IN THESE STRANGE TIMES: Science Gallery Dublin Exhibit (2021)
By Clara Dudley
“How close do you feel?” asks the full-height typography on the windows facing Pearse Street in Dublin City Centre, a strange intubated beast visible through the thick glass.
IN THESE STRANGE TIMES is an interdisciplinary exhibit launched by Science Gallery Dublin, an evolving series created in response to the global pandemic. It is distinctly adapted to the lockdown era, a culmination of cross-disciplinary collaborations with artists and thinkers working through socially distant measures over the course of 2020.
Opening on 12 March 2021, exactly one year after Ireland initiated its first nationwide lockdown in response to COVID-19, IN THESE STRANGE TIMES features three main on-site and digital components – all accessible for free to the public – which examine our sudden ‘new normal’ through data, psychology, fabrication, conversation, and more.
Promotional overview of IN THESE STRANGE TIMES (Dublin Science Gallery, 2021)
Covid Series Illustrations
The visual identity of the exhibit is established predominantly by illustrator Staselė Jakunskaitė’s conceptual series. The Covid Series harmoniously blends common imagery that has come to dominate the public imagination during the pandemic – mobile phones, the virus structure, houses, syringes – with the psychological anxieties that lie beneath: contagion, isolation, misinformation, the passage of time, and the private coping strategies we’ve developed.
Staselė’s unique visual style builds conceptual imagery from a minimalist composition and palette, with tightly-communicated central messaging that lends itself beautifully to the editorial illustration genre.
The illustrations are applied across platforms to the podcast artwork and promotions, and posted on the street for public view, alongside quotes from politicians, world leaders, and media figures (exteriors art direction by Rory McCormick).
Juxtaposed with these media soundbites that represent insights into the public’s response, both locally and worldwide, the Covid Series adds an introspective poignance to the public installation.
A.I.R. Installation
A.I.R. is a commissioned installation situated in the windows of the gallery, facing the street to the public. Developed by Spanish arts and research collective Multiplay, A.I.R. marks the culmination of a joint artist residency at Science Gallery Dublin and Accenture’s global research and development (R&D) and innovation centre, The Dock.
“The transdisciplinary exhibit A.I.R. … is a time capsule of life worldwide during the first six months of 2020: through its physical expansion and contraction, A.I.R. brings digital data to life,” according to Science Gallery Dublin.
“Its tubes (veins?), membrane (skin?), and air (breath?) nod to our own patient physical embodiments; we can relate to these basic mechanisms.. ”
By mining databases of online data trends and discussions during 2020, intertwined multicoloured tubes representing conversation topics “breathe” pumped air in and out in relation to the frequency and breadth of discussion. The artists refer to “social murmurations,” or attempting to find the “signals amidst the background noise” as the world turned to the Internet for connection in the absence of physical interactivity.
While the installation’s shiny plastic exterior and nylon appendages are aesthetically techno-scientific, there is a distinctly zoologic uncanniness to it, like a living taxonomical specimen of a body breathing and pumping blood. Its tubes (veins?), membrane (skin?), and air (breath?) nod to our own patient physical embodiments; we can relate to these basic mechanisms, the body existing behind the windowpane in safe distance from public life, affecting and being affected by the world of data we absorb.
Physically built into the piece, as well, is a reflection on intimacy, proximity, and one fundamentally crucial element at the heart of the COVID-19 crisis: air.
As the tubes breathe, the clear plastic membrane expands and contracts around them. And it is through this rhythmic relationship between billowing open space and clenched suffocation that we the viewers are offered a visceral reflection of how our own sense of intimacy has been radically altered by the pandemic: how is physical closeness both a mortal threat, and an existential need? How have we managed our private lives amidst the restrictions of public spaces? And how has an invisible pathogen that thrives in close physical proximity impacted our public spaces – possibly forever?
A.I.R. can be viewed and explored in 3D here or on Pearse Street, Dublin 2. To learn more, visit the Science Gallery Dublin website, or a-i-r.online.
Podcast Series (Available on Spotify)
The programme also features a new series of podcasts, hosted by 2FM DJ Tara Stewart and with appearances by researchers and artists working at the cutting edge of biomedical, environmental, behavioural and robotics science. The podcast examines themes immediately relevant to our new era, such as mass communication, intimacy, and emerging technology. The series episodes also feature the satirical FUTURECAST by Lucas Garvey.
“How close can we get during a pandemic?” puts into conversation an interaction designer and neuroscientist and looks at innovations designed to help us feel closer, even when we feel far apart.
“What role does design play in times of crisis?” examines case studies on how the language of design has been used in the pandemic, and engages a conversation between two designers of different disciplines.
The series is ongoing; all episodes can all be found here on Spotify.
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Amidst an extraordinary era of sudden upheaval to the pace and conditions of civic life, Science Gallery Dublin is perhaps perfectly positioned to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic with a genuinely engaging programme.
With the institution’s creative ethos of cross-disciplinary collaboration, social critique, and scientific inquiry, this exhibit is both an exploration and an offering. IN THESE STRANGE TIMES creates an insightful platform - both digitally and in situ - for our new (sur)reality.
IN THESE STRANGE TIMES
Where: Science Gallery Dublin, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Pearse Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.
When: 12 March 2021 - ongoing
Opening hours: 24/7 (on display/online)
Find out more at the Science Gallery Dublin website
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Photographs and video courtesy of Science Gallery Dublin
Illustrations courtesy of Staselė Jakunskaitė
