Thursday 1 October 2015

UCL Museums Oct

Wed, 30 September - Fri, 2 October at 7.30pm
Bloomsbury Studio, 15 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AH
                        
What is more fundamental: the fact that you are a unique individual, or your relationship to others in your social group, family or society?

In a night of science, music and games, audience members will explore this issue in mass participation experiments. Through their phones or tablets, people will connect to a website displayed on a large screen at the front of the theatre. Together everyone will play games, collaborate with musicians in making music, take difficult decisions, and experience whether they perform better as individuals or as a group. We will discuss how their group behaviour can be understood using the latest tools in social science research.
       


1 October - 19 December, Mon-Sat, 1pm-5pm
Grant Museum, UCL

How do minerals become living things? 

In this exhibition of prints, drawings, videos and objects, Artist in Residence Eleanor Morganexplores the slippery boundary between living and non-living materials. Her work is inspired by the Grant Museum's collection of intricate glass sponges – animals that naturally build themselves out of glass – they are formed of 90% silica.
Fri, 2 October, 11.30am-4.30pm
Wilkins North Observatory, The Quad, UCL

The University of London Observatory (ULO) has existed since 1929. Due to its Mill Hill location many are not aware it exists, let alone its fascinating work. ULO has a long history of teaching and research, and recently made the headlines when a new supernova was discovered during a teaching session. ULO has an archive of images of the sun, comets, nebulae etc dating from its earliest days to the present, a small selection of which are available online -http://www.ulo.ucl.ac.uk/webimage/.

This exhibition aims to show off these fascinating images in a central UCL location.
Sat, 24 October, 1pm-5pm 
Institute of Making, Malet Place, UCL, WC1E 7JE  
        
Join us for an extravaganza of materials and making around the theme of Clay & Ceramics.

Have a go at making your own clay pot, building a mini brick wall and watch magnificent throwing demos by a master potter. Learn how ceramic bioactive scaffolding can help rebuild broken bone with Imperial's Biomaterials Research Group. Explore how china clay is used to make our magazine covers glossy. Get making, squidging, playing and extruding clay.
   
In our wondrous Materials Library we will be joined by Clayground; who have a collected numerous clays, dug from around the world and relayed back to London by volunteers.
Fri, 30 October, 6.30pm-9.30pm
Timber Lodge cafe, Olympic Park
    
UCL Museums and Collections house a treasure trove of the awe inspiring and unusual. But we don’t just think of ourselves as being a collection of objects fixed to one space and place, we believe that the Museum is where the people are and we want to take the spirit of our collections off-site for the Museums at Night event.

We'll be setting up an imagined museum space in the Timber Lodge cafe on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and celebrating our shared connections with residents and community group members from Stratford East and the surrounding areas.