Feature: Events Diary
Published: 22 September, 2011
One Culture: festival of literature and arts
The Royal Society is marking 350 years of the foundation of its library with a two-day festival One Culture next weekend, celebrating literature and the arts. In some 29 different events, top novelists, scientists, poets and historians will explore the crosscurrents between science and culture.
Among the many highlights:
• Maths on stage: the dramatic life of numbers in which mathematician and broadcaster Professor Marcus Du Sautoy (pictured) will talk about his experiences working with theatre company Complicite on their production A Disappearing Number. Saturday October 1, 10.30-11.30am, £8
• About Time “If you knew Time as well as I do,” the Mad Hatter says to Alice, “you wouldn’t talk about wasting it.” In this event, organised in partnership with the Royal Society of Literature, three writers well-acquainted with time discuss how it (or he) both controls and captivates us. Professor John D Barrow, author of The Book of Universes (2011) and the play Infinities, chairs a discussion with Dame Gillian Beer FBA, King Edward VII Professor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge and a leading figure at the interface between science and literature, will shortly publish a study of time in the Alice books, and writer and academic Eva Hoffman, whose highly praised work Time (2009) has been described as “a radical exploration of our relationship with life’s most ineffable element”. Saturday, 2.30-3.30pm, £4.
• Three-times winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award, academic, author and activist China Miéville discusses fiction and science with Tom Hunter, director of the Clarke Awards. China Miéville belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from the commercial and genre clichés of Tolkien. He is also active in politics and published his PhD thesis as a book on Marxism and international law. His latest work, combining linguistics with extraterrestrials is Embassytown. Sunday 3.15-4.15pm, £4.
• A range of hand-on activities designed to inspire and challenge young and old with science run throughout the morning on Saturday (10am-1pm)
• One Culture events take place on October 1 and 2 at the Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, SW1. Book in advance through the Hay Festival website: www. hayfestival.com/ m-51-the-royal-society-2011.aspx or call 01497 822629. Most events are priced at just £4, with some at £8. Full programme details at http://royalsociety.org
The London Art Book Fair
The London Art Book Fair starts tomorrow (Friday) at the Whitechapel Gallery. This an annual event is devoted to international art publishing, presenting the work of individual artist publishers, galleries, magazines, colleges, arts publishing houses, rare book dealers and distributors alongside a wider associated programme of talks and events over the three days, including In Conversation: Mark Wallinger and Martin Herbert (Saturday 12-1pm, Zilkha auditorium, free). The Turner Prize-winning artist discusses the issues that inform his work – politics, sport, class and religion. Full programme listings on the website.
• The London Art Book Fair, Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1, September 23-25, 11am-6pm, 0207 522 7888, www.thelondonartbook fair.com
The Everyday Dancer
Deborah Bull, former principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, joins broadcaster Christopher Cook at the Royal Academy to preview her new book The Everyday Dancer, published next month (Faber £14.99).
• The event is part of the RA’s current exhibition on Degas and the Ballet. Royal Academy, Reynolds Room, Friday September 30, 6.30-7.30pm, event £12, or event plus entry to the exhibition £16 / £7 (students, jobseekers and people with disabilities). Book at www.royal academy.org.uk/events
or call 020 7300 5839.