Cosmic wonder
Cosmic Wonder, by Dr Jeffrey Grube, Lecturer in the Department of Physics (Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences) and Sonya Dyer, Somerset House Studios Resident, brings together the ongoing interests and explorations of the collaborators at the intersection of scientific labour and discovery with artistic labour and storytelling.
Image: 'Andromeda' (2021), video still
The project team will explore the construction and analysis of astronomical instrumentation taking place at King’s as an entry point into exploring the cosmos and the speculative narratives that this work inspires. Sonya’s work employs a trilogy of real-life and fictional Black women as progenitors of a proposed cosmology. Jeff’s research with King’s students and international collaborators involves building a radio telescope at King’s and making contributions to the world-leading gamma ray observatory CTA. The team are interested to see what stories can arise from this collaboration.
Project team
Dr Jeff Grube is a Lecturer in Physics Education at King’s College London. He teaches Astrophysics modules and supervises student projects, including the construction and operation of a radio telescope. Jeff’s research is partly in high-energy astrophysics with the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), consisting of many telescopes currently being built in Chile and the Canary Islands. The other part of his research is in Education, including understanding Science students’ sense of belonging related to gender and ethnicity. Prior to joining King’s, Jeff’s experience includes six years as a postdoctoral researcher in Chicago, where he led numerous outreach efforts with school groups and the public at the Adler Planetarium. He completed his PhD in high energy astrophysics at the University of Leeds in 2007.
Dr Sonya Dyer is an artist, writer and Somerset House Studios Resident from London and most recently also a UK Associate Artist at the Delfina Foundation. She is a finalist for the Arts Foundation Futures Award 2021, and an alumna of Whitney Museum of American Art: Independent Study Program. Sonya Dyer’s practice explores how subjectivities and alliances are formed across cultures and temporalities, creating possible futures. Recent projects include Art Night London (2021); Rewriting The Future, Site Gallery (2019); Or, Dark Fecundity, The Centre for Afrofuturist Studies, USA (2018); and The Claudia Jones Space Station (BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and The NewBridge Project, Newcastle, 2017). Dyer is also a writer and commentator on art and culture. Hailing Frequencies Open (HFO), her current body of work, combines social justice with speculation, fantasy with the political. https://sonyadyerstudio.com