12.04.24
Tuesday 7 March 2023
Members of the St Catharine’s community are due to showcase their interests and expertise during the Cambridge Festival, a series of free events run by the University of Cambridge between 17 March and 2 April 2023.
What Makes a Perfect Garden?
3–4pm on 18 March | Ramsden Room, St Catharine’s College
Join Dr Sura Qadiri (2018), Fellow and Dawson College Assistant Professor at St Catharine’s, as she explores the account of Algerian writer Sofiane Hadjadj’s novella Un si parfait jardin. This event is organised by Alliance Française Cambridge and Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.
Dr Qadiri comments, “Hadjadj’s novella follows its protagonist as he returns to a postcolonial Algiers, still recovering from the ravages of a recent Civil War and the aftereffects of a major earthquake, determined to revive the city’s botanical garden, the Jardin Botanique du Hamma. The text presents only tantilising clues as to what a perfect garden might look like for the protagonist, and as such encourages us to pay close attention in order to piece together his vision both for the garden and, by implication, the national identity and mood it represents. As a garden with colonial roots which has been reinvented in a variety of ways over the years, the project to revive it draws our attention to the range of aesthetic, utilitarian and ideological considerations that determine our idea of a perfect garden at a time when we might be turning our thoughts to our own gardens and outdoor spaces. In addition, I have put the question of what makes a perfect garden to our own head gardener at St Catharine’s, Mr Alan North, and will share some of his insights.
No prior knowledge of either French or the novella is needed to enjoy the session, and no registration/tickets are required. Find out more from the Cambridge Festival website.
Puppet Magic on the Early Modern Stage
2–3pm on 19 March | Faculty of English, Judith E. Wilson Studio, 9 West Road, CB3 9DP
Frankie Gardner, a PhD English student at St Catharine’s, is part of a team of student puppet makers who have partnered with theatre historian Dr Nicole Sheriko to host a session exploring the history of magic on the English stage and how puppetry and special effects worked in Shakespeare’s day. The session will include a working replica of the magical talking head from Friar Bacon & Friar Bungay (c. 1588–92), which includes a climactic moment described thus: ‘Here the Head speakes, and a lightning flasheth forth and a hand appears that beraketh downe the Head with a hammer.’
Frankie says, “Puppets from the 16th century don’t survive so our reconstruction has relied upon accounts from the time and deciding how we might recreate the same sense of awe and wonder for a modern audience. It has been a great experience working with Nicole and the students involved to sketch and build our design, which had to factor in practicalities like size, mechanics and how we would transport to the venue as well as our creative ideas. Our session is intended for 18–30 year olds so I hope to see a large turn out from Catz students, but anyone of all ages is very welcome (there’s nothing inappropriate for children).”
Booking/registration is required. Visit the Cambridge Festival website for further details and to book a space.
You can also follow the project team’s work on their blog and/or Twitter.
The Lost Words: In Song
6–7pm on 20 March | Chapel, St Catharine’s College
The Girls' Choir of St Catharine’s will be giving the UK premiere of The Lost Words – a collection of songs by James Burton with words from the bestselling book by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris. The songs will be interspersed with readings and accompanied by projections of illustrations from the book.
Dr Edward Wickham, (2003) Fellow and Director of Music at St Catharine’s, explains:
“Like the book itself, these hugely attractive songs - inventive, humorous, poignant - will appeal to all age-groups, and will be complemented in this concert by new settings of William Blake by Harry Escott, with a lively percussion accompaniment.”
Booking/registration is required. Visit the Cambridge Festival website for further details and to book a space.
Living in a Dream
11am–5pm on 31 March & 1 April | Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), East Road, CB1 1PT
Sarah Coyle and Gwynnevere Suter, both third-year Psychological & Behavioural Sciences undergraduates at St Catharine’s, will be supporting an exhibit about dreaming, depersonalisation, artificial intelligence and our sense of ‘self’. Drawing upon on almost a thousand dream reports collected as part of a recent research study into altered experiential states in dreams, the exhibit will present artwork based on these reports and use traditional media as well as some of the latest visual technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR).
Gwynnevere comments, “Depersonalisation is a painfully common yet underdiscussed experience. Many relate it to the feeling of dreaming, though past research has not investigated this connection nor whether depersonalisation can impact your experience of dreams. A recent study carried out at ARU has begun to address this. We hope through visualising the experiences reported and helping people to explore these dream-scenes while awake, we can support their understanding of depersonalisation and spark introspection into what it means to experience a sense of self.”
No tickets are required for the exhibition. Find out more from the Cambridge Festival website.
