Exquisite Corpse of Science – The Movie

A couple of months back I blogged about a ‘science and society’ project that two colleagues and I undertook at Imperial College.

It involved asking people to draw what they thought was important in science today and provide a voice commentary while they drew.  To make the product a little more interesting, we took the resulting sketches, painted them up a bit, and joined them in the manner of the Surrealist technique known as ‘Exquisite Corpse’.  You can refer to the original post here for more details and some analysis of the result.  That post included only a static picture; but by popular request I’m here posting the full (10 mins) movie version with sound.  See what you think.

The Exquisite Corpse of Science from Tim Jones on Vimeo.

(Credit: this educational/non-commercial audio-visual piece incorporates on a fair use basis music extracts from Thomas Newman’s ‘Dead Already’ – from the soundtrack of American Beauty)

15 thoughts on “Exquisite Corpse of Science – The Movie”

  1. Tim,

    This is wonderful!

    Are you able to set the movie for streaming so it starts faster?

    And do you have any plans for expanding the project – or getting others to do similar things?

  2. Great stuff! Interesting that the more people are involved in science, the more optimistic (and more specialised) they seem to be. It’s amazing how well these all work together. The overall effect is surprisingly appealing.

  3. Excellent! Working at the interface of science and law, I do appreciate this kind of project that attempts and contributes to bringing society back to science, or vice versa depending on how you look at it.

  4. Thanks Clare. No substitute for just grabbing people and asking them what they think!

    These people see different pieces of the jigsaw from different perspectives; but I agree they somehow fall together and the various comments echo off one another.

  5. Thanks Karen. Yes, this sits along the why is science important project very well I think. It’s proved to be a real conversation starter from all sorts of angles, so sure – lets get it out there!

  6. Dannie,

    Glad you liked the piece. I think when people get over the initial shock of this format, they really open up and have fun.

    I wonder what would happen if you asked the same question about what people thought about the law and lawyers? Let me know !!!

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