TRANSMUTATION DIARY

The partner newsletter of www.darwin200.org July 2009

1 Transmutation Diary www.darwin200.org July 2009 Darwin200

Darwin200 partner activities continue throughout the summer. The British Council/NHM International Student Summit in early July focused on Darwin and contemporary science, while Darwin200 supported the biodiversity session in the meeting Twenty-five thousand Royal Mint, of the World Congress of Science Journalists in London in £2 anniversary coins have been struck. See www.royalmint.com/store/BritishBase/UKCDB that same week. A major highlight of Darwin Year is of course U.aspx the festival and celebrations in Cambridge which are taking place as this edition is being written www.darwin2009.cam.ac.uk. What’s on

Meanwhile the whole phenomenon of Darwin200 is attracting After Darwin: Contemporary interest. At the British Science Association (BSA) Expressions Communication Conference in June it was explored in the 26 June – 29 November An exhibition of major artists context of ‘Are Years of… a Success?’ Meanwhile here in the and writers exhibiting existing secretariat we have been receiving requests from organisations and newly commissioned both within the UK and abroad asking how Darwin200 has work inspired by Darwin’s book, worked and if they can apply the model to other forthcoming The Expression of the Emotions anniversaries and ‘Years of’ celebrations. We still have a while in Man and Animals. The to go before Darwin200 climaxes in November with the 150th exhibition features work by anniversary of On the Origin of Species, but the general opinion Gautier Deblonde, Jeremy Deller seems to be that Darwin200 has really reached diverse and Matthew Killip in audiences and created in-depth explorations of Darwin, his ideas collaboration with Richard and their relevance today. Why this success? Well I think the Wiseman, Tina Gonsalves, Mark answer is simple – and it’s the same answer to a different Haddon, Ruth Padel, Diana Thater and Bill Viola. question. At the BSA conference I was asked, ‘How do you deal www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats- with Darwin fatigue?’ My reply was that the diversity of partners on/expressions/index.html who are engaged, their perspectives and their audiences continue to make Darwin200 refreshing and surprising. However, Front cover – After Darwin: Contemporary Expressions, NHM, derived from work of if there is success we would like more evidence of it. What has evolutionary biologist N N Ladygina-Kohts this actually meant for partners? Accompanying this newsletter Comparative Study of Ape Emotions and Intelligence, Darwin Museum Moscow, 1935. is an evaluation form. If you can, please send us your feedback, as we would like to share the lessons learned for the benefit Garden Detectives of others. 26 June – 27 September Visit a special summer holiday We are also trying to keep an archive of what has happened in exhibition for families at the Darwin200 during the year – please send us copies of your National Museum of Scotland events programmes or any related press info – paper or based on the simple methods electronic. of observation at the heart of Darwin’s work. www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/na Katie Edwards, tional_museum/coming_soon/gar Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD den_detectives.aspx c/o [email protected] Cont’d…

2 Transmutation Diary www.darwin200.org July 2009 Creation – The movie What’s on

Seeing the Light: Finch by Finch 3 July – 15 September An exhibition of cast glass Galapagos finch beaks by glass artist Tolly Nason is being held at the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge. In this project, Tolly has cast the beaks of 14 Galapagos finches collected by Darwin in solid red glass at 20 times their original size. www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/museum/eve nts

Simple Beginnings: The Story of Detail from the set of Darwin's study in Evolution, Bolton Museum, Aquarium and Archive Part ghost story, part psychological thriller, part heart-wrenching love story, Creation is the powerful story of and the single most explosive idea in history. Creation stars Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Jeremy Northam, Toby Jones and Benedict Cumberbatch and is due to be released on 25th September.

Darwin’s great, still controversial, book On the Origin of Species depicts nature as a battleground. In Creation the battleground is a man’s heart. Torn between his love for his deeply religious wife and his own growing belief in a world where God has no place, Darwin finds himself caught in a struggle between faith and reason, love and truth. This exhibition opened in June. It This is not the grey-bearded old man that most people imagine when examines who Darwin was and they think of Darwin. The Darwin we meet in Creation is a young, why his ideas were so important. vibrant father, husband and friend whose mental and physical health Explore how evolution works by gradually buckles under the weight of guilt and grief for a lost child. looking at ammonites, finches Ultimately it is Annie, his adored ten year-old daughter who leads him and snakes. Runs until Saturday out of darkness and helps him reconnect with his wife and family. Only 7 November. See more about the then is he able to create the book that changed the world. Told in a exhibition and the supporting dazzling collage of scenes from the past and present, laced with programme of events and talks at stories of exotic animals and the dark dreams of a troubled mind www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/what Creation is a film that will provoke, entertain and ultimately deeply son move audiences. Darwin Summer Talks Directed by Jon Amiel (Entrapment) from a screenplay by July – August (Master and the Commander), based on Randal Keynes’ book, Annie’s Every Wednesday evening in July Box, about the life of his great great grandfather Charles Darwin. and August the Chelsea Physic Produced by Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor). Garden is hosting a Darwin- themed talk. Subjects include See: www.creationthemovie.com Darwin’s love of plants, Darwin Exclusive clip at: and Victorian visual culture and www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/5505963/Creation-the-movie- retracing Darwin’s travels through world-exclusive-trailer.html Patagonia and Chile. www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/ 3 Transmutation Diary www.darwin200.org July events Cont’d… 2009 Endless Forms What’s on

A Voyage Round the World 6 July – 23 December, Cambridge University Library. The exhibition reunites manuscripts and natural history specimens from the University’s collections, many of them never before seen in public, and Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual explores how Darwin’s experiences on the Beagle played Arts opened last month at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. an essential role in the It explores the impact of Darwin’s theories upon artists of the late formulation of his theories. nineteenth century. This large exhibition of nearly 200 objects is arranged in themed sections exploring artists’ depictions of the Darwin the Geologist natural world both before and after Darwin published his The Sedgwick Museum, controversial ideas. By juxtaposing artworks and scientific University of Cambridge. specimens of the time, the exhibition persuades us to view the This is a major, new exhibition art differently in order to understand how Darwin was influenced of the geological specimens by the visual culture of his time – from the powerful and brutal collected by Darwin during the depictions of nature to the precise, detailed botanical drawings of voyage of the HMS Beagle. This Hooker and Henslow – and to see how later artists, including the new permanent display opened Impressionists, were in turn influenced by Darwin’s theories. on 7 July. The exhibition complements Charles Darwin – Becoming a Geologist which Traditional landscape paintings, photos and sculptures are tells the story of Darwin’s viewed alongside cases of scientific specimens including childhood and student life. minerals, fossils and a stunning display of Argus pheasant feathers. Artists include Landseer, Monet, two newly commissioned cartoons of a young and an old Darwin by Quentin Blake and even Darwin’s own hand-drawn map showing a cross-section through a mountain range in Chile.

The exhibition has already been seen by 25,000 visitors at the Yale Center for Visual Art and, being the biggest exhibition to open so far at the Fitzwilliam Museum, it is likely to be just as popular there as it coincides with the Darwin 2009 Festival at Cambridge during July. As part of the opening Endless Forms, 16 June – 4 October: celebrations the Sedgwick www.darwinendlessforms.org Museum is also hosting a conference entitled: For a full review see: www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/richarddorment/56036 Darwin in the Field: Collecting, 43/Endless-Forms-Charles-Darwin-at-the-Fitzwilliam-Museum--- Observation and Experiment review.html The conference will explore Darwin’s field skills and his legacy of records and collections. 11–12 July 2009. See: www.sedgwickmuseum.org/about /news/090518_darwin_conferenc e.html 4 Transmutation Diary www.darwin200.org July 2009 New Darwin resource online Darwin – abroad

The Institute Charles Darwin International (ICDI) created in Paris in 1998 has been running conferences and events focusing on Darwin’s work, republishing Darwin’s complete works in French and encouraging studies of Darwin’s work to reappraise Galapagos mockingbird courtesy of ARKive areas which have in the past been ignored or misinterpreted. ARKive has launched a significant addition to its website as part of its response to Darwin200. With the support of the British ICDI has developed a variety of Council’s Darwin Now programme, this includes a exhibition materials, including free-to-download massive multimedia resource that profiles 50 versions translated for English species intimately related to Charles Darwin’s voyage speaking counties. A basic on HMS Beagle. Supporting these profiles is a new online 45 panel version can be obtained learning resource for 11–16 year olds which take as a starting on CD-ROM which can then be point what Darwin observed on the Beagle and covers subjects reproduced within the resources including variation and natural selection, classification and of the organisations who might hire it. For more information see identification keys. Material available for use in the classroom www.darwinisme.org/exposition_ includes Power Point presentations for downloading, along ang.html with suggestions for classroom activities. www.darwinisme.org/cdrom_ang. html

Tomorrow, in a Year The Danish Arts Council is supporting the world premiere of Hotel Pro Forma and The Knife’s Darwin-opera, Tomorrow, in a Year (I morgen om et år). It premieres at the Royal Danish Theatre on 2 September 2009 with further performances on 4 and 5 September. The tour goes to Geneva (11, 12 September 2009), Dresden (8, 9 October 2009) and Århus (27, 28 See: November 2009). Details from: www.arkive.org/darwin/ [email protected] www.arkive.org/news/20090701-celebrating-darwin.html

5 Transmutation Diary www.darwin200.org July 2009 Inherit the Wind Darwin - abroad Age of Wonders

British composer Michael Stimpson has been invited to the Northern Territory, Australia, to see the first full production of Age of Wonders, his new work written to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. It was performed by the Darwin Symphony Orchestra in a celebration event called Origins held on 1 July in the city park.

The complete work is in four Spencer Tracy, playing Harry Drummond (based on Darrow) examines Fredric March, parts. The Man Who Walked playing Matthew Harrison Brady (based on Bryan) in the 1960 film version of Inherit the with Henslow is a piece for violin Wind and piano, which explores Darwin’s early life and influences. Marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s The Beagle is a piece for a string On the Origin of Species, Trevor Nunn returns to direct Old Vic quartet that follows the voyage artistic director Kevin Spacey in Lawrence and Lee’s grippingly and how Darwin and Fitzroy see relevant drama, based on the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. the world begins to diverge during its course. Several fictional characters include a fundamentalist preacher and his daughter, who in the play is the fiancée of John Scopes. The complexity of the Age of Henry Drummond is less cynical and biting than the Darrow who Wonders has further evolved in the character was based on. Scopes, a relatively minor figure in An Entangled Bank, the piece for a string orchestra, which focuses the real drama at Dayton, becomes Bertram Cates, a central on Darwin’s life in Down House figure in the play, who is arrested while teaching class, thrown and the writing and publication of in jail, burned in effigy, and taunted by a fire-snorting preacher. On the Origin of Species. As the two legal Titans, Lawrence and Lee, confront each other the narrative draws heavily on the real Scopes trial. As the The final section Transmutations community puts freedom of thought on trial, the powerful Darrow is for a full orchestra. It is a condemnation of anti-intellectualism, an exchange between complex piece of four sections Darrow and Judge Raulston that earned Darrow a contempt weaving the strong elements from citation, and portions of the Darrow examination of Bryan are the previous sections which have lifted nearly verbatim from the actual trial transcript. survived by ‘natural selection’. From 18 September – 20 December. The work reminds us of the complexity of Darwin’s ideas See: www.oldvictheatre.com/whatson.php?id=55 . before returning to the solo violin from the first section, the warmth 6 Transmutation Diary www.darwin200.org July 2009 of Charles Darwin. Darwin - abroad Darwin Initiative The Next 200 Years of Darwin: Exploring the Evolving Legacy

This festival in Salzburg of lectures, discussions and field trips will celebrate the The Darwin Initiative is a UK government programme set up bicentenary. Held from 21–27 and announced by the Department of Environment Food and August the festival is part of the Rural Affairs (Defra) in 2002, the year of the Rio Earth Summit. Salzburg Global Seminar. It aims to assist countries rich in biodiversity but poor in financial See: resources to engage with the Convention on Biological Diversity www.SalzburgGlobal.org/go/Darw (CBD), The Convention of Trade in Endangered Species in2009 or contact Ian Brown, (CITES) and the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild [email protected] Animals (CMS), through funding collaborative projects drawing on UK expertise. The initiative has funded some 673 projects to 150 years of Darwin's date by partnering more than 860 organisations in the host Evolutionary Theory: a South American celebration countries with UK biodiversity expertise.

The website at darwin.defra.gov.uk provides access to information about the projects funded under the initiative, as well as resources for Darwin Initiative projects, and for those interested in applying for funding. The Darwin Initiative has This celebration will gather produced a range of documents, which are available through internationally renowned the website including, training manuals, scientific articles, evolutionary scientists in Punta management plans, databases, taxonomic keys, and many del Este, Uruguay, on 2–6 others. Use the search tools to identify resources of interest. September. The meeting is organized by the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), and will include keynote lectures, several symposia and poster sessions. See www.darwin200.edu.uy or contact [email protected].

Gulbenkian Darwin Exhibition St Helena Wird-bird - the last surviving endemic species needs careful managment if it is to survive As a part of their contribution to Darwin Year, the initiative has produced a .pdf briefing note called the Evolution of the Darwin Initiative. It includes a map that retraces Darwin’s Beagle After its unprecedented success voyage, and highlights some of the biodiversity research projects in Lisbon, Portugal, the happening today in the places he visited. Gulbenkian Darwin exhibition has now moved to Madrid, Spain, while plans are also being See: darwin.defra.gov.uk/reports/briefing_note.darwin_200.pdf considered for a small exhibition for Portuguese speaking Africa. 7 Transmutation Diary www.darwin200.org July 2009 New releases Publications associated with Darwin200 The Darwin Poems exhibitions

The Darwin Poems by Emily The Art of Plant Evolution, by W John Kress and Shirley Ballou is now available on Amazon. Some of Emily’s work Shirwood This publication celebrates an exhibition in the Shirley was read at the Darwin200 VIP Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew, in the year of Kew’s event at the NHM on 12 February 250th anniversary and Darwin’s bicentenary. The book aims 2009. She will be reading more to give readers a sense of the contemporary scientific at the Edinburgh Book Festival discoveries made in our understanding of plant relationships, by with poet Jen Hadfield on illustrating each species with a painting by a contemporary artist. 17 August. The text places the artist’s observations as displayed in the ISBN: 9781921401275 paintings in the context of modern plant classification, providing readers with a new understanding of the botanical world and the A Natural Calling by A W D interrelationships among species, enhancing their appreciation Larkum. This scholarly work of an artist’s ability to portray the delicate beauty of nature. provides new factual material ISBN: 978184246421-2 on Darwin following many years of research into Darwin’s relationship with his cousin William Darwin Fox. It is a biographical and historical account of the letters exchanged by these men and the diaries of W D Fox, which have never been accessed before. ISBN 9781402092329

Darwin Song Project – Expressions: From Darwin to Contemporary Arts, Ed, Bergit CD available Arends. Darwin wrote He who admits… that the structure and habits of all animals have been gradually evolved, will look at the whole subject of Expression in a new and interesting light. This book creates a trajectory from Darwin’s observations to the contemporary recordings of emotions in the arts. It uses newly commissioned work, to straddle the natural sciences, art and literature and explores questions of human-animal kinship. It includes texts by Antonio Damasio, Aris Fioretos, Mark Haddon, Ruth Padel, Julia Voss and Bridget M Waller and art Darwin Song Project workshops works by Gautier Deblonde, Jeremy Deller and Matthew Killip and performance for folk in collaboration with Richard Wiseman, Tina Gonsalves, Diana musicians were a part of the Thater and Bill Viola. The book accompanies the exhibition Shrewsbury Darwin Festival. After Darwin: Contemporary Expressions A CD of the superb performance ISBN: 9780565092429 (available at www.nhm.ac.uk) at the new Shrewsbury Theatre has now been released: www.darwinsongproject.com 8 Transmutation Diary www.darwin200.org July 2009 Oxford University – Darwin200 Publications from News OUP Origins play

Director Eyal Israel and producer Mill Goble are looking for an appropriate space to stage Trumpery by Peter Parnell. The play describes the events surrounding the publication of Oxford University Press has produced a series of special Darwin200 On the Origin of Species, half set cross branded academic texts. As part of their efforts to celebrate in 1857 (two years prior to Darwin Year they have focused on the latest thinking in areas of publication), and half set in 1861 evolutionary biology. (two years post publication). At the opening we find Charles Darwin not as the revolutionary we imagine him to be, but as a man drowning in worries. The story that unfolds shows us how natural selection is still human. Parnell creates a world that moves effortlessly from the events revolving around Darwin and Alfred Wallace (which one is the father of natural selection?), Human Genetic Diversity: Functional Consequences for Health to his conflict with Richard Owen and Disease, by Julian Knight explores potential issues around the and his alliance with Thomas scientific effort to explore the human genome. How it promises to help Huxley, to the deteriorating health us understand our evolutionary origins, predict our risk of disease and of his daughter Annie, his fragile treat illnesses. An authoritative overview of the rapidly advancing field. relationship with his wife and www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199227709 finally his loss of Christian faith. Contact Eyal Israel, Principles of Evolutionary Medicine, by Peter Gluckman, Alan [email protected] Beedle and Mark Hanson, explores how evolutionary science is t. 07949442638. critical to our understanding of integrated human biology and is an underpinning discipline essential for medical and public health professionals. www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199236398

Sexual Selection and the Origins of Human Mating Systems, by Alan Dixson is aimed at a graduate readership synthesising research on primate anatomy reproductive physiology and behaviour, and so contextualising Darwin’s own initial insights that helped advance this area of study. www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199559435

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