In 1989, the city of Edinburgh in the UK made space to celebrate science on the lines of its flamboyant four-decades-old art festival. The fest the Scottish capital organized was the first such in the modern world, and it grew to be a hit to repeat itself annually. Over the years, it evolved to become the stately Edinburgh Science Festival, which has since inspired several similar events across the world.
Treading on a similar path, Thiruvananthapuram is turning a live laboratory from Monday, January 15, for a month where people from all walks of life will get to witness science at its exploratory best at the first edition of the Global Science Festival of Kerala (GSFK).
The idea for such an event, running for a month and hence pitted to be the largest in Asia, came about during a discussion held during one of the meetings of Amuseum, a collective of art and science enthusiasts and professionals formed around three years ago in the capital. Active during the Covid times, the group had organized awareness and orientation sessions and has to its credit the ‘Arteria’ project that aims at the beautification of wall spaces in the city.
“Art and science are complimentary, and the idea of GSFK to explore the link thus came about. The intent of the event is to translate science beyond the themes of academics and philosophy and make it easier for people to comprehend it. The idea is to make science a topic on which breezy, contextual and noteworthy discussions can be held,” says Visakhan Thampi, a trustee of Amuesum, a curator of GSFK and an academic.
The GSFK will turn the Bio 360 Life Sciences Park at Thonnakkal hectic and lively for one month. Science enthusiasts, young and old, from across the country will be treated to evolutionary topics such as the formation of life, transitioning to the postmodern era, and coming into virtual and augmented reality.
There will also be discussions led by experts. In the line-up are not just the scientific diaspora from Kerala but also veterans such as Madhulika Guhathakurtha, lead program scientist, NASA; Robert Potts, from the School of Digital Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University; and the 2022 Chemistry Nobel laureate Morten Mendel.
The relevance of GSFK in an era when science expands its vistas as a forum for many disciplines to coexist is immense, say scientists and science enthusiasts. It is hence apt that such an event is held in Kerala, where its legacy in mathematics and physics can be traced to brilliant minds like Madhava of Sangamagrama who told the story of calculus some 700 years ago.
On the platter for visitors
GSFK 2024 promises to be a fun-filled adventure with an array of events that includes a curated science exhibition, public talks, night-sky watching, industrial pavilions, a marine show, a doll museum, a climate change photo exhibition, a sci-fi film festival, and outreach.
The festival space, a sprawling 20 acres enclosed in the Life Sciences park, can be covered by a visitor in approximately eight hours. “In total, there will be 18 pavilions with 51 exhibits at the exhibition,” says Rajesh T C, joint convenor of GSFK’s media and public relations committee.
The science exhibition, thematically curated, includes snippets created artistically from a panoramic view of Darwin’s theory of evolution and Foucault’s pendulum that explains the earth’s rotation in a laboratory.
The exhibitions highlight a peek into the world of science through art with Charles Darwin’s HMS Eagle ship and a wax statue of Darwin when just 23, the age when he introduced his breakthrough theory.
An expected high spot of the festival is the night-sky-watching program put together through a collaboration with the Kerala State Science and Technology Museum and Priyadarshini Planetarium.
The package includes sky-watching from 6 p.m. to midnight, after which people will get tents to retire for the day. The schedule for the event will, however, be only on Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Other exhibits take the visitor through a journey into Indian history, through timelines such as the Mughal Empire and the War of Independence, using various mediums such as flex, cards, and miniatures. The immersive narrative spans India’s past, crosses ocean boundaries, and ultimately converges at a point where the identities of Indian, American, and European cultures intersect.
On the platter is also an exclusive experience of the science of the day that centres around artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
30,000 a day expected
The GSFK is expecting about 30,000 people to visit it every day, making it a venue for over one million footfalls for its entire duration. Registrations for visiting are being done online, and so far, there has been demand for day-tour packages, where students and enthusiasts from across the State sign up in bulk.
Demands from outstation visitors are for packages to stay over, for which the organisers facilitate homestays and hotel bookings in nearby tourist places such as Varkala. “We will provide transportation from the place of stay of the visitors who have availed themselves of the package to the festival venue at Thonnakkal,” says Prabodh.
Such packages are available for families, groups, and students. Details of this can be found on the GSFK’s official website www.gsfk.org
Transportation
Thonnakkal is 18.6km from Thiruvananthapuram city, and bus connectivity is quite good to the place, say organisers. The Bio 360 LifeSciences Park is at a walkable distance of 450 metres from the Thonnakkal bus stop. The GSFK festival area. A free internal bus service will transport visitors from the main gate to the festival venue, which is 1.5km away.
“For those arriving in their vehicles, there is a parking area that can accommodate up to 750 vehicles,” says Prabodh P G, programme manager of the GSFK.
Registration
“It is recommended to purchase online tickets because, even though physical tickets are available, there is a chance that they might be sold out by the time the visitors arrive at the venue that can accommodate only up to 30,000 people at a time. It will close once that limit is reached,” say organisers.
To buy online tickets, one could choose the visit dates and book as per. The entry fee is `250 for adults and `150 for those below 18. Two-day tickets are available for `400 and `250, respectively. There are several entrances and exits to the festival, facilitating visitors to finish at one point and continue from there the next day. “Those who want to come back another day to finish covering the festival, it is better to book a Rupees 400 ticket to allow them into the festival for two days. Otherwise, it will cost them Rupees 500.”
Entry is free for differently-abled persons and children below 10 years of age. School groups of not less than 30 students will be charged `100 per person. School groups can opt for group packages that include meals.
The maximum demand is, however, for the night sky watch and tenting programme.
Food and refreshments
With science, there will also be a chance for the visitors to explore food choices at the GSFK. Different cuisines will be on the menu at the cafeterias, and food courts will be set up at every point of the venue.
Online food purchase facilities are also available; one can order food from anywhere in the pavilion. Alongside this, the All Kerala Caterers Association will organise a food fair showcasing the tastes of 14 districts.
Cultural outing
Evenings at the GSFK will be a merry mix of dance and music, along with the colours of science with the GSFK, including a potpourri of cultural programmes spread over the entire month. Eminent names in the field will participate; some among them include Flowers Top Band, Stephan Devassy’s musical event, Sithara’s Project Malabaricus, Band Hill and Oorali, as well as artists such as Navya Nair, Asha Sharath, Meera Nair and V Company Dance Studio and Dr Methil Devika.
Talks
Spearheading the talks at GSFK are some big names in the scientific community, such as Dr Gutha Thakurtha, Morton P Meldel, Robert Potts, NASA scientist Denise Hill, Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh, and Indian Maritime University Vice Chancellor Malini V Shankar.