Poetry & Science

QUANTUM SHEEP

Valerie Laws achieved world-wide notoriety when she received an Arts Council grant to spray-paint words onto sheep, for a project which bridged art and science, creating random poetry as the sheep moved about, and at the same time illustrating the workings of the universe. Quantum Sheep reflected the principles of Quantum Theory: randomness, (the original haiku rearranged by the sheep into potentially over 80 billion different poems), duality (metaphorical), and the influence of the observer on the observed. The project is still a subject of media interest, and the form, invented by Valerie, of the random haiku, was also featured in BBC2's documentary Why Poetry Matters with Griff Rhys Jones, this time each word painted onto inflatable beach balls in Hackney Lido.

Read more about the Quantum Sheep experiment and about Quantum Sheep - the poetry collection.

BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE, POETRY, RESIDENCIES...

THIS FATAL SUBJECT: starting point for many more projects.

Valerie received a £30,000 Arts Award from The Wellcome Trust (with artist and fellow project originator Susan Aldworth, and with sculptor Eleanor Crook).

The award funded This Fatal Subject, based on their joint residency at the Gordon Museum of Pathology, involving researching the science of dying with specialist scientists at Kings College London Medical School, and at Newcastle University, to produce cross-disciplinary work for public exhibition and publication.

This resulted in a public exhibition at Old Operating Theatre Museum, London, in January - February 2009, which was a Guardian Guide Pick of the Week. It included Valerie's innovative new 'moving poetry' form, part of a poetry film made with Susan Aldworth. Valerie won second prize in the 2008 Mslexia Poetry Competition with A Litter of Moons, a poem inspired by the foetal specimens in the Pathology Museum: read the poem here.

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY: residency and science writing.

Valerie is Writer in Residence at the Institute of Ageing and Health, Newcastle University, working with scientists with whom she forged relationships during This Fatal Subject. The residency will develop to cover the Campus for Ageing and Vitality, with new commissions and ventures. She is working with Professor Elaine Perry, Neurochemical pathologist, researching and co-writing an article on Near Death Experiences, and co-authoring a chapter on mind-altering plants and shamanic journeys, for a new book on consciousness edited by Professor Perry.

EVOLVING WORDS: celebrating Darwin.

Valerie is Newcastle Poet for Evolving Words, a national Wellcome Trust funded project, working with young poets to write rap, song and poetry about Darwin's ideas and legacy, for public performance at theatres and at the Centre For Life's Science Festival, as well as a specially made film (on YouTube) and a final performance in London for all the regions.

LEEDS HOSPITALS

Valerie undertook a residency in Leeds at Jimmy's Cancer Wing and Leeds General, working with long stay patients with cancer, orthopaedic injuries, and dementia, to write for and with them, in March 2008. Subsequently some of her poems are displayed in the hospital on specially designed boards, together with others chosen by Leeds Hospitals Writer in Residence Char March.

ALL THAT LIVES

Valerie's third poetry collection, All that Lives, arises largely from these residencies in pathology and neuroscience research institutes. It traces the author's personal journey from witnessing the deaths of loved ones, through her quest to understand the science of dying down to brain cell level, encountering strange specimens and conditions. Read more about All That Lives

WINDOWS OF ART, LONDON

One of Valerie Laws' poetic innovations, the embedded haiku, welcomes visitors to the Knowledge & Information Centre (KIC) at St Thomas' Hospital in London, commissioned by Guy's and St Thomas' Charity. The Window of Art consists of nine central panels featuring continuous lines of poetry and illustrations, spanning the whole wall of windows. Within each poem is an embedded haiku which is illuminated, using innovative electroluminescent (EL) technology. The four poems are interspersed with illustrations based on medical macro photography, which echo the anatomical themes of the four poems.