Following on from the 2013 conference Lessons in Geography, this is the second in a series of “lessons”. Concerned with the way matter and movement can inform ideas and understanding, Lessons in Physics looks at how material and the physical act is utilised by artists as a vehicle for expression. It examines the properties of the physicality of art in the broadest sense, and the nature of processes that are affected by the determining factors of time and space, energy and force.

Here artists, writers, performers and commentators discuss the complex space between the physical and hypothetical realms within creative practice. The processes and manifestations of artistic endeavour are central to the debate, with an examination of qualitative differences and dependencies between the intangible idea, theory or concept and the material object or performance created.

Tickets £15 (£12 concession / £8 students) | Book tickets here

Contributors include: 

Camilla Brown Curator, writer and lecturer | Professor Johnny Golding Research Professor in Philosophy and Fine Art at Birmingham School of Art, and Director of the International Centre for Contemporary Art Research, Birmingham City University | Mary Griffiths Artist and senior curator in modern and contemporary art at the Whitworth, Manchester | Jitish Kallat Artist and curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014 | Peter Kennard Artist and senior lecturer in Photography, Art and the Public Domain at the Royal College of Arts, London | Gemma Marmalade Artist and academic | Carl Robinson Artist and academic | Edwin Zwakman Artist and academic

Lessons in Physics is co-produced by mac birmingham and The University of Derby. It is supported by New Art West Midlands, the contemporary visual arts network for the region. The conference organisers are Craig Ashley and Vered Lahav.