The Live Creature and Ethereal Things

1. To develop a radical new approach to science engagement, which focuses on the human experience of science - specifically fundamental physics -, drawing on discussions from a recent symposium organised by the applicants at the Institute of Physics, which brought together physicists, including STFC community, artists, and science engagement specialists. This approach contrasts with (but is intended to co-exist with) the standard science engagement model of providing information about the content of science, instead focusing on the experience of the "live creature" who does science - their background, motivation, interests and aspirations - and on using art-based methodologies to enable visual, physical and material encounters with the endeavour and extraordinary spaces of fundamental physics - cosmology, particle physics and astrophysics.

2. To test - and perform an initial evaluation of - this approach with people from both low and high "science capital" backgrounds (an idea borrowed from French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of social and cultural capital to describe how people engage with the arts) in two contrasting UK cities, Sunderland and London, which voted very different ways in the EU referendum.

3. For the public:
- To provide an impactful encounter with the environments and laboratories where fundamental science is performed through a large-scale immersive installation of film and photographic artworks by artist Fiona Crisp.
- To provide an interdisciplinary programme about the possibilities of experiencing science research through performances, lectures, screenings and music, enabling audiences and participants to experience different artistic approaches to make science intimate and personal.
- To give a platform to diverse scientific role models from British and BAME backgrounds and present physics as an intuitive (as well as rigorous), fundamental aspect of day-to-day life.
- To provide insights into how knowledge and science about the physical universe is created through experimentation and working in the laboratory.
- To come away with a sense of the diversity of motivations, interests and personalities of those undertaking science as a profession and how these human qualities drive science.

4. For scientist participants:
- To improve communication skills by enabling them to bring their backgrounds, personalities and values into their encounters with the public, and to explore their creative and cultural interests.
- To enable them to understand better the importance of allowing and representing diversity of backgrounds, approaches and personalities in science.
- To give them a re-energising experience and a different perspective on their work.

5. To continue to build a network of physicists and artists, particularly in the UK but with international members, who are interested in exploring and developing this alternative type of approach to science engagement.

6. To disseminate learning from these events and the network to other scientists and science engagement providers.

A website will contain video, audio, text and image resources. An eBook will also be published, featuring texts and transcripts from the Institute of Physics workshop and other conversations held during the research phase.

These will be promoted widely via the communications offices of Arts Catalyst, NGCA, the Institute of Physics, Northumbria University, and other partners. The publication will be launched during the exhibition in Sunderland and will be available in digital formats downloadable from Arts Catalyst's website.

The website and eBook will also promoted via the network we have set up, founded at the workshop at the Institute of Physics on 13 October 2017, which includes scientists and staff from Durham University, Boulby Underground Laboratory, UCL, CERN, Gran Sasso, Cambridge University, Swansea University, and Greenwich Observatory, as well as Institute of Physics staff, and several artists. The evaluation report will also be made accessible to our networks as a case study.

We will seek opportunities to speak about the project at conferences and other events, nationally and internationally, to disseminate the learning from the project to educators and communicators. Arts Catalyst's Director Nicola Triscott is the 2017 President of the Science and the Arts Section of the British Science Association and will use related networking opportunities to talk about the project. She is also frequently invited to speak at art and science, art and research, and science engagement events in the UK and internationally. She is part of a proposal to hold a panel "Novel scenarios for art and science encounters" at the Ecsite Annual Conference 2018 in Geneva. Nicola also has extensive art-science networks in the USA, through which she can disseminate learning.