Friday, April 14, 2006

Science Festival Fun

This is just a quick note to say that I am currently running activities at the Edinburgh International Science festival (April 11th – 15th, 2006) at the National Museum of Scotland. There are two activities: Editing Memory and Directing Reality.

Editing Memory is a drop in activity in which you get to test your memory for films by reconstructing the film using editing. It is proving to be very VERY popular (my helpers can barely keep up!). Come and have a go (its free) if you want to test you memory or try editing a film. You can visit the website for more information and the eventual results: http://scifest.inf.ed.ac.uk/editing-memory/

Directing Reality is a 1-hour workshop in which kids (and big kids) can come and make Trick Films using really simple filming techniques. The films the kids are making are just like those produced by George Melies over a hundred years ago. The intention of the workshop is to get the kids thinking about the expectations and assumptions we make when perceiving the visual world and how these can be violated to create funny illusions using editing. The kids pick it up really quickly and the tricks they come up with are marvellous. If you want to come and have a go get down to the museum before Saturday although you might want to book on-line before hand (http://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/) as tickets are selling out fast (they cost £3).

Hope to see you there :)