“IT’S AMAZING HOW we consistently grow our visitor numbers and never grow our space. It’s a scientific conundrum but it continues to happen.”
With over 400,000 visitors last year and as it’s about to enter its 10th year, the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin looks to continue its momentum as it launched its programme for 2018 yesterday.
“It’s a big year next year. We’re turning 10, it’s hard to believe that we’ve been here for so long. It’s so exciting,” Lynn Scarff, director of the gallery told TheJournal.ie.
Scarff said that she really wanted to do the gallery justice in its 10th year and have creative and innovative shows on display, which also brought with them elements of the society we currently live in.
“The thing that the Science Gallery always tries to do with our themes is to connect and surprise,” Scarff said.
“We’re always looking at themes which resonate with big questions that are happening in a social, a political or an economic context,” she said.
It’s not necessarily that we’re trying to develop something that takes a deep dive into a particular science, but instead something that really offers a new perspective on something that we’re going through collectively at the moment.
In 2018, the free-to-enter Dublin gallery will feature three exhibitions, which Scarff said will “explore some of the biggest challenges of our time.”
They are…
The Fake exhibition kicks off 2018 for the Science Gallery.
It will pose the question of our understanding of deception – why do we fake certain aspects of our lives and how can we spot a lie?
“Fake is obviously really important given what is happening in the world, particularly in terms of politics but also in terms of how we value things and how we attribute the value of things,” Scarff said.
Fake runs from 2 March to 3 June.
From terraforming planets to tracking microbes on geothermal vents, this exhibition will explore “life at the edges”.
Scarff said that this exhibition will look at the impact of climate change, extreme environments and how we could, for example, potentially live in space.
“Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The Science Gallery would never do a show called Climate Change, so we’re always trying to take an approach which allows us to ask the questions about climate change in a more compelling way,” Scarff said.
Life At The Edges runs from 22 June to 30 August.
The final exhibition of 2018 at the Science Gallery, Intimacy, will examine the science and art of connection between humans, bringing together neuroscience, behaviour, belief and trust.
“We’ll be exploring whether we’ve forgotten how to be intimate and not necessarily in a sexual way, but actually in terms of friendship and the power of them,” Scarff said.
We’ve lost the ability as humans to have conversations when we’re coming from polar opposite opinions. Intimacy is really probing that in some ways about how those human connections are really critical.
Intimacy runs from 19 October 2018 to 3 February 2019.
The Science Gallery is located on Pearse Street, Dublin. For more information about upcoming events visit the gallery’s website here.
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