Light in the North: SUN at the Orkney International Science Festival 2023
Lead Research Organisation:
Orkney International Science Festival
Department Name: Management
Abstract
The overall aim of the project is to develop a theme around "astronomy, solar and planetary science" by displaying the immersive SUN installation in St Magnus Cathedral as centrepiece throughout the seven days of the Orkney International Science Festival (OISF) from Thursday 7 to Wednesday 13 September 2023.
This aim of bringing the SUN to Orkney is particularly important, as the geographical remoteness of the islands means that the nearest science centre, in Aberdeen, is a 6-hour ferry journey away, with two overnight stays as well. So a package of activities is being put together around the visit of the SUN, to provide a combined richness of experience that normally would be impossible in an island situation. The activities will include two concerts in the Cathedral, talks on topics from fusion research to Maxwell's discovery of the nature of light, art activities, and an exhibition on the life and work of a 19th-century Orcadian physicist whose geomagnetic studies confirmed the link between solar storms and terrestrial magnetic effects.
Skilled explainers will be on hand to provide guided tours of the SUN. Some will be young postgraduate researchers from UCLAN, and two will be experienced Festival astronomy presenters.
Direct benefits to schools are a key factor. Orkney's school population is approximately 3,000 (18 primaries, two senior secondaries and three junior highs). Geographical remoteness limits access to the rich range of resources available to city schools. The Scottish Government's Urban Rural Classification (2020) lists Orkney's population as 33.5% in Remote Small Towns (with 3 schools) and 66.5% Remote Rural (20 schools). Overall, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 has 12 Orkney schools in areas of high deprivation (mainly SIMD 2 and 3). Hence, the requested funds will be key to engage schools and community groups, adults and families from across Orkney, including its outer islands which through their remoteness rank high on the Scottish Index for Multiple Deprivation and Urban-Rural Classification.
The overall impact we aim for is:
- inspiring the community with a first-hand encounter with something unique, the outcome of a creative collaboration between an artist and a solar physicist, and the feeling of coming close to the sheer scale of the seething mass of energy of the Sun
- providing a back-up context of information from display material and first-hand information from skilled explainers, opening up connections to the process of scientific understanding and some of the people involved in it
- stimulating school pupils and provide teachers with added opportunities and resources to enrich the curriculum
- opening up new creative opportunities for people in Orkney's lively artistic community
- giving the community an overall feeling that great things are possible after several years in which the necessities of public health have led to a climate of caution and holding back and staying in
This aim of bringing the SUN to Orkney is particularly important, as the geographical remoteness of the islands means that the nearest science centre, in Aberdeen, is a 6-hour ferry journey away, with two overnight stays as well. So a package of activities is being put together around the visit of the SUN, to provide a combined richness of experience that normally would be impossible in an island situation. The activities will include two concerts in the Cathedral, talks on topics from fusion research to Maxwell's discovery of the nature of light, art activities, and an exhibition on the life and work of a 19th-century Orcadian physicist whose geomagnetic studies confirmed the link between solar storms and terrestrial magnetic effects.
Skilled explainers will be on hand to provide guided tours of the SUN. Some will be young postgraduate researchers from UCLAN, and two will be experienced Festival astronomy presenters.
Direct benefits to schools are a key factor. Orkney's school population is approximately 3,000 (18 primaries, two senior secondaries and three junior highs). Geographical remoteness limits access to the rich range of resources available to city schools. The Scottish Government's Urban Rural Classification (2020) lists Orkney's population as 33.5% in Remote Small Towns (with 3 schools) and 66.5% Remote Rural (20 schools). Overall, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 has 12 Orkney schools in areas of high deprivation (mainly SIMD 2 and 3). Hence, the requested funds will be key to engage schools and community groups, adults and families from across Orkney, including its outer islands which through their remoteness rank high on the Scottish Index for Multiple Deprivation and Urban-Rural Classification.
The overall impact we aim for is:
- inspiring the community with a first-hand encounter with something unique, the outcome of a creative collaboration between an artist and a solar physicist, and the feeling of coming close to the sheer scale of the seething mass of energy of the Sun
- providing a back-up context of information from display material and first-hand information from skilled explainers, opening up connections to the process of scientific understanding and some of the people involved in it
- stimulating school pupils and provide teachers with added opportunities and resources to enrich the curriculum
- opening up new creative opportunities for people in Orkney's lively artistic community
- giving the community an overall feeling that great things are possible after several years in which the necessities of public health have led to a climate of caution and holding back and staying in
Planned Impact
The Festival team will adopt a multi-stranded approach to highlighting the presence of SUN at OISF 2023 as well as disseminating the outcomes from the activity afterwards. This will include:
- Imagery: the core image for OISF 2023, used for the programme, posters and social media, will be created around the SUN theme
- The Festival programme brochure will have this core image on its cover, with information about SUN inside. The brochure is distributed through the newspaper The Orcadian and many public places (libraries, museums, visitor centres, shops, transport operators). An example of last year's programme can be found here.
- The OISF website will feature dedicated webpages
- The Festival's own online magazine Frontiers will have features on SUN and related topics
- Social media: using the Festival's Facebook (3,220 Likes) and Twitter (2,511 Followers) pages
- Newsletters: including the Festival's own Newsletter
- Press releases: for local (The Orcadian, BBC Radio Orkney, the online newspaper The Orkney News, the Orkney.com site) and regional (The Press & Journal) media
- Advertising: including an advertorial feature in the islands' newspaper The Orcadian
- Wider national publicity: with help and advice from EventScotland
- Conferences (astronomy): presenting about wider SUN engagement across a range of venues at educational outreach sessions at, for example, the National Astronomy Meeting or International Astronomical Union Conferences
The various elements will be brought together in a detailed Marketing Plan which will be drawn up by the Festival's Marketing Manager, Michelle Gillibrand, in collaboration with the core project team.
All the marketing materials will be designed by artist Selena Kuzman, who looks after all our design. We put particular emphasis on high design quality of everything that we produce. Over the years, the Festival has developed close relationships with island communities by working with community development and Operations Officers who have featured several events in the programme in their communities.
Also, the SUN team will present evaluation findings from Light in the North as part of the wider SUN engagement programme across a range of venues at educational outreach sessions, for example at the UK National Astronomy Meeting and the International Astronomical Union's Communicating Astronomy with the public conference. We will also circulate the information through science communication networks, for example the Scottish Government's science engagement groups, the psci-com forum, the Scottish physics teachers Sputnik network, and also the weekly newsletter The SciCommer.
- Imagery: the core image for OISF 2023, used for the programme, posters and social media, will be created around the SUN theme
- The Festival programme brochure will have this core image on its cover, with information about SUN inside. The brochure is distributed through the newspaper The Orcadian and many public places (libraries, museums, visitor centres, shops, transport operators). An example of last year's programme can be found here.
- The OISF website will feature dedicated webpages
- The Festival's own online magazine Frontiers will have features on SUN and related topics
- Social media: using the Festival's Facebook (3,220 Likes) and Twitter (2,511 Followers) pages
- Newsletters: including the Festival's own Newsletter
- Press releases: for local (The Orcadian, BBC Radio Orkney, the online newspaper The Orkney News, the Orkney.com site) and regional (The Press & Journal) media
- Advertising: including an advertorial feature in the islands' newspaper The Orcadian
- Wider national publicity: with help and advice from EventScotland
- Conferences (astronomy): presenting about wider SUN engagement across a range of venues at educational outreach sessions at, for example, the National Astronomy Meeting or International Astronomical Union Conferences
The various elements will be brought together in a detailed Marketing Plan which will be drawn up by the Festival's Marketing Manager, Michelle Gillibrand, in collaboration with the core project team.
All the marketing materials will be designed by artist Selena Kuzman, who looks after all our design. We put particular emphasis on high design quality of everything that we produce. Over the years, the Festival has developed close relationships with island communities by working with community development and Operations Officers who have featured several events in the programme in their communities.
Also, the SUN team will present evaluation findings from Light in the North as part of the wider SUN engagement programme across a range of venues at educational outreach sessions, for example at the UK National Astronomy Meeting and the International Astronomical Union's Communicating Astronomy with the public conference. We will also circulate the information through science communication networks, for example the Scottish Government's science engagement groups, the psci-com forum, the Scottish physics teachers Sputnik network, and also the weekly newsletter The SciCommer.
