Introducing this year’s contributions by CRASSH and Cambridge Digital Humanities to the Cambridge Festival (13 – 28 March 2024).
Am I normal?
15 March, Faculty of English
‘Am I Normal?’ and ‘Dreamy Cops’ are two art installations by Tristan Dot which investigate notions of AI, including Computer Vision, surveillance, the human body and normativity.
Faust Shop: discover your artificial double
16 March, Cambridge Central Library
Technology offers us the world – but what does it take away? What is the bargain here? The Faust Shop, an augmented theatrical experience embedded in a lab environment, asks these and related questions.
Suitable for ages 12+
inReach: a mixed media exhibition of lived expertise
18 March – 12 April, Alison Richard Building
inReach (an inversion of ‘outreach’) considers the creative work of those usually closed off from academic and artistic production because of addiction, perceived incapacity, or lack of permanent home. The artists included in this exhibition directly address the ways they have each been categorised by wider British society: rough-sleepers; addicts; disabled people; Travellers; migrants; and children.
Suitable for all ages
Aesthetics and Counter-Aesthetics of International Justice
19 March, Alison Richard Building
How are stories of justice told and visualised? In what ways do stereotypes of victims entrench biases of race, class, and gender? What presumptions do we have about violence and forms of justice? In this book launch and exhibition event, these questions will be critically explored as questions relating to the political relationship between aesthetics and international justice.
Suitable for adults
Education, exclusion and citizenship
19 March, Alison Richard Building
This panel will discuss the ways that education inequalities impact on young people’s bodies, minds and inclusion in the national conversation.
Suitable for adults
Walking with Constable: The Cambridge Edition
20 March, Cambridge University Library
‘Walking with Constable’ is a university-wide research project led by Cambridge Digital Humanities, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the University Digital Library, which has been exploring how we can use digital technologies to take archive material out of museums and libraries and interreact with it in the landscape.
Suitable for adults
The challenges of delivering healthcare and telling the story in a warzone
21 March, Alison Richard Building
This film screening and talk will feature a panel of practitioners and researchers who are engaged with the subject of healthcare delivery in conflict and austere settings.
Suitable for adults
Share your expertise: a Wikipedia edit-a-thon
23 March, Alison Richard Building
How do we learn about the world around us and what sources do we trust for information? We may turn to teachers and books, but we also turn to collective knowledge online. This edit-a-thon gives you a chance to share information about topics that you know and care about. We seek to provide an accessible space to help new and returning Wikipedians share their expertise.
Suitable for ages 12+
Music and puppetry workshop by indigenous musicians and performers
23 March, Alison Richard Building
To celebrate the diverse and vibrant Indigenous music and performance art, the Indigenous Studies Discussion Group at CRASSH will present a family-friendly workshop, at which various groups of UK-based Indigenous artists from across the world will teach their unique music and dance style. The workshop will be followed by a concert performed by groups involving Indigenous Quechua artists.
Suitable for families and children
How to confirm an outbreak: a workshop for budding disease detectives
23 March, Alison Richard Building
Have you ever wondered what is done to actually confirm the outbreak of a disease? Disease Detectives are the ones who investigate when there is an outbreak. All your schoolmates are vomiting? We’ve got you covered. Are sniffles making the rounds in your family? We can sort that out as well. Zombies? Why not.
Suitable for families and children
inReach artist takeover | Ministry of Stories: “My hero is not like the heroes in the movies”
25 March, Alison Richard Building
Join Ministry of Stories for a heroic writing workshop! You’ll play word games, meet new people and create group and individual poems on the theme of heroes. We’ll think, and write, about heroes from lots of points of view: What makes a hero? Who has been overlooked? Who is your personal hero? There will be the chance to share your writing and, most importantly, we’ll have lots of fun!
Suitable for families and children
inReach artist takeover | Bat Choir: listening stick workshop
26 March, Alison Richard Building
We invite you to join a session with the Bat Choir, exploring what it is like to communicate in a ‘bat-like’ way. This session will introduce you to strategies for human echolocation, using echoes to navigate and communicate. We will experiment with our voices and ‘listening sticks’, crafting objects that allow us to listen in new ways to our environment and to each other.
Suitable for families and children (minimum age 5)
