Designs for Life

I've just got back from a three-day trip to the Diamond Light Source (the UK synchotron in Oxfordshire). On a previous visit I noticed a set of textile panels on the back walls of the atrium, which looked like art based on images from the kind of scientific research done at the lab - including things like diffraction patterns, mould spores and viral molecules - but I didn't have much time to really look at them.

This time I had a bit longer and remembered to bring my camera, so one evening I decided I would get a few photos - I think that these are the kinds of things that Kyle would enjoy seeing and maybe she would enjoy the pictures. While I was busy snapping away a woman came and asked me why I was taking pictures - I was sure that I was going to get told off! But it turned out that she was Anne Griffith's - Diamond's "artist in residence" - and had been responsible for the collaboration of different artists that had produced the work.

She told me that she has a studio in office space next to the synchrotron ring, and that the panels - collectively called "Designs for Life" - were one of a number of different collaborations between artists and scientists at the lab. She also told me about how the panels had come to be produced, including one that featured stitching from many of the scientists - including the laboratory director. She also pointed out some other artworks in the atrium that I hadn't noticed before.

It was interesting to hear about the stories behind the art. To me they bring some warmth to the grand but possibly rather clinical atrium space, and also reveal the beauty in the science which is appreciated by scientists but sadly not always made visible to a lay audience - and in this (and in the source of their inspiration) they reminded me of similar designs for the 1951 Festival of Britain (celebrated in last year's "Atoms to Patterns" exhibition at the Wellcome Trust.

Anne has a website at http://www.pocketmouse.co.uk/ which talks about the "Designs for Life" project (amongst others) as part of her residency at Diamond - and you can see some of the panels in my (totally unofficial and completely unauthorise!) "Designs for Life" set on Flickr. Enjoy the collision of art, textiles and science!