From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee :
The D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum will be open to the public tonight from 9pm to 10pm as part of Dundee’s Christmas Light Night.
As well as showing off D’Arcy’s amazing collection of animals from around the world, this year we’ll also be providing a musical interpretation of D’Arcy’s work by playing a recording of The Road in its Unfoldings, a meta-passacaglia for wind symphony composed in 1996-7 by Joseph Klein, Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of North Texas College of Music.
The piece is modelled on the ideas of transformation through mathematical growth patterns presented by D’Arcy Thompson in On Growth and Form. In Klein’s words, “it explores the transformation of its subject from its fragmented, murky origins, coalescing into a direct thematic statement, then becoming increasingly removed from the prototypical structure as it undergoes further development.”
We have also redisplayed in the museum a selection of the artworks acquired through our recent Art Funded project, including paintings, drawings and prints by Henry Moore, William Turnbull, Victor Pasmore, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Gemma Anderson and others, plus a selection from the D’Arcy Thompson Print Folio, created by artists at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design. We will also be projecting Daniel Brown’s digital art piece Flowers throughout the opening.
The D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum is in the Carnelley Building, Park Place, University of Dundee. Please enter by the main front door of the building and you will be directed to the museum.
(The full Christmas Night Light programme for today is available here).