SCIENCE
Science: [mid-14c.] "what is known, knowledge (of something) acquired by study; information;" also "assurance of knowledge, certitude, certainty."
This final piece is an exploration of the relationship between women, ‘science’ in the original sense of the word, and King's College Chapel. It is inspired by this extract from Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room :
...But this service in King's College Chapel - why allow women to take part in it? Surely, if the mind wanders (and Jacob looked extraordinarily vacant, his head thrown back, his hymn book open at the wrong place), if the mind wanders it is because several hat shops and cupboards upon cupboards of coloured dresses upon rush-bottomed chairs...Though heads and bodies may be devout enough, one has a sense of individuals - some like blue, others brown; some feathers, others pansies and forget-me-nots. No one would think of bringing a dog into church. For though a dog is all very well on a gravel path, and shows no disrespect to flowers, the way he wanders down an aisle, looking, lifting a paw, and approaching a pillar with a purpose that makes the blood run cold with horror...a dog destroys the service completely. So do these women - though separately devout, distinguished and vouched for by the theology, mathematics, Latin and Greek of their husbands... (1954:26-27)
We hope to build this piece around your testimonies, thoughts and ideas - please click here if you have anything (at all!) to contribute.
The second work that inspires this piece is Pink Floyd's Brain Damage, written about the grass behind King's Chapel:
The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path
The lunatic is in the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more
And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forbodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon
The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'till I'm sane
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There's someone in my head but it's not me.
And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon
