Apart from the time devoted to collaborative reading sessions during Ordered Universe Symposia, there is also room for broader conversation and exchange of ideas. These conversations are very interesting and maybe also quite unusual, as they represent a rare instance of academics from very different disciplines being brought together. Interdisciplinary discussions are challenging in manyContinue reading “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Materialism and the Value of Conscious Life”
Category Archives: What we have been up to…
Unity in Diversity
25th – 28th November 2015, Durham, UK. A group of around 25 people gather for another symposium on the scientific writings of the 13th century English bishop Robert Grosseteste. It’s the first symposium under the umbrella of the generous AHRC grant that started in October. Whilst most academic conferences bring together experts from more orContinue reading “Unity in Diversity”
AHRC 10th Anniversary: Ordered Universe and Science in Culture
The Arts and Humanities Research Council has produced a fascinating brochure on some of the projects it has funded over the course of the last decade, now available in an online version. The Ordered Universe features as one of the projects, under the Science in Culture theme, on pages 83-84 (if you want to takeContinue reading “AHRC 10th Anniversary: Ordered Universe and Science in Culture”
Generating sounds: help us write our next paper!
At the last Ordered Universe symposium the group made its third, and final, collaborative reading of Grosseteste’s treatise De generatione sonorum ‘On the Generation of Sounds’. An intriguing, characteristically dense piece of writing, with the usual editorial conundrums, and a strange beauty to its construction, the DGS also sparked a series of reflections from a modern scientific perspective.Continue reading “Generating sounds: help us write our next paper!”
Medieval Rainbows at Cambridge Mathematics
Ordered Universe Co-investigator Tom McLeish was invited down to the Cambridge Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) to talk about the project in that famous institution’s regular ‘fluids’ seminar series.
Kuwait honours Professor Nader El-Bizri: Arabic Science and Philosophy
The Ordered Universe project is very pleased to relay the news that one of its core members, Professor Nader El-Bizri, American University of Beirut, is the recipient of a significant honour for his academic work. The Prince of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, awarded the prestigious internationally peer-refereed Kuwait Prize for the year 2014 onContinue reading “Kuwait honours Professor Nader El-Bizri: Arabic Science and Philosophy”
On the liberal arts and the generation of sounds
Robert Grosseteste suggested in his treatise on the liberal arts that in all areas of human endeavour it is necessary to choose carefully the hour most propitious for the undertaking one wants to carry through. Plants carry more fruit if planted when the celestial spheres are correctly aligned, and base metals are transformed into goldContinue reading “On the liberal arts and the generation of sounds”
Order, the Universe and Everything
This week sees the first symposium for the Ordered Universe project as part of the programme under the new AHRC grant. It will examine Grosseteste’s treatises On the Liberal Arts (De artibus liberalibus) On the Generation of Sounds (De generatione sonorum) and the Middle English translation and exposition of both The Seven Liberal Arts.
Creation Songs
Haydn’s Creation is being performed tonight at Durham Cathedral by the Durham Singers and Durham Singers Ensemble. With a splendid array of soloists from the Samling Academy and Samling Artist Bradley Travis, the convert begins at 7.30, under the direction of Julian Wright. There is a pre-performance talk for ticket holders, given by Giles Gasper, 7.00-7.20Continue reading “Creation Songs”
Being Human with Music and Light and a Fabulous Day
Saturday 14th saw the first two of four events organised at Durham as part of the Being Human, National Festival of Humanities 2015. Now in its second year, the Festival takes place up and down the country with a cornucopia of events for the public. Big questions, big debates and opportunities to engage with academic researchContinue reading “Being Human with Music and Light and a Fabulous Day”