Following the European premier of The Creator at the UCD Imagine Science Film Festival in Dublin, Professor Lizbeth Goodman moderated a panel to further discuss the film’s astounding depiction of the visionary scientist Alan Turing. Featured panelists included Professor Brian Greene, Professor Scott Rickard, and filmmakers AL Holmes and AL Taylor. Watch the video posted above to see excerpts from the discussion.
In The Creator, filmmakers AL Holmes and AL Taylor explore the deep subconscious of scientist Alan Turing (born 1912), now regarded as one of the most influential minds of the 20th century. Attributed as the founder of computer science, a mathematician and codebreaker, Turing made invaluable contributions to the field of artificial intelligence and played a key role in World War II to develop mathematical systems for cracking German military codes. Despite these scientific achievements, Turing faced unfair persecution from the British government and his personal life became a tumultuous struggle, finally leading to his symbolic suicide in 1954 from a poisoned red apple.
Through a brilliantly constructed surreal dream world, AL & AL depict the inner drama of this heralded scientist and reveal intimate details from Turing’s dream diaries. Thinking Machines from the future embark on a quest to discover their origins and destiny in the universe. During Jungian therapy with Doctor Greenbaum, Turing discovers the secrets of his unconscious mind and what drives him to build a Thinking Machine.
About the Panelists
Since 2001 AL Holmes and AL Taylor have created an award winning body of films, exhibiting internationally in galleries, site specific installations, film festivals, for television and concert halls. In 2008 the duo’s critically acclaimed solo exhibition ‘Eternal Youth’ at FACT for the European Capital of Culture celebrations toured to the National Art Museum of China for the Olympic Games. In 2009 they were awarded the Liverpool Art Prize. In 2010 they collaborated with Philip Glass, Brian Greene and David Hwang on Icarus at the Edge of Time. In 2012 they premiered The Creator, a new sci-fi short commissioned to celebrate Alan Turing’s centenary at the Museum of Moving Image in New York.
Brian Greene is a Professor Mathematics and Physics at Colombia University. His area of research is superstring theory: a theory that purports to give us a quantum theory of gravity as well as a unified theory of all forces and all matter. Superstring theory has the potential to realise Einstein’s long sought dream of a single, all encompassing, theory of the universe. Professor Greene is known to the public through his general-level lectures and writings. His first book, The Elegant Universe was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Non-Fiction, won Britain’s top prize for a book on science, and has sold more than a million copies worldwide.
Lizbeth is Chair of Creative Technology Innovation and Professor of Inclusive Design for Education at University College Dublin. She is an Executive Board member and leads on the Creative DNA strand of the Innovation Academy and Alliance between UCD, TCD and Queen’s University Belfast. Lizbeth is currently leading on a new roadmap for innovation and inclusive education, focusing on the potential for catalysing transdisciplinary creative media Arts research between university departments and stakeholder communities in the Arts and Sciences.
Scott is an Associate Professor, UCD School of Electronic, Electrical and Communications Engineering. He has degrees in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering from M.I.T., and MA and PhD degrees in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Princeton University. At UCD, he founded the Complex & Adaptive Systems Laboratory, where biologists, geologists, mathematicians, computer scientists, social scientists and economists work on problems that matter to people. His research focus is on applying signal processing and machine learning/artificial intelligence techniques to a diverse set of problems ranging from diagnosing coronary artery disease to predicting financial markets.
