neuroscientists Zarinah Agnew and Aidan Horner will introduce the dirty bits of the brain; gastronomist Rachel Edwards-Stuart, former apprentice to Heston Blumenthal, will serve up accompany canapés; and epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani, author of 'The Wisdom of Whores', will talk sex and dirt over dessert.
See the full programme of events at the Guerilla Science website.
Image credit: Guerilla Science.
