Blogs

Andrew Baird was born in Melbourne in 1956. As a kid, when asked what he wanted to do when he grew up, his answer would be: "An author or an artist." There was something compelling about the idea of living a life where the main concern was to create new ... Continue Reading »

RiAus has a jam-packed program of science acts for Fringe 2013. But if you’re still hungry for more, there are a number of other science-related acts at various locations around Adelaide. Please note that these acts are not produced by RiAus, but by external artists/companies. Comedy ... Continue Reading »

Art vs Science. No, not the band, but the question of whether art and science are speaking the same language. On one hand art is usually defined by imagination and the expression of creative skills while science is thought of as the intellectual and practical study of the physical and ... Continue Reading »

David Kerr has a background in visual arts, design and education. He has worked as a teacher, a practicing artist, an art lecturer, an arts administrator and an exhibition designer. He is currently the manager of design and development at the South Australian Museum; and he maintains his practice as ... Continue Reading »

Janice Lally has been a gallery director, curator, and independent consultant in the arts, crafts, design and cultural heritage sectors since 1990. Prior to that as a Master of Clinical Biochemistry (1980, Flinders University) she was a researcher in medical science for nearly 20 years. She was awarded a PhD ... Continue Reading »

Colour, science, pattern and form drawn from the natural and hi-tech worlds – all this is ready and waiting to be explored in the Incredible Inner Space exhibition. Selecting the images for this exhibition was a really exciting chance to show off, not only great images, but great science ... Continue Reading »

I would like to share with you the process I used to calculate the volume of my heart using my fist. It is understood that your fist is about the same size as you heart. Without getting some high-tech medical scanning done, using water displacement was the best method I ... Continue Reading »

I’m inspired by technologies for imaging the inside of the human body. I wonder if the more we understand about how our bodies work, will it change the way we see ourselves? I know my view of my own body has changed a great deal since starting my research. Micrograph images [caption ... Continue Reading »

Recently, we tagged along on a tour of the Queen’s Gallery’s current exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci – Anatomist, led by its impressively knowledgeable curator, Martyn Clayton. We highly recommend this exhibition, but for those who can’t make it, here’s what we learned. The exhibition begins with a short introductory film. Nature(watch ... Continue Reading »

I’ve recently returned from a round-the-world adventure, presenting at several conferences and workshops about my PhD research and exploring along the way. During my adventures I was lucky enough to visit some of the world’s coolest places that do science-art projects, as well as compare notes with some people working ... Continue Reading »

Chimera Series, 2006Beans, stockings, water, acrylic   Chimera Series, 2005White carnation, blood, glass vessel In the ... Continue Reading »

This SALA season, RiAus will open its FutureSpace Gallery to an art exhibition that takes us to a place we all know – or we think we do – the domestic environment. RiAus aims to foster links with the local arts and science community and within the SALA Festival, its Domestic ... Continue Reading »

Renate Nisi was born in Germany in 1948 and has lived in Australia since 1971, mostly in Adelaide. She has worked as a high school teacher and teacher of ESL, and has spent 15 years co-running a shoemaking business and making bespoke footwear. In 2001 she graduated from Adelaide Central ... Continue Reading »

Niki Sperou has had a longstanding interest in the nexus between art, culture and science. She has been the artist in residence at the Department of Medical Biotechnology, Flinders University since 2006. Her artwork is primarily to do with human identity and the impact recent technological advancements have had upon ... Continue Reading »

Cheryl Hutchens is an Adelaide based textile artist with an interest in biology and the human condition. She has always had a passion for making with fabric and stitch and after receiving a Bachelor of Visual Art from the South Australian School of Art in 1999 she studied dressmaking at ... Continue Reading »

Beth Evans is a visual artist with a background as a chiropractor and osteopath. Working from the Tannery Print Studio in Adelaide, Beth creates artwork that takes its inspiration from her former career as a health professional. Her work includes artists books, printmaking and small-scale bronze sculpture. She created her first ... Continue Reading »

South Australian contemporary jeweller Alice Potter finished her Bachelor of Visual Communications at UniSA in 2004, and completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts at TAFE SA; Adelaide Centre for the Arts in 2006. She currently holds the title of Program Manager in the Metal Design Studio at the internationally ... Continue Reading »

Samantha Moore is a maker of animated documentaries with an interest in representing internal brain states through animation.  Originally studying fine art and English literature at Exeter University she continued her study at Central Saint Martins School of Art in fine art film. Her first film was made using oil on ... Continue Reading »

“I make the face into a landscape. And I journey across that landscape like Gulliver’s Lilliputians, crawling over the face of a giant, not knowing, that they were on the face of a giant.” - Chuck Close. Chuck Close is an American painter, famous for his intimate portraits. Up close his ... Continue Reading »

Spectacular photographic images of the Australian night sky will be on display at The Science Exchange as part of the touring exhibition Winning sky photographs: the David Malin Awards 2011.   View the full media release - Award winning night sky photographs on exhibit

Have you ever sat in a room and found yourself thinking "I'm not sure I know what this is, but I know that I like it"? If you were at last Thursday's SuperFractals event, you may have had just those thoughts. If you haven't heard of fractals before, the blog ... Continue Reading »

RiAus and The Science Exchange have been recognised for staging high quality events in the science/arts arena with three awards at this year’s Adelaide Fringe. View full media release - RiAus takes out three 2012 Adelaide Fringe Awards

Giving new meaning to the phrase “diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” Melbourne artist Kerrie Poliness has been fascinated with the form for over two decades. She says it began as an “experiment, restricting my art practice to working with just one shape – the diamond. It’s basically kept ... Continue Reading »

Tim Schork of Melbourne’s innovative MESNE Design Studio and Melbourne-based artists Caroline Durré, Sam Songailo and Kerrie Poliness are all in Adelaide this week to create optically dazzling installations for the RiAus Adelaide Fringe exhibition at the Science Exchange FutureSpace Gallery. Art, Pattern and Complexity opens to the public on Thursday 16 February, ... Continue Reading »

Cherry Greenslade has always loved to crochet and was thrilled to be Project Manager of the RiAus Adelaide Reef, a satellite of the worldwide Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project. Craft and creativity are a big part of her life. She set up the popular craft group, Brown Owls ... Continue Reading »

City drivers, cyclists and pedestrians took a double-take when mannequins moved across town by "cargo bike" yesterday. Cycling fanatics hope sights like this will become commonplace in the future, when sustainable, livable cities are made for cycling. Australian Cycling Conference convenor Fay Patterson borrowed the mannequins from TAFE SA for a new ... Continue Reading »

RiAus was hosting an exhibition of cycle clothing unlike anything you’ve seen before. Retro-reflective clothing for the modern day cyclist is as much about high fashion as high-vis. The works embodied art as well as technology and are concerned with both flair and safety. Watch a video of The travelling mannequins ... Continue Reading »

Van Gogh said an artist should ‘ignore the obvious and exaggerate the essential.’ Fractal homeomorphisms enable us to do just that! The beautiful world of fractal geometry can be found in nature, from the shape of a shoreline to the curl of a fern frond. Fractals can also be used ... Continue Reading »

Artists are exploring ideas about pattern and complexity that draw on the latest scientific and mathematical theories. Their paintings, installations and interactive artworks feature mesmerising optical patterns and digitally-generated complex behaviour. Each lace pattern created during the exhibition was instantly printed on a 6x4" index card and automatically uploaded to MESNE Design ... Continue Reading »

On entering the latest exhibition in the RiAus FutureSpace Gallery, the viewer is greeted by a video installation of a man dressed in a newsreader’s suit, speaking in impassioned tones of politics, renewable energy and fossil fuels. Energy Landscapes: The new frontier is a collaboration between painter Robert Habel and filmmaker ... Continue Reading »

Murray Bridge students were treated to a colourful, interactive two-hour presentation with a focus on marine conservation last week. Facilitated by the Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) the event, held at the Murray Bridge South Primary School, featured special guest artist and author Kim Michelle Toft, and South Australian Research and ... Continue Reading »

Sarah: Last night I dreamt of gold latex and silk. I dreamt of cuttlefish.  I dreamt of whales. View full article from Bridge8: Last night, I dreamt of gold latex and silk (3 August 2011)

In the lead up to her appearance at the RiAus event, Great Big Science Read: A sea of words, Kim Michelle Toft took the time to answer some questions for us. How and why did you start painting? I started drawing at the age of four, my inspiration ... Continue Reading »

One less fish Kim Michelle Toft’s beautifully illustrated children’s book warns us of the perils of abusing our underwater ecosystems, with a particular focus upon the fragile ecology of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The narrative is a rhythmical countdown as angelfish, clownfish, parrotfish and others are eliminated one by one due to ... Continue Reading »

In a recent article featuring Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg's Synthetic Kingdom project, Hettie Judah asked, "would people still be scared of nanotechnology if we could make it strawberry flavoured?" In some ways the artworks in LIFE 2.0: artifice to synthesis are so subtle that they don't need sweetening. New technologies slide ... Continue Reading »

Marina Wallace is Director of Artakt, The Innovation Centre, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, and co-director with Martin Kemp of the Universal Leonardo. Marina Wallace is closely engaged with contemporary art and design as an art historian, writer, lecturer curator and artist. She has curated a number ... Continue Reading »

Steven was born and raised in South Australia and is proud to share the same initials. At the end of the last century he spent four years majoring in photography at the South Australian School of Art and subsequently worked for five years as a tutor in art theory at ... Continue Reading »

What is an energy landscape? Artists Robert Habel and Cole Larsen have explored the concept of an energy landscape, and the complex interactions that occur between humans, energy technology and the settings they inhabit. What makes a landscape beautiful, and how can we balance aesthetics, human ... Continue Reading »

Painter Robert Habel and filmmaker Cole Larsen enmeshed themselves in established and emerging industrial landscapes including the ‘alternative’ energy landscape - solar and wind farms, geothermal, biomass and tidal energy. This collaboration uncovered an aesthetic appeal while delving into the debate surrounding the environment and our ... Continue Reading »

Carol hails from the UK where she trained in information graphics and advertising, emerging a problem solver with a penchant for type. She is an experienced designer with more than 10 years industry experience, over half that time working directly with blue chip clients across all sectors on all manner ... Continue Reading »

Lynette Wallworth is an Australian artist whose practice spans video installation, photography and short film. In her current body of work, she specialises in the creation of immersive installation environments that offer tactile gateways. Frequently, the works are developed in series to provide a sense of a cumulative process that changes ... Continue Reading »

Kim Michelle Toft's love of the ocean and its coastal habitats are the basis for her multi-award winning children's books. An artist and author, Toft illustrates each of her books with hand-painted silk paintings. As well as working as a silk artist/illustrator and author for 20 years in northern ... Continue Reading »

David Malin was initially trained as a chemist and worked for a large chemical company in the north of England, and joined the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) as its photographic scientist in August 1975. This was shortly after scheduled observations began on the then-new, 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope. While ... Continue Reading »

Born: 1930s, Wardaman country, Northern Territory Bill Yidumduma Harney is the last fully initiated male custodian of the Wardaman people, and is a celebrated artist, writer, didjeridu maker, songman and storyteller.  He was the son of infamous Australian storyteller William E Harney, but grew up with his Aboriginal ... Continue Reading »