Science

not absolute

Not Absolute was a collaborative exhibition at the Flinders University City Gallery, 24th July – 27th September, 2009, featuring work by Ian Gibbins, Catherine Truman, Judy Morris, Gabriella Besetto, Vicki Clifton and Rachel Burgess, curated by Janice Lally.

with my eyes closed
with my eyes closed
with my eyes closed

The following is from the curator’s comments in the exhibition catalogue:

“NOT ABSOLUTE has been a collaboration over some time by artists and scientists … to discover and communicate new understandings of the human body derived from interconnections between science and art practices. The visual, aural and tactile aspects of the works offer others opportunities to gain fresh insights into notions of what the body is and how it might be understood by the individual. The nature of the creative processes of artists and scientists is also part of the investigation.

“Knowledge about the body, in the abstract and from a personal viewpoint, is a concern for us all. The daily experience of living within and communicating about our bodies is central to all of us. How we wash and dress ourselves, how we move, or see, or hear, how we communicate, our … Click here for more.

projects

Collaboration is absolutely the norm in modern science, so perhaps it is not surprising that much of Ian’s creative work involves collaborative projects with other artists. Click here to see a full list of Ian’s collaborations.

Follow the links or the menu items to see some of them:

The Microscope Project with Catherine Truman, Deb Jones, Angela Valamanesh & Nicholas Folland

The Taken Path: a durational project with Catherine Truman

Floribunda with Judy Morris

not absolute with Catherine Truman, Judy Morris, Vicki Clifton & Rachel Burgess

Vocem Video, a video interpretation of Impossible Music by Sean Williams

Body of Evidence, curated by Carollyn Cavanagh

Signs of Life and Way to Go: Tramstop 6 with Mike Ladd & Cathy Brooks

the art & science of embodiment with Catherine Truman

heartsong with Cheryl Pickering, Richard Chew, Dwani Oak and Sally Francis

Australian Dance Theatre with Garry Stewart

The Microscope Project: How Things Work

What were we going to do with a collection of decommissioned research microscopes? Two scanning electron microscopes, one almost completely disassembled, fluorescence microscopes, once state-of-the-art, that generated the images underpinning the international recognition of a generation of neuroscientists at Flinders University, a whole room of ancillary preparatory equipment and spare parts?

… and then there was all their supporting documentation: schematic diagrams and plans, manuals, advertising brochures, catalogues, certifications of performance, packing lists.

Some of the texts were so powerful, they needed only to be sampled and edited according to a pre-determined rule. Others formed the core of a new piece of writing. And in cases where we lacked any clear documentation, new texts were invented, imagining, re-imagining how things might have been, who might have been involved, how things might look, how things work…

Over more than 12 months, Ian Gibbins, Catherine Truman, Deb Jones, Angela Valamanesh and Nicholas Folland collaborated with these elements in the unique shared environment of The Distillery to create The Microscope Project, exhibited at the Flinders University Art Museum & City Gallery, 26^th July – 21^st September, 2014, and curated by Fiona Salmon and Madeline Reece.

How Things Work… Click here for more.

shop

ABN 39 580 050 698

Books

sd18: A Skeleton of Desire

10 poems, 22 pp
Garron Publishing, Spring 2018,
Southern-Land Poets, Edition 6
ISSN 2202-7246
A$5.00 plus $1.50 postage and handling (Australia wide).

fb15: Floribunda

19 full colour plates by Judy Morris, 13 poems by Ian Gibbins, 32 pp
21 x 21 cm, paperback, published June 2015
ISBN 9780646937892
A$22.50 including postage (Australia wide)

Nearly sold out – contact Ian if you’d like a copy.

mp14: The Microscope Project: How Things Work

TMP How Things Work front cover COVER small

Large format, 17 poems, 72 pp
Full colour images by Catherine Truman, Deb Jones & Ian Gibbins
Flinders University Art Museum, 2014
ISBN 978 0 9925472 1 9
A$35.00 plus A$5.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)

ub12: urban biology

45 poems, 96 pp
Wakefield Press / Friendly Street Poets, 2012
ISBN 978 1 74305 099 6
A$19.95 plus A$5.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)

CDs

CD 014: Microscope Music

15 tracks, total playing time: approx 50 min, 2014
A$10.00 plus A$3.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)

CD 010: urban biology – audiodraft

12 tracks, total playing time: … Click here for more.

bio

in case you were wondering…

Ian Gibbins was born and bred in Melbourne, not far from Caulfield Racecourse. After completing a PhD in Zoology at Melbourne University, he spent two years in Pharmacology Departments in the USA, before coming back to live in a hilly suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. For 30 years, he was a neuroscientist and Professor of Anatomy for 20 of them in the School of Medicine at Flinders University. Along the way, he managed to pick up an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. In March 2014, he retired from his academic position to spend more time to write poetry , compose electronic music, produce videos, build a few websites, windsurf, and cook… Nevertheless, he has been awarded Emeritus Professor status at Flinders University.

neuroscience…

Ian has been internationally recognised for his research on the microscopic structure and function of the nerves that monitor and control the activity of the internal organs, with over 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. His work used sophisticated microscopy techniques to see directly how different types of nerves connect up with each other, as well recording the electrical behaviour of nerves as they communicate via … Click here for more.

secret nerves

researching communication between body & brain

For more than 30 years, Ian researched the ways in which nerves communicate between the body and the brain. He has published over 100 scientific papers on these topics. His used sophisticated microscopy techniques, including electron microscopy and confocal laser microscopy, to see directly how different types of nerves connect up with each other, the spinal cord, and the various organs of the body. He also used microelectrodes to record the electrical behaviour of single nerve cells as they send messages via these connections.

See most of Ian’s scientific publications on PubMed here.

Autonomic Motor Pathways

nerves that control the activity of our internal organs

Autonomic motor pathways are the nerves that carry communications from brain and spinal cord to nearly all the internal organs, such as the heart, gastro-intestinal tract and urino-genital tract. Autonomic pathways include sympathetic, parasympathetic and enteric nerves. The research that Ian and his colleagues around the world have done shows that old ideas of how these nerves are organised and work are far too simplistic. For example, the so-called ‘flight-or-fight’ response is only a small component of the behaviour of sympathetic nerves. In contrast, various … Click here for more.