Steven Pinker and other leading scientists join artists for a 24-hour Experiment Marathon featuring robots, three-way kissing booths and out-of-body experiences :: October 13 - 14, 2007 :: Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA [Nearest Tube: South Kensington or Lancaster Gate].

Olafur Eliasson together with Hans Ulrich Obrist convenes the 24-Hour Experiment Marathon which blurs the boundaries of art and science and creates a laboratory of experience. A huge variety of experiments exploring perception, artificial intelligence, the body and language, takes place in and around the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007 designed by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen.

The Marathon starts with a session convened by renowned scientists Israel Rosenfield and Luc Steels of Sony Robotics Lab, looking into the brain’s interpretation of reality, artificial intelligence and out-of-body experiences; Beau Lotto demonstrates Why the Sky is not Blue, Paul Drew analyses the notorious Yo, Blair conversation, explaining how we understand language, and Angela Sirigu presents the famous Phantom Limb experiment, in which amputees continue to experience the presence of a lost body part.

John Brockman, founder of Edge.org, leads a session that includes award-winning psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen who will test the claim Do women have more empathy than men? Contributions from Steven Pinker, Armand Leroi and Lewis Wolpert are followed by an EDGE-Serpentine presentation of Formulae for the 21st Century which includes formulas from Richard Dawkins, David Deutsch, Brian Eno, Jana Levin, Lisa Randall, Martin Rees, J. Craig Venter, and many more.

Pedro Reyes brings his Three Way Kissing Booth for a public experiment on the permutations of male and female desire and world-famous performance artist Marina Abramovic cleans the house in a renowned experimental work exploring subjects of the body, pain and endurance.

Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment stages a 24-hour, online continuous writing event, passing a cumulative piece of writing from time zone to time zone.

Artist Matthew Ritchie leads an experimental panel for The Morning Line, a public art project investigating alternatives to traditional museum space, developed in collaboration with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.

An artists’ laboratory will include experiments conducted by John Baldessari, Paul Fryer, Jonas Mekas, Gustav Metzger and Tomas Saraceno.

The 24-Hour experiment Marathon builds on the enormous success of the Serpentine Gallery 24-Hour Interview Marathon last October, which featured interviews with 64 leading cultural figures including Brian Eno, Gilbert and George, Zaha Hadid, Damien Hirst and Doris Lessing, conducted by Serpentine Gallery Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and architect of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2006, Rem Koolhaas.

Marathon times: 12 noon, Saturday 13th - 3pm, Sunday 14th October, 2007
Tickets: TicketWeb / 08700 600100 / Serpentine Gallery Lobby Desk: 020 7402 6075 / or at the door.

Rose Dempsey 020 7298 1520, rosed[at]serpentinegallery.org
or Tom Coupe 020 7298 1528, tomc[at]serpentinegallery.org