We are delighted to announce artist, composer and DJ Ain Bailey as the second Cavendish Arts Science Fellow at Girton College, following selection from a wide-reaching Open Call.
Ain will be in residence in Cambridge from January-September 2023, exchanging ideas with physicists at the Cavendish Laboratory and Fellows across multiple disciplines at Girton College.
Ain’s practice explores sonic autobiographies and the constellation of sounds that form individual and community identities. Her compositions encompass field recordings and found sounds and are often inspired by reflections on silence and absence, feminist activism and architectural acoustics, particularly of urban spaces. She has developed numerous collaborations with performance, sonic and visual artists, creating multi-channel and mixed media installations and soundtracks for moving image, live performance and dance.
Cavendish Arts Science is an initiative of the University of Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory for Physics. The programme enables encounters between art and science that explore the world, our humanity, and our place in the world. Artists and scientists are encouraged to collaborate to re-imagine ways of exploring material and immaterial universes, question traditional centring of voices, and collectively imagine new possibilities.
The Cavendish Arts Science Fellowship is made possible through a partnership with Girton College, Cambridge (UK) and with the generous support of Dr Una Ryan. It supports artists to engage with physicists at the Cavendish Laboratory and other disciplines, allowing them time to experiment and transform their creative practice. Artists are selected with creative practices that challenge familiar ways of knowing and thinking, especially through working in communities that are not privileged in the mainstream.
The Mistress of Girton College, Dr Elisabeth Kendall, commented on the appointment:
“We’re thrilled to welcome Ain. Girton has a long history of pioneering innovation, and Ain’s unique approach to blending art, music and activism will be a great way to ensure that we keep pushing boundaries.”
Ain Bailey commented on being appointed the second Cavendish in Arts Science Fellow:
“My practice has always been about being open to new challenges. This fellowship has the potential to take my art practice into hitherto uncharted territory, which is nerve-racking yet utterly compelling.”
Suchitra Sebastian, Director of the Cavendish Arts Science programme, said:
“Ain’s work is haunting and compelling, evoking memories that cannot be spoken. We are delighted to be working with Ain and look forward to her new experiments in composition as she engages with physicists at the Cavendish and beyond.”
To learn more, visit: www.cavendish-artscience.org.uk
More information about artist Ain Bailey
Ain Bailey is an artist, composer and DJ, based in London.
Her practice explores sonic autobiographies and the constellation of sounds that form individual and community identities. Her compositions encompass field recordings and found sounds and are often inspired by reflections on silence and absence, feminist activism and architectural acoustics, particularly of urban spaces. She has developed numerous collaborations with performance, sonic and visual artists, creating multi-channel and mixed media installations and soundtracks for moving images, live performance and dance.
Previous work includes Oh Adelaide (2010), a collaboration with artist Sonia Boyce (Tate Britain, the Whitechapel Gallery, The Kitchen, New York); The Range (Eastside Projects, Birmingham); RE:Respite (Transmission Gallery, Glasgow); And We’ll Always Be A Disco In The Glow Of Love (Cubitt Gallery, London); Atlantic Railton within architect Sumayya Vally’s 2021 Serpentine Pavillion and as part of the Listening To The City sound installation programme; Version (Wysing Arts Centre); Untitled (Our Wedding) (CCS Bard, NYC); Trioesque (Bruckenmusik Festival, Cologne) and Remember To Exhale (2020) created with Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski (Studio Voltaire, London as part of their Desperate Living programme). She was commissioned by Art Basel Miami Beach to compose for the Soundscape Park.
Website: https://ainbailey.tumblr.com/
Photograph information: Ain Bailey portrait, Brücke 2022. Photo credit: nu-j.org
Information for Editors:
About The Cavendish Laboratory (Department of Physics), University of Cambridge (UK)
The Cavendish Laboratory (Department of Physics) has an extraordinary history of discovery and innovation in Physics since its opening in 1874. It has a distinguished history of contribution to science. Thirty-three Nobel prize winners have worked for considerable periods within the Laboratory, and the Cavendish is associated with many notable discoveries. Research in the Cavendish has been instrumental in our understanding of the physical world, from creating theories of electromagnetism and discovering the electron, to splitting the nucleus and developing x ray crystallography to see inside the atom.
Today, fundamental questions addressed by research in the laboratory range from understanding space and the origin of the universe, to exploring time, matter and energy in all its forms and at every scale, from the very large to the inconceivably small. A new era is beginning for Physics at Cambridge, with construction work underway for a new state-of-the-art and purpose-built centre for world-leading research, the Ray Dolby Centre. The new building represents a renaissance in the way we carry out physics, fostering the spirit of adventure and innovation in the Cavendish tradition, but adapted to the new needs of frontier research.
For more information visit: https://www.phy.cam.ac.uk
About Girton College, Cambridge (UK)
Girton College, University of Cambridge, was founded in 1869 as the first UK residential institution for the higher education of women. It was the first women’s college to become co-educational over 40 years ago, and with an almost 50:50 gender balance, the College remains committed to the founding principle of inclusive excellence.
Girton has always set the pace on matters of equality and inclusion and continues to prioritise widening participation, alongside academic achievement and all-round personal development for students and staff alike.
Girton is one of the larger colleges at the University of Cambridge, admitting undergraduates and postgraduates in almost every subject. There are currently around 550 undergraduates, 420 postgraduates, 138 Fellows and 29 Honorary Fellows.
For more information visit: https://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/
Contact:
Suchitra Sebastian, Cavendish Arts Science Director
Natasha Freedman, Creative Producer: producer@cavendish-artscience.org.uk
Cavendish Arts Science, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE