2019 Programme

Come and have a pint at AlgeBAR and be wowed by one of our talks and activities!

Painter, poet and environmentalist, Judy Ling Wong OBE discusses how we motivate diverse communities in the green agenda by integrating the impact of climate change here and in their countries of heritage.

Hear from a physicist who has put his understanding of the laws of the universe to work exploring the mathematics that underpins music.

Join a volcanologist from the Natural History Museum and find out about the hidden history of volcanoes.

Find out all about what it's like to work with the most comprehensive collection of beetles in the world - right here on Exhibition Road!

A fun and physical way to feel your way into fluid and aerodynamics

Team up and try our escape-room-in-a-bag challenge! Put your science and maths to the test in a race against the clock!

Trace out the connections in our mind and help us to create a beautiful neural network.

Immerse yourself in an interactive biofeedback art installation where you can transform your breathing into light. Relax, connect to others and learn more about HEartS research on the social impact of the ARTs.

An interactive art installation by Vinita Khanna

As the world heralds 50 years since the Apollo Moon missions, take a look at Tim Peake's Soyuz caspule at the Science Museum.

Hear from an interpretation specialist with over ten years’ experience developing and implementing interpretation for a wide range of major cultural and heritage sites.

Lean back and enjoy this rehearsed reading as performed by the Gate Theatre’s young associates.

Take a journey back through time and across the globe to explore how accurately nature has been represented throughout the history of art and culture, from the ancient world to more recent times.

Explore tomorrow’s diets through sweeping changes to the world's farming practices and small changes in each of our eating habits with chef and Sunday Times food editor Lisa Markwell.

Come and see our electric racing car and find out if you have what it takes to drive it in our race simulators. Don’t’ forget to have your selfie taken by one of ABB’s YuMi Robots!

Experience the future of faster connections and explore the potential of Virtual Reality to help medicine, design and much more.

Find out what it's like to change environments and create inviting spaces, experimenting with processes, spaces and materials.

Don't miss out on GREEN SPACE, an installation that explores the health benefits of green spaces in cities and how we connect with nature in an urban environment.

ParkUp is an installation that aims to stimulate discussion around the exciting new ways in which we can use and design our streets.

Experience a world of exploration and experimentation to discover how very young children feel about their breath, breathing and their lungs.

French illustrator Guillaume Long brings cooking and comics together, publishing recipes, notes and tips about eating pleasures, whether from bar counter, his own kitchen, or from great chef secrets.

Join us to experience this interactive display of bespoke musical instruments and instrument access devices.

Join artist Nick Laessing as he talks about his Plant Orbiter, an automated rotating system for food production, which reflects on the role of technology in local urban food production.

Take a look at the V&A's Plant Orbiter, an automated rotating system for food production, which reflects on the role of technology in local urban food production.

Join us for a short tour up Exhibition Road and discover the story of London’s arts and science district. We will introduce you to ‘Albertopolis’ and some hidden gems along the way.

Go wild at the Nature Zone on Exhibition Road! Meet real scientists and find out about the amazing work they do with animals and in the environment, and get up close to nature with our workshops and exhibits.

The Grantham Art Prize exhibition is a dynamic show of climate change inspired artworks by young and emerging art students who have collaborated with some of Imperial College London's top researchers.

Dirty air, ocean plastics and climate change – we’ve all heard the doom and gloom stories, but thanks to new research we are paving our way to a better, more sustainable future. Come to Greener Futures to learn about the latest innovations and our vital role as custodians of Earth.

Join the Design Museum for an afternoon of playful paper craft activities and take home your own paper craft inventions. Free drop-in for families.

The Ismaili Centre presents a new exhibition by the Syrian-Armenian artist Kevork Mourad.

Head to our world music concert which features the Scottish - Egyptian Ayoub Sisters and the Leo Twins from Pakistan

Join us for a screening of the film Babette's Feast at the Cine Lumiere.

Join us for a screening of the film Bread Day by Sergey Dvortsevoy, introduced by Vivian Ostrovsky.

Join us for a screening of the film Wine Calling followed by a Q&A with director Bruno Sauvard

Hear from Nessa Carey about the astonishing advances in gene editing.

We talk to Felicia Yap about her new book 'Tomorrow', which draws on her studies in biochemistry at Imperial.

In this discussion we talk to Charlotte Nassim, author of Lessons from the Lobster: Eve Marder's work in Neuroscience

In this talk we hear from Professor Paul M Barrett from the Natural History Museum about how dinosaurs have developed over the millennia to adapt to their changing environment.

Join us as we talk to historian Karolyn Shindler about her fascination with the fossil hunter Dorothea Bate.

Hear from Imperial Alumnus Louis Solway about his memoir in this talk.

In this talk, hear from Professor Andrew Rice about his biography of Dr Bill Frankland.

In this talk, hear from Natasha Suri, author of fantasy novel Empire of Sand.

Go on an electronic odyssey to build your own mini-theremin and learn how to wire up the circuit that makes this unique, touchless musical instrument possible.

Find out how and this mechanical engineering researcher has become an award winning co-founder of a start-up company – Mitt Prosthetics!

Explore where science, medicine, art and performance collide! How does a lace maker help surgeons see the world differently? How can insights from the world of performance help us understand medical and scientific practitioners ‘performance’ in the lab, studio or operating theatre?

From the adventures of a robot car currently driving around red planet, to two new exciting missions launching in 2020, find out how studying Martian geology is central to working out whether life may have existed once on Mars.

Explore the world of sleep and dreaming with an art exhibition from artist from Imperial College London and The Royal College of Art.

The BBC World Service with the Royal Commission for the Great Exhibition of 1851 bring together three of the world's greatest astronautical engineers to discuss space flight at the Great Exhibition Road Festival. The event will be recorded and broadcast on the BBC World Service.

Create your own hypnotic, wavy lined sculptures inspired by the patterns formed when two layers of graphene are placed on top of one another and given a small twist.

The malaria area is an interactive journey through the malaria parasite's life cycle via humans and mosquitoes.

Discover the original Great Exhibition Festival!

A neuroscientist by day and classical pianist by night discusses her dual life and the latest research into brain function and the performance of music.

Planetary scientists and modern composers come together to present a new, scientifically credible response to the classic musical score for our solar system.

Explore time, and our human relationship with it, as artist and filmmaker Grace Weir discusses her latest collaboration with theoretical physicist Fay Dowker.

Find out how smart buildings and better scientific modelling of fire evolution could save lives.

Robotic surgeons. An AI babysitter. Could we ever trust robots with the things we care about most – our lives and our families?

Hear about how development in artificial intelligence might aid creativity and innovation for designers and engineers.

Visit our dark matter installation and embark on a multisensory voyage!

Explore survival and death with this gripping drama based on antibiotic resistance in 1918!

Take a musical journey through the brain with Imperial mind-mapping mathematicians and live performances from the Guildhall School of Music.

The strange ways our universe behaves on atomic and subatomic scales is explored through a series of award winning short films presented by Imperial's quantum physicists.

This talk will guide you through one of the first and most controversial museum exhibitions relating to Exhibition Road, with former Rector of the Royal College of Art, Sir Christopher Frayling.

As we expand our exploration of space and prepare for journeys to Mars, find out how designers are tailoring the experience and bringing earthly comforts to space-travellers’ clothing.

Explore how group singing can support recovery from post-natal depression with researchers, clinicians and practitioners.

As new evidence shows the impact of plastic pollution in British rivers and coastal waters, find out why solutions to this global problem need to start at their source.

With a public obesity crisis fed by a meat heavy and carbon intensive food industry, how can we change what we eat?

How can purposeful design of the places we live and spend our lives promote civic engagement and reclaim our streets and neighbourhoods for the benefit of those who live there?

Find out how technology, new materials and cutting-edge science will influence what we wear in the coming decades.

This talk will take you on a journey hundreds of miles straight up, describing training and preparation, launch and how weightlessness feels.

This talk will journey back into the geological past to help us understand what may happen to Antarctic ice in our warmer future.

An exploration of the mental strain facing scientists during fieldwork in remote locations and how this experience can help preparations for manned missions to the red planet.

Travel the world exploring the kingdom of the fungi - from the origin of the ‘doomsday fungus’ to outbreaks in central London.

Find out how a trip to the world's largest physics laboratory inspired Royal College of Art students to tackle critical problems through science and design.

Take a journey to the South Pole in the footsteps of pioneering explorers who braved the most inhospitable place on Earth to understand how we can use technology to measure the polar ice sheets and understand how they are changing.

Join physicist, explorer, speaker and writer Melanie Windridge discussing a career built around her two passions of science and adventure

Journey back 66 million years to the impact that wiped out T-rex and its relatives with the latest findings from a project to drill into the giant crater it left behind.

Explore how the latest advances in robotics and a deeper understanding of our own nervous system are able to offer amputees man-machine limbs that create a truly natural control of movement.

This talk explores how instrumenting a city, its buses, boats and even people, could provide the evidence needed to clean up the air around us.

Join cosmologist Roberto Trotta in a surprising exploration of the wide-ranging consequences of the great man's ideas and how they shape our everyday life.

Find out how the success of the Cassini mission to Saturn will inform a return to Jupiter and the search for signs of life within its fascinating moons.

From Newton, Einstein and Stephen Hawking to modern ideas of quantum gravity, find out why probing space and time on the tiniest quantum scales could help us understand black holes and the Big Bang.

Meet the V&A's current ceramic artist in residence, Sam Bakewell, in his studio in the heart of the V&A's ceramic galleries. Explore his work and hear about his time at the museum.

Meet Matteo Menapace as he hacks and designs games inspired by the V&A’s collections.

Meet the V&A’s resident designer Bridget Harvey and learn more about her practice and views on clothing as political choice and empowerment.

V&A curator of prints Zorian Clayton presents highlights from the V&A’s collection of 19th and 20th century food advertising posters and ephemera.

Head to the V&A for their food-themed Late with live performance, film, installation and debates as well as DJs.

Families will have a chance to meet designer Matteo Menapace working at the V&A, visit his studio and find out about his work.

Families will have a chance to meet maker and activist Bridget Harvey working at the V&A, visit her studio and find out about her work.

Join artists, designers and scientists from V&A, Imperial College, Royal College of Art, Design Museum and Institut Francais as they delve in to the future of food, what it means to us and how we eat.

Roll up! Roll up! For the annual fruit and veg Olympics with Wonky Table Theatre Company

Contribute to a collaborative magazine made by art collective Fallen Fruit, using collage making and storytelling. Everyone is welcome!

Join us for family activities in the Curiosity Zone. From demos and experiments to creative workshops and performances, there’s something for all the family.

Explore the newest research activities, technological innovations and applications of the next generation of aerial robots.

Discover the fascinating history of the Design Museum’s building in this free 20-minute tour.

Join Design Museum Chief Curator, Justin McGuirk, and Earth and Planetary Scientist Professor Sanjeev Gupta for a discussion about starting life on another planet.

Science reality meets design fiction in this set design workshop, which will reimagine the Apollo 11 moon landing (1969), revolving around three key stages of the mission.

Join our guides in these special tours and explore the V&A's outstanding collection to uncover the contribution of women to art and design.

Join this V&A Volunteer Guide led tour which explores gender and sexual identities through a selection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer related objects in the V&A's rich collections.

Trace the history of the V&A through the visionary architects, designers, artists and museum directors who have created one of the best loved museum buildings in the world.

Using Lego Mindstorms and iPads, build and programme a vehicle to navigate around a cityscape without any human interaction.

Take a closer look at the incredible natural environments of London’s royal parks and hop aboard our fantastic Bugmobile to unearth the parks’ smallest inhabitants.

Uncover the diverse nature and heritage of the royal parks and Hyde Park's role in shaping this incredible part of London.

The Serpentine presents a weekend of artist-led activities for children and families exploring the power and potential of language, voice, poetry and print.

An exhibition from North Kensington Youth Forum featuring a series of globes they have made representing their local area and short film showing the neighbourhood from their perspective.

Ever wondered what it's like to be an astronaut? Join the Science Museum and take one small step for man and one giant leap for you and try on one of our replica ESA Sokol Suits!

Join us in the Space Zone where we’ll have real life Astrophysicists, a chance to make your very own moon magnet and the story of a mouse who wants to make it to the moon!

Join us for a preview screening of a BBC Two docu-drama to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, followed by a Q&A of lunar experts and key figures involved in the making of '8 Days'.

Join the Science museum and get hands on with our 'Space Case', a specially designed resource box from STEM Ambassadors. Find out what materials go into making a spacecraft!

Join us for a journey into space in this action-packed show. Together we will discover what it takes to become an astronaut, launch a rocket, explore the Solar System and look for alien life.

Make your own tactile map of the moon, create curious craters and find out about the incredible story of the Apollo 11 mission.

Created by choreographer Angela Woodhouse and sculptor Nathaniel Rackowe, (de)figured 2019 is a series of live action drawings by dancers in and around the spaces of Dora House.

Join the V&A and the RIBA for a day of creative 2D and 3D drawing activities exploring the cities of the future.

A shortlist of 50 exceptional photographs and films that document the earth in all its diversity.

Join Lord Robert Winston in a lively conversation with Stephen Johns, Artistic Director at the Royal College of Music, about the meeting of their two disciplines, science and music.

Amersham Band is a brass band dating back to 1843. Champions of grass roots and community music making, the band will march and perform a mixture of traditional and contemporary band pieces to enjoy.

'Have a go' brass instrument workshops for all ages. Get on up and become a member of the James Brown horn section! Learn how to play these majestic instruments and some funky dance moves!

An exhibition of community artwork inspired by local and global wildlife, produced from a series of workshops facilitated by the Royal College of Art and Natural History Museum.

See ground-breaking new inventions and inspirational artwork at the Royal College of Art’s Annual Show. This is a great opportunity to meet the artists and designers of the future, as well as see their creations.

Learn more about the wonderful world of orchestral music at this screening of the timeless Oscar®-winning animation, performed live by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.

Join the Royal Albert Hall’s very own Albert’s Band as they parade through Exhibition Road – spreading New Orleans street party vibes as they go!

Treat yourself to a relaxing weekend catching up with friends or family at the Royal Albert Hall’s delicious Live Music Brunch, taking place in the V&A for the first time.

Electric Jalaba are the sound of Moroccan gnawa rhythms meeting with some of London’s heaviest beats.

Head to the Expression Stage for glorious melodies, set against deep grooves, surrounded by sumptuous soundscapes.

Join Tomorrow’s Warriors’ Female Frontline for an inspiring performance from the future leaders of jazz.

Enjoy a luxurious afternoon tea at the Royal Albert Hall's much-loved Afternoon Tea with Live Music series, hosted for the first time in the surroundings of the V&A’s Gamble Room.

Join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for The Planets: An HD Odyssey and gaze in wonder as breath-taking NASA images and footage are projected onto a giant screen, complementing Holst’s awe-inspiring suite, The Planets and other space-themed music.

Algorithmic composer Robert Thomas joins 6 Music DJ Nemone Mataxas to talk about the future of music. In a world where AI, VR, AR, the web and biometric data open up a whole world of possibilities, what lies ahead for music?

Spark your curiosity in the natural world at our free hands-on science centre, Investigate.

See Natural History Museum scientists take to the stage for Nature Live – an exciting live event where you’ll hear stories and gain an insight into the natural world.

Come and help wildlife experts carry out a real scientific survey known as a BioBlitz.

Find out which butterflies and moths are found in South Kensington with experts from the Natural History Museum.

Get up close and personal with some fascinating special objects from the Natural History Museum’s collection.

Have a go at piecing together a 3D jigsaw Stegosaurus!

Learn about volcanoes and earthquakes with Volcanologist Dr Chiara Maria Petrone and have a go at measuring an earthquake!

See the Natural History Museum's collection in a new light on a guided tour with curators from the Royal Society of Sculptors and the V&A.

Kensington+Chelsea Art Weekend presents British artist James Capper's mobile sculpture. Prepared to be wowed as it walks along Exhibition Road.

Kensington + Chelsea Art Weekend Hop On/Hop Off Bus will run a free daily service connecting every corner of the borough and beyond.

Ever wondered what it would look like to fall into a Black Hole? Are black holes really black? Visit us in the Space Zone - and prepare to have your mind blown.

Find us in the Space Zone to explore our family-friendly interactive look at Venus! Speak to real scientists, see spacecraft parts and find out about Venus up close and personal.

Head to the Design Zone to see everything from robots and 4D printing through to conscious fashion and behaviour changing rituals.

Come and see some of the prototypes from Imperial’s Maker Challenge Programme and speak to the young people involved in creating these innovative projects.

Get up on our dance mat that allows you to play snake – retro gaming at its best!

Get interactive with Imperial’s Optical Society – get stuck in to creating your own light display and see live bacteria through microscopes.

How can emojis help us communicate science? Explore the power of signs and symbols in science communications.

We invite you to ‘open the can of worms’ in our interactive space on healthcare data sharing.

Build, discuss and think about your first steps into enterprise and entrepreneurship in the Envision Zone!

Hear from a PhD student who is researching energy efficiency as a tool to combat climate change, and also writes poetry!

Hear from an astrophysicist who is using radio telescopes to search for the very first stars to exist in our universe, from 13 billion years ago.

See how a Biological Chemist looks at many traditional disciplines and therefore wears many scientific ‘hats’.

Being a research scientist is more than just wearing a lab coat. Find out how this researcher's day can link to not only biology, but art and new languages for science communication!

Hear from a scientist who studies tiny amounts of metal and find out what it can tell us about our body and the food we eat.

A Roboticist’s day can consist of many exciting things – from getting small drones to fly on their own to developing software that allows mobile robots to find their way through unknown environments.

Find out what a day working with Bouncy Bioglass looks like.

Find out about PhD students in Imperial’s Chemical Engineering department and their days working on the PRONTO project.

Hear from an insect mechanic who investigates leaf-cutter ants as they are the prime consumer of plants in South America.

Hear from a space miner who is working towards making oxygen production on the moon a reality and using the technology to transform the mining industry on Earth.

Join medical scientists, bio-engineers and hospital staff for an exploration of the inner working of our bodies and mind, as well as ground-breaking new approaches to treatments and patient care.

Take a journey with us to discover the world of bugs. Expect an interactive zone filled with games, displays, exhibits and experiments to teach you all about the bugs that we live with every day!

Imperial College String Ensemble students and alumni present popular string music ranging from classical to contemporary. Join us to hear pieces such as Pachelbel’s Canon and My Favourite Things from the award-winning musical The Sound of Music!

Come and hear some top-notch jazz from the official big band of Imperial College London.

Join Imperial’s Musical Theatre Society for a fantastic selection of songs that are guaranteed to be all singing all dancing!

Prepared to be wowed by Alex the magician, who has performed all over the world and for Cirque du Soleil.

Hear Imperial’s student-run gospel choir perform a range of songs from traditional to contemporary.

Head to the Performance tent for a Taekwondo display with a kick to it!

Enjoy beautiful songs by Brahms from Imperial’s Sinfonietta and bassist Jonathan Hedley.

Join Imperial’s Carbon Capture Plant Tour to find out more about how carbon dioxide can be captured and stored.

Take a look at Imperial’s full motion simulator – and learn how aircraft fly!

Discover the future of energy with our tour of Imperial's Energy Futures Lab.

Join Imperial researchers to find out how aerial and road vehicles are designed and tested in our state-of-the-art wind tunnel.

Join our tour to discover the work in the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery.

Join us for interactive demos about mining the moon, including a race to collect ‘Moon Ore’ using a VR headset!

George Chen will be treating us to his soulful take on singing and piano.

Join us for short performances by Imperial Dance Company which incorporate ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary dance styles.

A fantastic showcase of Imperial College London's student societies, from martial arts to music - there's something for everyone!

The Aero Zone showcases the most exciting research in all aspects of aerospace at Imperial, including wind tunnels, high speed cameras, plasma thrusters, future spacecraft and more.

Think you know brass music? Think again. Experience the innovation, playfulness and spirit of brass from original Victorian instruments to today's big brass funk sound.

German – the language of love! Learn more about the relationship between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert expressed through their letters, full of admiration and love, and why they wrote in German in this exhibition at the Goethe-Institut’s library.

Find the anonymous hacker! This game, inspired by escape rooms, will encourage you to use your German while boosting your detective and teamwork skills.

Willkommen am Goethe-Institut London! Learn your first German sentences in 25 minutes and see how easy and fun a new language can be.

More than 200 years ago, the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt shaped our understanding of nature forever. Author Andrea Wulf brings this often forgotten hero of science back to life.

To celebrate the Design Museum’s forthcoming ‘Moving to Mars’ exhibition, join a Mars future food two-day workshop hosted by the Design Museum’s network of innovative designers.

Join us at Holy Trinity Church for a service of festal choral matins, including music composed by Prince Albert.

A talk about Albert's ancestral home, the Friedenstein Palace in Gotha, with a focus on portraiture and family history.

The German National Tourist Office presents Germany 200 years after Albert’s birthday showcasing innovation in art and science,

Join researchers and students to see the innovative robotic solutions they’re working on to improve our homes, healthcare and cities! Explore everything from drones to robot butlers and get the chance to wear an exoskeleton.