Science is the only news_By Matthias Sperling (video still)
Science is the only news (2012)
Science is the only news is Matthias Sperling's performed reading of a text by Stewart Brand and John Brockman, accompanied by projected video. Sperling uses Brand and Brockman's statement about the pertinence of science to provoke critical discussion around his own enduring interest in addressing science through his artistic practice. While he speaks, an accompanying video projection repeatedly scrolls the announcement that 'science is the only news'.
Text (performed at a lectern, in the manner of Rupaul):
'Stewart Brand writes that "Science is the only news. When you scan through a newspaper or magazine, all the human interest stuff is the same old he-said-she-said, the politics and economics the same sorry cyclic dramas, the fashions a pathetic illusion of newness, and even the technology is predictable if you know the science. Human nature doesn't change much; science does, and the change accrues, altering the world irreversibly." We now live in a world in which the rate of change is the biggest change. Science has thus become a big story.'
Thank you.
Source: John Brockman, The Third Culture, (Simon & Schuster, 1995)
Introduction accessible at: http://edge.org/conversation/the-emerging
First presented at Sadler's Wells Summer University, in response to Jonathan Burrows' invitation to participants to present a 1-minute statement relevant to their practice to the group. Subsequently presented as an element of An Afternoon With Matthias Sperling.
Duration: 1 minute