Galway Arts Festival Picks

The Galway Arts Festival is taking place from the 17th to the 30th of July and we have picked our favourite talks and events around science, technology and design. 

The People Build

The People Build has captured the imagination the world over from Australia to South America and Asia to Europe.

Audiences are invited to take part in a spectacular architectural event devised by the French artist Olivier Grossetête. Over four days, thousands of cardboard boxes will be transformed into the building blocks of a democratically assembled building, created solely through human power and collective endeavour.

The public watches and plays a formative role as an extraordinary new structure rises from the ground. Once the structure is completed and admired, the audience joins forces in a massive celebratory demolition as the cardboard building comes tumbling down!

Cost: Free

Dates:

Construction: 22 July, 11am–4pm
Demolition: 23 July, 4pm
Workshops:  18 – 21 July, 17th – 21st of July

Venue: Eyre Square

Further information: GIAF.ie

The Power of Less

The chief obstacle is not technology or economics but slow adoption.’ – Armory Lovins

Designer and Professor Rebecca Earley is at the forefront of sustainable design and the power of the new circular economy. She is a design researcher at University of the Arts London and an industry consultant. She is also a judge for the Global Change Award, H&M Foundation. This event is chaired by Úna Mulally, Journalist, The Irish Times.

Cost: €10

Dates: 10 am, 22nd July 

Venue: O’Donoghue Centre Theatre, NUIG Galway

Further information: GIAF.ie

Finding New Sources

How will we power our future?

Author and journalist Sean Duke maps out Ireland’s current relationship with fossil fuels, solar, wind and wave energy and Quentin Gargan shares his experiences of living off the grid.

Chaired by Sarah Carey of Newstalk.

Cost: €10

Dates: 22nd July, 10 am

Venue: O’Donoghue Centre Theatre, NUIG Galway

Further information: GIAF.ie

Golden Record

A billion years from now, when everything on Earth we’ve ever made has crumbled into dust, the Voyager record will still speak for us.’ – Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.

The Voyager Golden Records, created to go on board Voyagers 1 & 2, contained recordings varying from two people kissing to mathematical equations. This group exhibition looks at our need to record, document and create objects in order to make sense of the world and our place within it.

Featured artists include Dorothy Cross, Laura de Búrca, Ed Devane, Jane Locke, Susan MacWilliam, Lucy McKenna, Suzanne Mooney, Lorraine Neeson, Paul Nugent, Niamh O’Malley, Richard Proffitt and Jennifer Walshe. Curated by Maeve Mulrennan.

Cost: €10

Dates: 

17–30 July, 10am–6pm

Sundays 12 noon–5.30pm

Venue: Galway Arts Centre

Further information: GIAF.ie