Anna-Sophie Jürgens has always loved cinema. Now a senior lecturer in science communication at the Australian National University (ANU), Jürgens has brought together three of the ‘most powerful cultural institutions we have developed to understand, shape and imagine our world’ in her programme. Science. Art. movie., in association with the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), Canberra.
The idea arose from her experiences as a university student in Munich, Germany, where she took a course focused on the aesthetics of violence in cinema.
“Every Thursday, 8 p.m., we went to a cinema, watched a movie (super violent movies such as Silence of the Lambs OR A clock orange) and then there were professors and experts who spoke about it,” says Jürgens. ‘And I thought that was so transformative. Every Thursday I left the cinema a different person and I always thought that this is the kind of experience a university should provide. This is it really where new knowledge is created; where you have curiosities, curiosities and the curious coming together and building new bridges.’
Emerging from the restrictions of Covid-19 social distancing in Australia, Jürgens saw an opportunity to create a complementary experience at the Australian National Center for Public Awareness of Science (CPAS) at ANU. As an academic who had joined the center during the pandemic, Jürgens was particularly driven to meet colleagues and students in person and build community at the university.
‘I started Science. Art. Movie. serials like underground guerrilla serials in our lecture theater,” she says. ‘And for about a year … every month I showed a film and invited students and colleagues to just join in and bring their sleeping bags and yoga mats. We all lay on the floor watching movies and it was great.’
As the community of ‘cinemagoers’ grew, Jürgens invited academic colleagues to join her in interactive discussions about each film. Soon the event became so popular that it was time to find a bigger venue for a real cinema experience.
In 2022, launched as part of Australia’s National Science Week, Science. Art. Movie. moved to its new home at NSFA, leading to a lively and inspiring collaboration.
In 2022, launched as part of Australia’s National Science Week, Science. Art. Movie. moved to its new home at the NFSA, leading to a lively and inspiring collaboration between Jürgens’ team and the NSFA.
“They have a fantastically beautiful cinema, which used to be the Australian Institute of Anatomy, so it has a history of science,” says Jürgens.
Shortly after its reopening, the event ‘sold out’ every month, although tickets have remained free for all thanks to support from CPAS, the ANU Human Research Center and the ANU Synthetic Biology Initiative.
Science on screen
jaws, Mars Attacks, Batman and Robin AND blade are just some of the films that have been part of the program and have fueled discussions among academics and artists, led by Jürgens behind the title track.
“This is not a film study series per se,” says Jürgens. ‘We talk about science [and] about our scientific technological future as they are conceived, thought or envisioned in the cinema. There is plenty of time for audience questions, comments and interaction with the panellists.’
Jürgens leads the POPSICULE community at CPAS, which explores cultural understandings of science to develop a better understanding of how ‘pop cultural narratives of science have influenced public discourse and understanding of science’ and in turn how they affect the relationship between science and society.
“Science and popular entertainment, film in particular, are really powerful media for helping us think about our past, about who we are, where we want to be in the future, and really help us shape our attitudes. to science”, says Jürgens.
Part of the goal Science. Art. Movie. is to think about the overt or implied science within a film and how this might intersect with social context and artistic direction.
‘For example, when we had jawswe talked about sharks and marine science, but we also had a composer, a professor of film music, who studied with the soundtrack composer of jaws”, explains Jürgens. “And it brought a whole different perspective on the science and how you can affect emotions just by having a specific soundtrack or sound.”
Science. Art. Movie. aims to bring science to new audiences in an enjoyable way, drawing on ‘research in science communication about enjoyment and entertainment while stimulating interest in science’. For Jürgens, the cinema as a place is also particularly special.
‘[It’s] connected to a pleasant space where you can hide in the dark if you want, where you can just be yourself without being seen and experience things you can’t experience anywhere else. It’s different. You’re still part of a crowd, which is fascinating, even if it’s anonymous.’
The program is just one of POPSICULE’s many initiatives aimed at ‘creating wormholes between galaxies’ by connecting scientists and artists in projects and programs that ‘build narrative power around science, how we think about science and how we feel about science.’