Come on, feel the noise As the young children left with their parents, older "boys" quickly took over to do their own banging and bashing of the exotic "instruments", which went on view in Dublin this week.
Created in France in the 1950s by brothers Bernard and François Baschet, the "sonic sculptures", which are now world famous, are part of a summer festival at the Ark, Dublin's children's cultural centre.
"You can still go mad and connect with the stuff, it's timeless," said Paul Madden, an animator from Marino, Dublin. "It's surreal and extremely interactive," said his friend, animator Eoin Whelehan. "It just makes you want to go over and hit it," said digital artist Tim Redfern.
"Creativity is crucial to science and engineering," said Leo Enright, broadcaster and chair of the Discover Science and Engineering programme, which is supporting the Ark's summer programme. "These are not just sculptures. They are opportunities for children to engage with technology in the way they teach young people how to vary their world and how the change may have an effect," he said when he opened the festival.
"Children should learn, encounter and experience timbre, tone, rhythm and musical colour before they learn how to play an instrument," said Leo McKenna, curator and producer of The Ark of Noise festival.
"I can't believe that this stuff was made in the 1950s," said Dougal Hazel, a goldsmith from Dolphin's Barn in Dublin who experimented with the "eccentric acoustic musical machines" alongside his wife Sandy and their daugther Julia (6).
"The Ark is really interested in the fusion of science and art," said Eina McHugh, director of the Ark, which expects to attract up to 7,500 young people to this exhibition and its accompanying series of workshops.
The Ark of Noise festival runs from today until Aug 12. For details and booking telephone 01-6707788; email boxoffice@ark.ie
The focus of the cameras shifts to 'Gollywood'
Monaghan, where feature films Middletown and Puffball were filmed recently, is now called "Mollywood" by those who work within the film industry - but Galway is where they go to do the deals.
It will all be about pitching projects at the 18th Galway Film Fleadh this year, according to the experts.
"We give Irish film-makers the opportunity to pitch their films one to one. We pre-schedule 600 meetings over six days for pitching projects," said Miriam Allen, general manager of the Galway Film Fleadh.
It's an opportunity to meet with up to 50 film distributors, ranging from sales agents to financiers from all over Europe and the US, she says, adding that "we are showing over 90 Irish shorts. They all come."
"Galway is the film-makers' festival," said film-maker and board member Steve Woods, whose short film, Buail, will show at the fleadh this year. "The fair attached to it is very important to the industry," he said.
Another short film, The White Dress, about a little girl who has to make her Holy Communion on her own, by film-maker Vanessa Gildea from Rosses Point in Co Sligo, who works at Filmbase in Dublin, is another example of what will be screened during the festival.
Puffball, a feature film produced by Michael Garland with Donald Sutherland in the lead, was shot in Co Monaghan this year, costing €5 million. This film's highly regarded director, Nic Roeg, will give a masterclass during the fleadh. Legendary screenwriter Robert Towne and actor Kathy Bates will give masterclasses too.
"It's a very vibrant festival in terms of the film community," said Sunniva O'Flynn, curator of the Irish Film Archive.
Among those who came to the Dublin launch of the festival programme on Tuesday night were Mark Byrne, who worked on Middletown, which was shot in Castle Leslie in Co Monaghan last year, actor Dan Colley, and camera assistant Denise Woods.
[ www.galwayfilmfleadh.comOpens in new window ]
Poets in praise of Greacen
Poets lined the walls of the elegant board room of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland as they saluted octogenarian Robert Greacen on publication of his latest poetry collection.
The 85year-old poet was described as a "walking archive" by Prof Nicholas Allen, of the University of North Carolina. "He's a connection to 60 years of Irish poetry and a wonderfully generous man in his spirit and in his poetry," he said.
Among the poets who attended the launch of Robert Greacen: New & Selected Poems, were John F Deane, Neville Keery, Sheila O'Hagan, Gerald Dawe, Anatoly Kudryavitsky, Alan Jude Moore, Noel Monahan, of Cavan town and Fred Johnston, poet and director of the Western Writers Centre in Galway.
"He's a quiet, self-effacing, dedicated and gifted poet," said poet Dennis O'Driscoll, to whom the book is dedicated. "He has remained true to his gift," he said.
"It is the simplicity of the language, masking as well as revealing a great deal of insight into human experience" that makes Greacen's work worth reading, according to fellow poet Maurice Harmon, former professor of Anglo-Irish literature at UCD, whose own work, Selected Essays, was published by Irish Academic Press.
Greacen was born in Derry in 1920. He grew up in Belfast and Monaghan, was educated in Trinity College Dublin and worked for many years in London as a teacher. "I tried to select the poems which reflected the three Robert Greacens - of Northern Ireland, southern Ireland and London," said the book's editor, Jack Weaver, professor emeritus of English at Winthrop University in South Carolina.
"I tried to depict the man as thoroughly as I could through his work. The man who is in the book is like the cat in the dark room. You have to catch him. He's not hiding but you have to find him for him to reveal himself," said Weaver.
Robert Greacen: New & Selected Poems is published by Salmon Poetry
Hanging 128 years of winners
Many winners of the RDS Taylor Art Awards, which date back to 1878, gathered to see their paintings in the National Gallery in a show that opened in Dublin this week.
"It's unusual to be a living artist and to be exhibited here," said artist Annraoi Wyler, whose work, Splash, won the award in 1985.
Artist Bernard McDonagh from Strandhill in Co Sligo, the RDS Taylor Art Award winner in 1947 and 1948, stood in front of his painting Fair Day and reminisced about his earlier days, when he had the artist Seán Keating as a teacher. "He was a wondeful teacher. . . That is why the painting is as good as it is," he said. Nowadays he is "painting portraits all the time. You go back to observation. It comes down to the basics of craftsmanship."
The exhibition, curated by Janet McLean, celebrates the 275th birthday of the RDS and highlights the awards, which were established in 1878 for art students under the age of 25, providing financial support and professional encouragement. The show also includes award-winning work by artists such as Dorothy Cross and James Hanley. Nancy Larchet, of the RDS arts committee, who worked on tracking the paintings and sculptures, said one of the pleasures was that "we found two of the paintings in this gallery" - The Doctor's Visit by Leo Whelan and Supper Time by Patrick Tuohy.
More recent winners in the show include last year's, Maria McKinney from Moville in Co Donegal, who was at the opening on Monday evening with her sister Rose-Ann McKinney. Her 3,000-piece jigsaw of the map of the world, Relative Perspective, won her €15,000. Mary Burke, whose Bathroom Window won in 1981, came with her friend, Aileen Ryan. "It was the first award I won," she recalled. "It was a kick-start. It gives you a bit of confidence at an early stage."
Highlights of the RDS Taylor Art Awards 1878-2005 runs at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, until Oct 22. www.nationalgallery.ie