Master's students get to show off at Glastonbury

Glastonbury is more than music – it’s also a rich canvas of ideas, lifestyles and creations.

A small but lively corner of the world’s biggest festival was occupied by students and staff from LJMU’s Art in Science MA.

They displayed their work in the Science Futures area, a science-themed area of the Green Futures field inhabited by scientists from leading universities.

Master’s student Gary Lester was showing ‘Janus’ a striking sculpture which illustrates two methods to calculate fractional dimensions; the Hausdorff measure and the Minkowski-Bouligand box-counting method.  (other methods are available!)

Course-mate Libby Robinson showed photography which focussed on sensory objects and environments and how they can benefit neurodiverse individuals.

Sessional tutor Jay Hampton displayed a series of digital drawings which respond to a study called 'Bugs Matter' which found that flying insects have declined by 60% in the last 20 years.

“I’ve never been to Glastonbury. It has always been out my price range,” jokes Gary: “It was an honour to show my work there. The consilience of Art and Science is very important to me. Art is a way of me putting into physical form my thoughts.”

Science Futures is co-ordinated by Prof Emma Sayer of Lancaster University, and the area hosted games, music, demonstrations and performances that explored everything from climate change and space travel to plant power and much more.

MA Art in Science leader Mark Roughley said: “This is the second year our student have been invited to show at the festival and we were delighted that new works were contributed by students, graduates and staff from the programme, plus researchers at Face Lab LJMU.

“Exhibitions are fantastic ways of disseminating research outcomes in visually enticing ways, and what better place for social diffusion of the research than at a festival attended by thousands of people!”