Steven Pinker and other leading scientists join artists at the Serpentine Gallery for a 24-hour Experiment Marathon featuring robots, three-way kissing booths and out-of-body experiences

Olafur Eliasson together with Hans Ulrich Obrist convenes the Serpentine Gallery 24-Hour Experiment Marathon from 13 to 14 October which blurs the boundaries of art and science and creates a laboratory of experience. A huge variety of experiments exploring perception, artificial intelligence, the body and language, takes place in and around the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007 designed by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen.

This year’s Pavilion has been conceived as a laboratory for experimentation and invention with artists, architects, academics and scientists being invited to present hand-held or table-top experiments throughout the weekend.

The Marathon starts with a session convened by renowned scientists Israel Rosenfield and Luc Steelsof Sony Robotics Lab, looking into the brain’s interpretation of reality, artificial intelligence and out-of-body experiences; Beau Lotto demonstrates ‘Why the Sky is not Blue’, Paul Drew analyses the notorious ‘Yo, Blair’ conversation, explaining how we understand language, and Angela Sirigu presents the famousPhantom Limb experiment, in which amputees continue to experience the presence of a lost body part.

John Brockman, founder of Edge.org, leads a session that includes award-winning psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen who will test the claim ‘Do women have more empathy than men? Contributions from Steven Pinker, Armand Leroi and Lewis Wolpert are followed by an EDGE-Serpentine presentation ofFormulae for the 21st Century which includes formulas from Richard Dawkins, David Deutsch, Brian Eno, Jana Levin, Lisa Randall, Martin Rees, J. Craig Venter, and many more.

Pedro Reyes brings his Three Way Kissing Booth for a public experiment on the permutations of male and female desire and world-famous performance artist Marina Abramovic ‘cleans the house’ in a renowned experimental work exploring subjects of the body, pain and endurance.

Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment stages a 24-hour, online continuous writing event, passing a cumulative piece of writing from time zone to time zone.

Artist Matthew Ritchie leads an experimental panel for The Morning Line, a public art project investigating alternatives to traditional museum space, developed in collaboration with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.

An artists’ laboratory will include experiments conducted by John Baldessari, Paul Fryer, Jonas Mekas, Gustav Metzger and Tomas Saraceno.

Registration required:

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Free:

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