Micro-Museum of Sleep/
super/collider

Commissioner Bomas and Parr for CitizenM Hotel
Year 2016

Melanie King and I curated the design and artworks on behalf for super/collider for the Micro Museum of Sleep in collaboration with Bompas & Parr.

Based on a Greek sleep sanctuary, the Micro Museum celebrates the science and significance of sleep through a variety of artistic mediums. 

Marek Kukula / Sleeping In Space
Dr Marek Kukula considers an astronaut’s experience of sleeping in space, looking at how zero gravity and constant challenges affect sleep onboard the International Space Station. For example, on the ISS, there are 16 sunsets and sunrises every 24 hours so an astronaut cannot rely on the sun to signal when it is time to sleep. Peer through the peephole into deep space, to see an astronaut hanging in the void.

Marek Kukula is the Public Astronomer at Royal Museums Greenwich, home of the Royal Observatory Greenwich and the Queen’s House art gallery. Marek graduated in physics with astrophysics from the University of Manchester in 1990 and in 1994 was awarded a PhD in Radio astronomy, based on research carried out at Jodrell Bank Observatory. His research interests include active galactic nuclei and the ways in which large galaxies and their central supermassive black holes have changed and evolved throughout cosmological time. 

Olivia Bargman / Dreams Experienced by Gilgamesh
This diorama depicts the dreams experienced by Gilgamesh, the Mesopotamian ruler of the city of Uruk. His mother, Ninsun was the goddess of dreams, wisdom and cows - she is has the role of the Seer, Explainer of Dreams.  Ninsun explains Gilgamesh’s odd visions. Gilgamesh has a couple of disturbing dreams about a meteorite and an axe. Both objects he names “as a wife” to him. Ninsun interprets this as Gilgamesh meeting somebody who will help him on his quest to the cedar woods to conquer the monster, Humbaba. This help will come in the form of Endiku, the wild man, who was raised by wolves, who is part divine. In Sumerian stories like this one, the bull was a lunar symbol.

Olivia Bargman is a London based illustrator, often exploring narratives surrounding science and mythology. Clients include Jamie Oliver, The Wellcome Collection, Radio Netherlands and Barclays.

Alice Dunseath / The Stages of Sleep
From the perspective of a closed eye, we explore the five stages of sleep. From light sleep to deep sleep and onto REM sleep and back again, we see an abstract interpretation of the sights and sounds we experience whilst in our restful dream-like state.

Alice Dunseath is a London based filmmaker and animator. She works with materials, liquids, chemicals, crystals or elements that have a life of their own. Choreographing them around the screen to music or sounds, she make visual poetry that encourages viewers to contemplate the bigger picture. She is an Associate Lecturer at Goldsmiths College, University of London and has screened and given talks about her work in film festivals, exhibitions (including the V&A, HERE TODAY... and Selfridges), and universities around the world.

Dr Simon Jones / You Are Asleep
Neuroscientist Dr Simon Jones will take you on a poetic journey of the changes that happen in your brain from the moment you begin to feel tired, to deep REM sleep, via the hormone of darkness and full body atonia. His hypnotic voice will pull you into the blackness and allow your brain to begin it’s mysterious unconscious processes.

Dr Simon Jones trained as an auditory neuroscientist and is an associate editor at Springer-Nature. Simon graduated from Girton College at the University of Cambridge and was awarded his PhD at University of Nottingham. Simon lectures publically on auditory neuroscience, and a recent talk was focused on the acoustic and astronomical features of ancient monuments, considering how these architectural features attempted to evoke feelings of the sublime. Simon is also the in-house scientific advisor for the London based art collective Lumen, which focuses on the symbolism of light and sound in religion and its relationship to astronomical research.

Photography by Kitty Wheeler Shaw.