You are invited to the open event at The Castle Hotel (66 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LE, 0161 237 9485) on the 15 November from 7pm to 10pm to enjoy two talks, some free food and some music. It is an open door event, no tickets required; just come along, put your feet up and bring your friends.
The talks are as follows:
Museum Nature and the Nature of Museums by Henry McGhie
For over a century, visitors to Manchester museum have learned about natural history by looking at stuffed animals in glass cases arranged by their scientific classification. Many favourites; the tiger, gorilla and polar bear; are still there in a series of 15 themed displays entitled Life, Bodies, Peace, Humans and Disasters.
But some distinctly un-museum like objects have now been added including origami birds, clockwork teeth and neon signs. Henry McGhie, Head of Collections and Curator of Zoology, said, “The whole thing had become confused, it was out of date and it was time for a very serious change” insisting the artistic reinvention of the old Animal Life gallery was far from cosmetic. Here he gives an informal talk loosely around Living Worlds and how the collection aims to inspire people to think about the past, present and future and understand how we connect with nature.
And
Power to the People: How Open Design Can Help Us Get Renewable Energy Around the World by Jane Dennett-Thorpe
I want to discuss why open design matters; some examples of where it is being explored; and, why medium sized wind turbines are really important.
Jane Dennett-Thorpe tells us about the project Onawi www.onawi.org/ non-profit organisation that aims to contribute to a just transition towards climate change mitigation by making designs of wind turbines freely available. She tells us about the aspirations of the project,of the advantages of the cooperative development of wind turbines, of why the project can play a part in transitioning towards climate change mitigation and, lastly, how you might get involved.
A few words from Jane: “We need to take urgent action on climate change, and we also need to dramatically change the global wealth distribution. Intellectual property needs to be freely shared and built upon to make this happen. Renewable energy has to be the long term solution to our global energy needs. As our contribution to a just transition, Onawi is a non-profit organisation developing a horizontal technology transfer of wind turbines based on open source co-operative innovation.
Music will be performed by Kinaesthetic
Kinaesthetic are a Manchester based trio who have predominantly spent their time in the studio, but are branching out to play an acoustic set for this, their debut live performance.
Find out more
For more information about the event or the Ragged University project please check the website, Twitter, or Facebook:
http://www.ragged-online.com/
https://www.facebook.com/RaggedUniversity?fref=ts
@RaggedTalks
Remember, it is all free, informal and open to anyone. Bring your friends along and put your feet up…