For those of you in Melbourne on Sunday 8 July, come to RMIT for an art-science symposium, chaired by Jesse Shore:

This week’s announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson, or ‘God particle’ will collide with art and society this Sunday.

Colliding Ideas: Art, Society and Physics, a free public symposium at RMIT University, City campus, Storey Hall, from noon to 5pm, will address the social and creative parameters of the physical sciences.

The symposium is taking inspiration from the 36th International Conference on High Energy Physics, also in Melbourne this week, where the discovery of the ‘god particle’ was announced.

The symposium will feature key speakers from the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Australian Network for Arts & Technology, alongside contemporary media and fine arts practitioners and theorists.

Symposium organiser, Chris Henschke, Artist in Residence at the Australian Synchrotron and Lecturer, School of Media and Communication, said Colliding Ideas would explore the dimensions of physics and ask what is going on in there, how it relates to our social world, and how it affects us culturally and physically.

“And, in such contexts, how do the perspectives of physicists relate to and differ from those of artists and visual communicators who use physics-based technologies,” he said.

A series of talks and audio-visual presentations will be followed by a panel discussion and question and answer session.

Registration starts at 11.30am and a light lunch and refreshments will be provided.

For more information and to register your interest visit www.rmit.edu.au/collidingideas

For interviews or comment: Chris Henschke (03) 9925 9563, (03) 9943 4956 or chris.henschke@rmit.edu.au

For general media enquiries: RMIT University, Marketing and Communications, Kevin Slack, 0439 499 008 or kevin.slack@rmit.edu.au