Plastique fantastic and beyond – all in the name of science
The World Science Festival Brisbane has always explored the nexus between art and science and this year’s event is no different.
It sounds counterintuitive, but the World Science Festival Brisbane 2025 is not just about science. It has always accentuated, to a greater and lesser degree year by year, the arts and the intersection between the arts and science.
The festival, which is on from March 21 to 30, is once again presenting a small program of arts events to underline that.
It’s an important and foundational concept that was made very clear in 2016 when US actor Alan Alda came to the festival at the invitation of Professor Brian Greene, who founded the festival with his wife, journalist Tracy Day, in the US before bringing it to Brisbane.
Alda was in Brisbane for the first iteration of the festival. I was fortunate enough to interview him then and, yes, he is one hell of a nice guy.
Alda, a thespian with a passion for science and for explaining science, sometimes in artistic terms, spoke on that visit of the “broken love affair between art and science”. Those remarks were made during a speech at the National Press Club of Australia, in a bid to reawaken public interest in science.
The US actor, known best for his television role as Hawkeye Pearce in M*A*S*H, attended the inaugural World Science Festival Brisbane in 2016 to present his play about Albert Einstein’s letters.
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The actor has put a lot of energy into trying to break down the communication barriers between scientists and the general public in the hope of making science a credible source of information.
“Art and science used to be very much alike,” he said at the time. “Science and art have grown so far apart they are like two long lost lovers waiting to be reunited.”
That drew some mirth from those listening to his speech in Canberra. He added, with his trademark humour, “I like to get to the sex as early as possible.”
Funny guy with a serious message and one the World Science Festival Brisbane has taken to heart. It has explored the science-art connection through theatre, music and visual art.
The festival takes place at iconic venues across Brisbane, including Queensland Museum (home of the festival), the Cultural Precinct, South Bank Piazza and Fish Lane.
On the arts program is a performance called Peak Plastique in the Ian Hanger Recital Hall at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, on March 28.
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A sonic journey into the world of plastic
In this performance, ordinary plastic objects will be transformed into extraordinary soundscapes. This sonic journey into the world of plastic, featuring 11 exquisite musical compositions accompanied by evocative animations, will explore our complex relationship with plastics.
Drawing on decades of sonic curiosity across the fields of classical, jazz and experimental music traditions, pianist Erik Griswold, violinist Anna McMichael, percussionist Vanessa Tomlinson and video artist Nick Roux join forces for the first time to ponder one of the most significant problems of our time.
The Ruckus Poetry Slam is another opportunity for art and science to intersect at Lefty’s Music Hall on March 26. Brisbane’s infamous open-mic poetry extravaganza brings you a veritable science-themed scribe supernova, where wordsmiths from the streets of Brisbane are invited to cast their prose into the furnace of Lefty’s stage and battle it out with hammer and anvil to create new alloys of linguistic elasticity as yet unforeseen in the known universe.
Next on March 27, A scientist, a philosopher and two artists walk into a collection will discuss how different disciplines engage with the Queensland Herbarium collection. We will hear from a botanist, a philosopher and two artists who will discuss how they access, use and enhance our understanding of the Queensland Herbarium collection, particularly with respect to a changing climate.
On March 29 there’s Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb: An Afternoon of Science in the Concert Hall at QPAC. Joining them will be an ensemble of local and international scientists celebrating curiosity, innovation and the sheer joy of scientific discovery.
Among other items on the arts program is the QAGOMA Film Program featuring a range of movies with science themes, including the 1975 classic, Jaws.
Where’s the science involved there, you ask? Well, I guess you could say it’s a film about marine biology. But nobody needs much of an excuse to see Jaws again on the big screen at GOMA’s Australian Cinematheque. Enjoy.