Projects 2013

Boron Mon Amour, a hymn to the humdrum

Project partners

Emma Weitkamp is a Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at University of the West of England (UWE)

John Burgan is a documentary filmmaker and Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader at the Documentary Film Research Group at the University of South Wales

Mike Paterson is a Producer and Director at PFilm

Marcin Ignac is a computational designer at Variable

Journal Authors

Emma Weitkamp

Mike Paterson

John Burgan

Marcin Ignac

Boron Mon Amour

Could Boron be the most boring element in the periodic table? Boron Mon Amour creates a 'hymn to the humdrum', combining linear film with live data streams to form a major new component of the global documentary project 94 Elements. Both innovative and irreverent, this project will use interactive visualisation to explore our relationship with natural resources whilst building an adaptable, scalable tool for telling data-driven stories in the future.

Journal Entries

Reflections on '59

Wed 20 Nov, 2013

The classic ‘chemistry song’ has to be Tom Lehrer’s ‘The Elements’, first performed in 1959. Ironically, this is the same year that CP Snow delivered his influential Rede Lecture on the ‘Two Cultures’, arguing that a cultural gulf had emerged between those educated in the ‘arts’ and those in the ‘sciences’. Snow argues that it is not acceptable for someone to be considered ‘cultured’ who has no knowledge of (and no willingness to engage with) modern science. The counterpoint (that scientists should have a basic knowledge of the arts) he argues less strongly. His main gripe is with the British education system which asks young people to sharply narrow their studies at the age of only 16 – a point with which I have some sympathy.

Starship Boron: to boldly go, to go boldly or boldly to go?

Sun 17 Nov, 2013

Cranial brain scrub, anyone?

Mon 11 Nov, 2013

Just as carbon can take the form of diamond or graphite, boron also comes in multiple forms — as many as 16 have been reported. Hiding behind the yawn-inducing name lies a complex chemistry which has frustrated chemists for over 200 years. It took a century of experimentation just to produce a 99% pure sample of the element following its discovery in 1808. In 2009 a professor at Stony Brook University, Artem Oganov, discovered a new pure form of boron which was almost as hard as diamond.

A brief diversion: Carrom in Kabul

Sun 20 Oct, 2013

Everyone knows it: when you're immersed in a project, you don't always make sense to third parties, even to those sympathetically inclined. So hands up: I confess that when, at the last REACT workshop, I mentioned in passing that I was flying off to Kabul that weekend to film a short sequence of Carrom, I might as well have said that I was teletransporting to Planet Zog for a round of, er, Quidditch!

The Chemistry of Contradictions

Fri 11 Oct, 2013

This week is all about the role of creative pragmatism in managing opposing forces

Future Documentary Sandbox