Tonight I will be re-enacting a version of CP Snow‘s famous lecture “The Two Cultures” at V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam as part of Blowup: New Materials, New Methods.

Blow Up: New Materials, New Methods from V2_ on Vimeo. [Play from 14:00]

“The Two Cultures” was first given as a Rede Lecture at the University of Cambridge in 1959 and explores what Snow saw as the growing divide between the sciences and the arts (specifically the literary arts). His phrase has become a well-worn cliche often used but rarely read in its original context. Whilst many of the conditions that inspired Snow’s lecture have changed in the intervening half-century, there remain elements which still ring true today – not least in his call for a true integration between the arts and the sciences to address the challenges that humans face in the world.

I will be repeating my performance alongside V2_ curators Boris Debackere and Michelle Kasprzak at the Craft Council’s Make:Shift conference on Friday November 21st (2.30pm-4.20pm) at Makerversity in Somerset House. This session is presented as an expert meeting on Innovation in Extreme Scenarios – the focus of V2_’s research over the past few years.