Dr Mark Miodownik

Dr Mark Miodownik is head of the Materials Research Group at King’s College London. In 2003 he was awarded a National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts (NESTA) fellowship to create a Materials Library as interaction space for designers, architects and artists to collaborate with materials scientists.

In 2004 he co-presented Chain Reaction on BBC TWO, and in 2005 he co-organised and chaired two seminars at the Tate Modern on the influence of new materials on the arts. In 2006, he co-designed AfterImage, an installation in the Hayward Gallery which was part of the Dan Flavin retrospective. He is a member of the Cheltenham Science Festival Advisory Group, a Board member of Ignite and writes a regular column on the senso-aesthetics of materials. This year he is sitting on the judging panel for 2008 Art Fund Prize.

Talk

Dr Miodownik will be holding a late night café talk about matter, His Dark Materials, at 9.30pm on Saturday 3 May, in which he will discuss the imminence of material innovations and how they will change the nature of art and craft in the 21st century. This talk reviews the cultural impact of new materials and provides an introduction to the science that underpins future innovations. Click here for more information.

Workshop

On Sunday 4 May he will host a family workshop, Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?, in which people can take part in science experiments on the beach! This will be a chance to investigate the scientific unpinnings of the sand and the sea. Watch the decomposition of chalk into lime using hydrochloric acid, then add dyes to the powder and watch the chalk’s reconstitution into pastels to make drawings on blackboards set up on the beach! Click here for more information.

<sub>These events are supported by the Materials Library

Image: courtesy Dr Mark Miodownik</sub>