Experimenta Social #46: Drawing on Complexity

Like the weather, stock market and crowds, complex systems exhibit ‘emergence’ – meaning that larger patterns in the system evolve through interactions between the parts (rather than from a predetermined plan or hierarchy of leadership). This is often described as ‘the whole being more than the sum of the parts’.

Rule-based artwork series Drawing on Complexity is a collaboration between visual-conceptual artist Briony Barr and physicist Andrew Melatos using expanded collaborative drawing to enact a process that evolves from the bottom up, in real time.

Join us for this special discussion with Briony and Andrew, hosted by Experimenta’s Curator-at-Large Lubi Thomas – as we explore the ways in which complex systems and drawing can coalesce, and reflect on what has emerged through this interaction.

Speakers:

Briony Barr is a visual-conceptual artist who uses process-based drawing to explores ideas around structure, emergence and the role of different boundaries and generative limits. She is part of two long term art-science investigations; ‘Drawing on Complexity’ working with physicist Andrew Melatos, and ‘Scale Free Network ’ in collaboration with microbial ecologist Gregory Crocetti.

Andrew Melatos is a theoretical physicist at the University of Melbourne, who is deeply interested in the interplay between art and science and is active in public outreach. He collaborates closely with visual artist Briony Barr on the Drawing on Complexity project, and has served as a scientific consultant for the art-science collaborative Scale Free Network and for contemporary dance productions by the Australian Dance Theatre and Melbourne Theatre Company.

VENUE: ACMI, Flinders Street, Melbourne 3000 - The Gandel Future Lab 1
TIME: Wed 1 May, 6.00 – 7.30pm

Drawing on Complexity: Experiment #9 (final day). World Science Festival, Brisbane, 2024. Photo: Greg Harm.

Briony Barr with Drawing on Complexity: Experiment #9. World Science Festival, Brisbane, 2024. Photo: Greg Harm.

Briony Barr and Andrew Melatos with Drawing on Complexity (Experiment #6). Briony Barr and Andrew Melatos with

Host or Publisher Experimenta