Beakerhead is a multi-day festival held every September in
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
that combines the arts/culture sectors with the science/technology sectors to encourage collaboration, innovation, and science education through interactive art exhibits, engineered installations, entertainment, and workshops – drawing international presenters and attendees. Beakerhead also includes a year-round education and outreach initiative.
Through public art installations, science on the streets, and community and school competitions, Beakerhead promotes the progression of education at the intersection of arts, science, and engineering. Since its inception in 2013, Beakerhead has become one of Calgary's largest collaborations, bringing together students, artists, scientists, engineers, Calgarians, and tourists in indoor and outdoor public spaces and venues throughout Calgary. Presenters have included: former astronaut and musician Chris Hadfield, ArcAttack, Zimoun, Bee Kingdom Glass,
Wu Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close affi ...
's
GZA
''Gary Eldridge Grice'' (born August 22, 1966), better known by his stage names GZA ( ) and The Genius, is an American rapper and songwriter. A founding member of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, GZA is the group's "spiritual head", being both ...
* Four-to-Six: an entertaining daily exhibit full of hands-on encounters with robots, music, street experiments, edible anatomy, science busking, and a variety of artists and performers.
* Beakerbites (formerly Engineered Eats): Food and drink meet science at participating restaurants and bars featuring Beakerhead-themed creations. Themes Eggs (2015) Milk (2016) Barley (2017) and Canol (2018).
On-going Programs
* Workshops and Tours: Beakerhead hosts workshops, talks, screenings, and readings for guest artists, engineer academics, and the general public.
* The Spectacle: An evening event featuring dance parties, performances, and indoor and outdoor installations. Previous events have included crane riding, massive 3D projections, inflatable artworks, science demonstrations, a human-sized hamster wheel, fire breathing dragons and interactive art.
Beakerhead Year-Round
Past Programs
* Beakerhead Big Bang: an interactive public art proposal and residency program that helped support the creation of new artwork, which would debut in Calgary during the five-day long Beakerhead event every September. The program invited artists, architects, scientists, and other creative professionals to propose an interactive public art installation that incorporated science, technology, and collective experience. The selected projects were funded by Beakerhead and built in Calgary over the course of a year, beginning with a weeklong planning residency hosted at Banff Centre, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.The inaugural Big Bang Residency was awarded to the BASS SHIP by Beama. The BASS Ship, which stands for Beama Applied Sciences Sector Ship, is a 30-foot high interactive audio-visual spaceship that invites participants to explore ideas about non-verbal communication, culture, and civilization.
* SciComm Lab: for over 10 years, the co-founders of Beakerhead, Jay Ingram an Mary Anne Moser have hosted a science and communications program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity where participants could learn to present science with a compelling, audience-focused approach. Previously, the SciComm labs have been intensive two-week summer courses, in 2017, Beakerhead extended the program and offering courses across Canada. Previous course sessions included "Elevator Pitch," "Personalizing the Impersonal," "Audience-Focused Communications," and "Improv."
School Programs
* Beakerhead works with the kindergarten to grade 12 education system to provide curriculum-related experiences that allow students to explore the combination of both artistic and scientific skills. In 2015, Beakerhead worked with 24,200 students in 104 participating schools. The current school programs include field trips, school visits, and an annual Ingenuity Challenge and the Science Genius Rap battles.
Past September Events
2013
The first edition of Beakerhead took place September 11–15, 2013. The main events and attractions included:
* Sustainival: The world's first green carnival and midway, powered by vegetable oils, wind, solar, and other forms of renewable energy.
* Four-to-Six:
Stephen Avenue
Stephen Avenue is a major pedestrian mall in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The mall is the portion of 8 Avenue SW between 4 Street SW and 1 Street SE. It is open to vehicles only from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.
The street is known for some of C ...
Walk between 1 Street SE and 4 Street SW was transformed into an entertaining exhibit featuring street-based science experiments and robots making art.
* Engineered Eats: Dining became an experimental experience where food and drink met science at Beakerhead's participating restaurants and bars.
* Shell International Engineering Competition: Engineering students from across Canada, the United States, and Europe competed in a 24-hour challenge of ingenuity.
* Theatre and music performances including the
Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The orchestra gives the majority of its performances in the Jack Singer Concert Hall at Arts Commons. It is also the resident orchestra for the Calgary Opera, ...
, DieSpace 3.0, and i-ROBOT Theatre.
* Catharsis Catapults: Teams designed and built catapults to toss love-to-hate items.
* Beakernight: An evening featuring dance parties, performances, and outdoors and indoor installations, including a nine-foot laser cat and musical tesla coils that shot bolts of lightning.
2014
The second edition of Beakerhead took place September 10–14, 2014. The main events and attractions included:
* Little Big Street: A miniature neighbourhood featuring interactive structures such as a human-sized nest and an inflatable giant lotus.
* Laser Cat: A 16-foot engineered art installation from Art Directors Club in the United States and Hungry Castle in Barcelona with an outdoor dance floor and videographic light and art.
* Four-to-Six: Stephen Avenue Walk between 1 Street SE and 4 Street SW was transformed into an entertaining exhibit featuring street-based science experiments and robots making art.
* Engineered Eats: Dining becomes an experimental experience when food and drink meet science at Beakerhead's participating restaurants and bars.
* Theatre performances including Ghost River Theatre's adaptation of
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...
's ''Tomorrow's Child''.
* The Periodic Table: A sustainable energy ferris-wheel-turned-dining-room where diners can enjoy a meal created by chef Nicole Gomes, a contestant on
Top Chef Canada
''Top Chef Canada'' is a Canadian reality competition television series and is considered one of the most prestigious culinary competitions in Canada. The show premiered on April 11, 2011, on Food Network Canada. The first season consisted of 13 ...
.
* Net Blow-Up: A self-supporting, climbable structure designed by three artists from
Vienna, Austria
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, called Numen/For Use.
* Beakernight: An evening featuring dance parties, performances, and outdoors and indoor installations including a two-storey high, fire-breathing octopus from El Pulpo Mecanico.
2015
The third edition of Beakerhead took place September 16–20, 2015. The main events and attractions included:
* Sandbox of Human Ingenuity: A giant sandbox featuring The Claw, a larger-than-life sized version of the classic arcade game.
* A performance from science advocate and rapper GZA of Wu-Tang Clan.
* A String (Theory) of Incredible Encounters: An outdoor gallery of engineered art installations, including Intrude, five huge bunnies designed by Australian artist Amanda Parer in Central Memorial Park, and the Fabulist, an interplanetary inflatable designed by Bee Kingdom Glass.
* The Gorgeous Libation: A one-night-only pop-up bar where patrons could explore the history and future of energy.
* The Seven Wonderers: A night of science storytelling led by John Rennie, former editor-in-chief of
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...
; Rose Eveleth, host and producer of ''Meanwhile in the Future''; Torah Kachur, national science columnist for
CBC Radio
CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...
,
Jennifer Gardy
Jennifer Gardy is a Canadian scientist, educator and broadcaster, with expertise in the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry, and bioinformatics. Since February 2019 she has been the Deputy Director, Surveillance, Data, and Epidemiology on ...
, regular guest host of the Nature of Things for CBC TV; Sarah Chow, science comedian and former host of ''This Week at UBC''; Raj Bhardwaj, medical columnist for CBC Radio; and Ivan Semeniuk, science reporter for the
Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it f ...
.
* Beakernight: An evening featuring dance parties, performances, and outdoors and indoor installations including a fire-spitting
skee ball
Skee-Ball is an arcade game and one of the first redemption games. It is played by rolling a ball up an inclined lane and over a "ball-hop" hump (resembling a ski jump) that jumps the ball into bullseye rings. The object of the game is to collect ...
and large-scale 3D projections.
2016
The fourth edition of Beakerhead took place September 14–18, 2016. The main events and attractions included:
* Rock 'n Roll History of Space Exploration: Jay Ingram and his band, the Cosmonauts, led the audience on a visual and musical journey of space exploration.
* Four-to-Six: Stephen Avenue Walk between 1 Street SE and 3 Street SW was transformed into an entertaining exhibit featuring mobile contraptions and a cornstarch walk.
* BASS Ship: A 30-foot interactive audio-visual spaceship installation designed by Beama.
* Tentacles: Giant octopus tentacles designed by UK artists Filthy Luker and Pedro Estrellas emerge from the McGill Block.
* The Seven Wonderers: A night of science storytelling led by Nathaniel Barr, a professor of creativity and creative thinking at
Sheridan College
Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (formerly Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology) is a public polytechnic institute of technology located in the west- Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada.
Founded i ...
; Kori Czuy, a PhD student at the University of Calgary studying sensual mathematics; Gill Deacon, a CBC Radio host, ward-winning broadcaster, and bestselling author; Dr. Christopher Emdin, an associate professor at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and a leading researcher in hip-hop, science, and education; Randy Frank, executive director of research and development at 3M Canada; Seema Goel, an artist in residence at the Faculty of Science at the
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Flaming Lotus Girls, Serpent Mother is a fire-breathing installation at Beakerhead, 168 feet long and with 40 pillars of fire.
* Scent Bar: A blindfolded sensory performance experience based on our sense of smell, located at Chophouse.,
* Spectral Illuminations II: Site-specific projections projected on the surface of Memorial Park Library, presented by EMMEDIA Gallery and Production Society and the
Calgary Public Library
The Calgary Public Library (CPL) is a distributed library system featuring 21 branch locations including the Central Library. It is the second most used system in Canada (after the Toronto Public Library) and the sixth most used library system in ...
.
2018
The sixth edition of Beakerhead took place September 19–23, 2018. The main events and attractions included:
* Treeter Totter: A giant see-saw exhibit that teaches users about climate change, with deciduous trees on opposite ends of a wooden plank that raise and lower according to movement, demonstrating human's ability to change the course of nature.
* Becons: A sculpture made of recycled materials by Alberta artist Max Streicher, educating individuals on the Dung Beatle.
* 30 ft high Tesla Coils connected to a piano that you can play.
* An eye-catching balloon installation called "Dreams Never Die" created by Maria Galura.
2019
The seventh edition of Beakerhead took place from 18-22, 2019. The main events and attractions included:
* The Long View Polar Bear, created by Don Kennell. A 35 foot sculpture made out of car hoods to represent the greatest threat to polar bears: climate change. At the spectacle The Long View Polar Bear was projection mapped by AZMA.
* Paraluna, by Christopher Schardt. A mesmerizing array of LED lights spinning to make beautiful images for the audience lying on the grass below.
* A visit from True North Absurdities, a local artist team who brought with them two fire-breathing, interactive sculptures: Notorious B.A.D. and Trippity Twitchit.
* Amanita Arcade, an interactive larger-than-life, mushroom-shaped memory game created by Shadow Puppet Productions.
* The Portal by The PRGM, an interactive portal lit by LED lights and fire.
* Performances by MakeFashion and Le Cirque de la Nuit.