AUTUMN 2012 • ISSUE 3
I D E A S
•
M A LTA
•
R E S E A RC H
•
P E O P L E
•
U N I V E R S I TY
MEGA-EVENTS
IN VALLETTA
not just mega-buildings
CARAVAGGIO
Violence, beauty,
influence, protection
WORKING WITH
STUTTERING
The solution is
a smile away
SCIENCE IN
THE CITY 2012
When art and science
collided in Malta
DIGITAL
EDITION
THINKIDEA
SMALTARE
RESEARC
HPEOPLEU
EUNIVERSIT
HINKIDEAS
SMALTAR
ARESEARC
CHPEOPLEU
Cover photo by Norbert Francis Attard
You Are The Staircase was one of the most popular artworks during Science in the City — Malta’s first science
and art festival that ran on the 28th September, 2012. Norbert Francis Attard magnified two twists of a single
strand of DNA hundreds of times turning it into a spiral staircase. The artwork was set in the heart of Valletta
on the cross roads of St John’s Street and Merchant Street, providing visitors with a unique viewing platform.
The six metre metal structure dominated the space, asking its audience to climb its steps and ponder whether
DNA is a journey to nowhere or of self-discovery. After all, all seven billion humans have a unique DNA sequence.
ASMALTAR
ESEARCHP
CHPEOPLEU
UNIVERO
TY
SMALTAR
RESEARCH
CHPEOPLE
UNIVERCOVER STORIES
13
Science in
the City 2012
Special Feature
Valletta through the
SciArt looking glass
Beyond Science
ver summer, I met up with artists, students,
and scientists. They all came together to create
the first edition of Science in the City — Malta’s
science and art festival, which exceeded expectations. We’ve covered the heart of the festival
with 19 beautiful pages (pg. 13–31).
University coordinated this festival and Evenings On
Campus (pg. 45–49); it clearly is much more than a teaching
institution. Festivals wouldn’t be possible without their source
of inspiration: research. We have stories about how laughter is
being used in therapy (pg. 36–40), how Britain and Italy fought
over Malta (pg. 32–35), and some excellent research into
Caravaggio’s paintings (pg. 41–44).
This time round our fun section covers the book The Geek
Manifesto, a game banned by Apple, and a fact or fiction
question we are sure you will love (pg. 52–53).
So you can easily contact us and stay updated, we have
setup a Facebook page and Twitter feed — with a magazine
blog available soon.
If you’re a University of Malta student, alumnus, or researcher, please get in touch, we would love to hear your
story — there are many ways to contribute. In the next issue,
be prepared to discover some Roman secrets.
36
FEATURE
Laughter is the
best medicine
Using humour to help
treat stuttering
Laughter
is the best
Dd
medicine
41
Caravaggio
Dr Joseph Agius
34
Creativity and humour are being used by Dr Joseph Agius
to help people who stutter. His techniques have helped
in Malta. They are now being used all over Europe,
Ahundreds
murderer,
artistic
which is no laughing matter. Words by The Editor
genius, and Maltese
resident
56
Edward Duca
EDITOR
edward.duca@um.edu.mt
@DwardD
Cultural
Infrastructure
for
Mega-events
Golden opportunity
or golden goose for
Valletta?
3
CONTRIBUTORS
CONTENTS
OPINION
Prof. Pierre Mallia
11
Prof. Giuseppe De Giovanni
Lessons from legislation on
IVF – a personal perspective
Prof. Pierre Mallia shares his
experiences on local IVF legislation
Justin Schembri
FEATURE
Alexandra Fiott
Maltese
History:
not as we
remember it
Lily Agius
How did Italy and
England fight over
Malta?
Ira Melkonyan
Patricia Camilleri
Dr Joseph Agius
ALUMNI
Alumni talk
Prof. Keith Sciberras
Cold physics to
research in rugby
Wilfred Kenely
50
Jean Pierre Magro
Prof. Gordon Pace
54
Costantino Oliva
Graziella Vella
Are you a student, member of staff, or a researcher
at the University of Malta? Would you like to
contribute to THINK magazine? If interested,
please get in touch to discuss your article on
think@um.edu.mt or call +356 2340 3451
RESEARCH
Supporting the RIDT...
because research
matters
Building the University of
the Future together
32
CONTENTS
6
STUDENTS
Students' thinking
About: football, tracking dance, Malta's security, robots,
pollution, and moving objects by thinking about it
OPINION
Brain Awareness,
Research and Facts
Prof. Giuseppe Di Giovanni talks
to us about mental health
THINK
12
I D E A S
•
M A LTA
•
R E S E A RC H
•
P E O P L E
•
U N I V E R S I TY
AUTUMN 2012 - ISSUE 3
EDITORIAL
Edward Duca EDITOR
PRODUCTION
FEATURE
The Wig Hunt
The winner of Malta's first
Transmedia competition
45
Jean Claude Vancell
PRINTING
Print It Printing Services, Malta
ISSN 2306-0735
Copyright © University of Malta, 2012
The right of the University of Malta to be identified as Publisher of this
work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright Act, 2001.
Did Albert Einstein say we
only use 10% of our brain?
Find out in our Fact or Fiction Section
53
University of Malta, Msida, Malta
Tel: (356) 2340 2340
Fax: (356) 2340 2342
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FUN
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CULTURE GENES
Meme
FIND US ONLINE
www.facebook.com/ThinkUoM
58
www.twitter.com/thinkuom
5
STUDENT
students’
THINKing
Motion tracking, Malta’s security, and pollution are some of the problems students at the
University of Malta have been tackling. Here is a selection from over 3,000 graduates
Theatre, Dance & Motion Tracking: Art?
THE WAY A HUMAN tracks motion is both extraordinary and inconspicuous. In both theatre and dance, a lighting
graphics engineer designs visuals and lighting to match a performer’s movement. Their
motions might delight the audience but
are very complex for computers to detect
and interpret. Despite continuous breakthroughs, there are still many issues to overcome when tracking the human body across
a stage.
Michaela Spiteri (supervised by Alexandra Bonnici) developed a system that allows dancers to control light effects through
the dancer’s own movement. Mapping the
movement of humans has several problems.
Dancers tend to be highly flexible and perform very refined movements. The complex
movements sometimes obscure certain body
parts, which rapidly appear again, confusing
the computer.
The computer tracked motion through
a number of steps. First, it created a mathematical model of the background image.
This technique allows the background and
dancer to be separated in live video, leaving
the dancer’s silhouette.
Secondly, the dancer’s silhouette was then
thinned to a skeleton in order to obtain five
points: head, hands and feet. A Kalman filter was applied, allowing the computer to
continue to track motion even if a point was
6
Backdrop:
Graphics projected here
Projector
Camera
Dancer
Michaela Spiteri self-experimenting during her research on tracking dance moves
hidden. The Kalman filter predicts location
by assessing past information and predicting
where it would be in the future.
The study could stimulate new ways for
artists to express their concepts. Additionally, the computer algorithm used can be
applied in augmented reality, medicine and
surveillance.
•
This research was performed as part of a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) at the Faculty
of Engineering.
Dancer’s silhouette after processing (actual data)
THINK STUDENT
Hand pose
replication
using a
robotic arm
Islands and Security
ISLANDS have played different and
unique roles throughout history. The
process of decolonisation, starting in the
late 50s, led to a proliferation of small
island states. These new independent
nations sought to develop their own
foreign and security policies.
André P. DeBattista (supervised by
Dr Isabelle Calleja Ragonesi) studied
International Relations in Malta’s history
to examine the role of small island states in
regional and global security. He found that
small island states reinforce security and
can stabilise regions.
Due to their geography, small islands
can wield disproportionate influence.
They may serve as military outposts and
control waterways used for commerce,
trade and defence. However, islands can
still be vulnerable, weak and externally
manipulated.
For millennia, Malta has been fought
over by regional powers for purposes
of trade and defence. In 1964, for the
first time in its history, Malta became
independent and could chart its own
political trajectory. Despite political
independence, it was and still is reliant on
other states.
Throughout its history, Malta has played
an important role in the provision of
regional security. It had a strong influence
in both the Cold War period and also after
its recent accession to the EU.
DeBattista believes that Malta is well
positioned to spearhead research on
small islands; “as a small island state,
Malta managed to adapt to different
circumstances and challenges. It excelled
both within its region and in the
international community. This success
should encourage us to conduct further
research in this niche area, in order to
provide solutions and policy options to
other small island states.”
•
This research was undertaken as part of a
Masters of Arts in International Relations.
ROBOTICS is the future. Simple
but true. Even today, they support us,
make the products we need and help
humans to get around. Without robots we would be worse off. Kirsty
Aquilina (supervised by Dr Kenneth
Scerri) developed a system where a robotic arm could be controlled just by
using one’s hand.
The setup was fed images through a
single camera. The camera was pointed towards a person’s hand that held
a green square marker. The computer
was programmed to detect the corners of the marker. These corners give
enough information to figure out
the hand’s posture in 3D. By using a
Kalman Filter, hand movements are
tracked and converted into the angles
required by the robotic arm.
The robotic arm looks very different from a human one and has limited
movement since it has only five degrees of freedom. Within these limitations, the robotic arm can replicate a
person’s hand pose. The arm replicates
a person’s movement immediately so
that a person can easily make the robot move around quickly.
Controlling robots from afar is essential when there is no prior knowledge of the environment. It allows
humans to work safely in hazardous
environments like bomb disposal, or
when saving lives performing remote
microsurgery. In the future, it could
assist disabled people.
A video of the working project can
be found at: http://bit.ly/KkrF39.
•
This research was performed as part of
a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) at
the Faculty of Engineering.
7
STUDENT
Bad traffic, bad air
AIR POLLUTION is one of Malta’s
greatest concerns. Transportation is the
principal source with over 300,000 vehicles
belching out smoke, which damages our
environment and health. Emissions from vehicles need to be monitored and controlled,
and the information used to improve the
current system and ensure an acceptable air
quality.
In Malta, air pollution levels are monitored by MEPA (Malta Environment and
Planning Authority). MEPA has 131 diffusion tubes that take monthly measurements
of air pollution levels. The pollution data set
used ranges from 2004 to 2011. On the other hand, Transport Malta (TM) measures
traffic flow along the main arterial roads.
By using the pollution data set, Nicolette
Formosa (supervised by Dr Kenneth Scerri)
mapped the air pollution levels and major
sources around Malta.
MEPA and TM take measurements
at different locations. To overcome this
problem, the pollution data set needed to
be interpolated to extend over the whole
of Malta. By interpolating the pollution
8
measurements using mathematical models,
traffic and pollution levels can be directly
compared.
Malta was divided into four zones. The
Grand Harbour area had the strongest link
between traffic and pollution. The central
area has a strong overlap but this decreased
on Saturday and more so on Sunday. The
north and south parts of Malta experienced lower levels over weekends. However, the northern area has a stronger link
during weekdays. The areas of Floriana and
St Julian’s had a remarkable link between
pollution and traffic, lighting a red bulb
marking priority areas for the authorities
to tackle.
Overall, Malta’s air pollution problems are
interwoven with its traffic volume. This highlights a problem which needs both scientific
and political measures to tackle. Formosa’s
studies need to be taken a step further, “there
needs to be a statistical means to interpret the
data of air pollution measured against traffic
flows in the same areas“ said Hon. George
Pullicino, Minister for Resources and Rural
Affairs. If implemented, the research could
help lower health care costs in Malta while
improving the quality of life.
•
This research was performed as part of a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Honours) at
the Faculty of Engineering.
Pollution Surface across
the Maltese Islands
THINK STUDENT
ball
Hip
ee
Kn
Ankle
bro
Eye
Shoulder
Eye
Trunk
lid &
Elbow
Eye
um Ind
b ex
ist
Wr
Th
ck
tle
Lit ing
R e
dl
id
M
Ne
w
Toes
Fac
e
Lips
Jaw
e
Tongu
a
Sw
g
in
llow
The primary motor cortex is the portion of the human brain
which is directly responsible for planning motor movement.
Areas of the motor cortex are mapped by the motor homunculus,
these areas are associated with separate parts of the body.
Moving
wheelchairs
with your
thoughts
BRAIN TO COMPUTER interface (BCI) devices can read a person’s
thoughts and turn them into commands
to move objects. They can give freedom to
people suffering from movement impairments.
Rosanne Zerafa (supervised by Tracey
Camilleri) developed a system that detects a person’s brain patterns while they
are thinking of moving a particular part of
their body and translates them into commands to move a cursor. The research has
the potential to remove considerable lag
Setup of EEG based brain-computer interface devices
between thinking of moving an object and
it actually moving.
Brain activity can be detected using
an electroencephalogram (EEG), which
is made up of a cap with electrodes that
touch a person’s scalp. The electrical activity captured by the electrodes is then
interpreted by a software program to give
commands to move a robotic arm, wheelchair, or other assistive device.
Zerafa tested the system on four individuals who were thinking about moving
their left or right hand. Different brain
patterns from these two tasks could be
identified and translated into left or right
movement of a cursor on a computer
screen.
Taken together, the software could be
further developed and tested to improve it
for real-world needs such as assisting people with movement difficulties and even
gaming.
•
This research was performed as part of a
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) at the
Faculty of Engineering.
9
STUDENT
Football like you’ve never seen it before
FREEVIEWPOINT television (FTV)
is expected to become the ultimate 3D
TV experience. With FTV, the viewer can
choose from which angle and position to
view a scene. Want to watch football from
above, the East Wing, or with your fellow
fans? At the press of a button, with FTV
you can. For FTV to work, the same scene
needs to be captured from a number of different viewpoints and the virtual scenes in
between generated. To broadcast the service
requires a huge bandwidth, which on your
mobile would quickly soak up all your data.
Current mobile FTV frameworks cannot
handle the broadcast capacity required and
FTV has never been deployed over a specific
cellular technology.
Terence Zarb (supervised by Dr Ing. Carl
James Debono) proposed a framework to
compress and transmit FTV to mobile devices. The system was adapted for the next
generation long-term evolution (LTE)
networks, currently available on high-end
smartphones. To reduce bandwidth and
reduce mobile phone workload, the FTV
broadcast data is processed at the transmitting end, before it is sent over the mobile
network. The physically captured views
are transmitted. Depending on the user’s
choice, the mobile phone either presents
one of these views or generates an arbitrary
viewpoint. By using the novel proposed
framework, the bandwidth required was
reduced by over 70% compared to current
methods. It also provided a better viewing
experience.
Taken together, the proposed framework
can realistically be deployed on LTE networks, which means we might be seeing an
incredibly innovative way of viewing sport,
documentaries and maybe even films on our
3D TVs — is that enough to make you buy
one?
•
This research was performed as part of a Masters of Science in Information and Communi-
cation Technology at the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology. The
research is partially funded by the Strategic
Educational Pathways Scholarship Scheme
(Malta). The scholarship is part-financed by
the European Union – European Social Fund,
under Operational Programme II – Cohesion
Policy 2007-2013, “Empowering People for
More Jobs and a Better Quality of Life”.
Proposed framework to allow an incredible 3D video experience to be compressed and transmitted to mobile devices.
Actual Cameras
eNB
Virtual
Cameras
Content Provider IP Network
LTE EPC
MME
SGW/
PDNGW
Video Broadcast
Processing Server
Server
3D Scene
eNB
Depth
Estimation
MVD
Format
MVC
Compression
MVC
Decoding
10
DIBR
Display
THINK OPINION
Lessons from legislation on
IVF – a personal perspective
Prof. Pierre Mallia
T
he draft Bill on IVF (in vitro
fertilisation) was supposed to
regulate a medical procedure.
Yet, its very name ‘Protection of
Embryos Act’ reflects that the
concern lies with the embryo’s status rather
than with IVF itself.
The approach reflects the government’s
intention, which never questioned that IVF
can be useful to infertile couples wishing to
have a baby. Nevertheless, one must reflect
upon the constant changes in position from
the ecclesiastical authorities, which have a
rightful claim to still reflect most of Malta’s
values. Comprehending the historical
context of the present bill’s fruition will help
understand the current situation.
IVF has been discussed for more than
25 years. The Bioethics Consultative
Committee worked on many issues to
provide politicians with a bill which
reflected Maltese values and morality.
Bioethics in Malta started after the 1987
elections and Faculty of Theology members
were instrumental in its formation. Minister
Hon Dr L. Galea who was Minister of Social
Policy supported this committee. It later fell
under the Minister for Health.
The committee soon published a
document on Reproductive Technology.
A strong reaction followed with sharp
exchanges between the Minister and
Archbishop. This reaction should have been
an early warning of what was to come. The
Curia was represented on the committee,
and many committee members were
Catholic, however what was agreed within
the committee does not always reflect the
position and wish of the parties involved.
The present bill has changed little from the
original document. The moral theologians
on the committee always said that IVF
can and should be acceptable so long as
legislation respects the family concept and
the embryo’s status. With these guidelines in
mind, we thought that IVF should be offered
to legitimate couples, with no embryo
freezing or experimentation. This was a sine
qua non, as the conservative government in
power would question these values. Morally,
the committee was guided by the Church
document Domun Vitae, which expressed
concern on IVF, calling it illicit since it
goes against normal human procreation.
However, the same document says that if laws
on reproductive medicine are contemplated,
Catholic politicians should be guided by two
principles: respecting the family and embryo.
“Theologians always
occupied 20 – 40% of the
Bioethics Consultative
Committee”
The final document should be considered
an official agreement since theologians
always occupied 20–40% of the BCC
(Bioethics Consultative Committee). The
Curia’s reactions clearly show that this was
inadequate. When push came to shove,
the Bishops went back to basics and spoke
fervently against IVF, warning about the
danger to the embryos. The bill had taken
these issues into account since it only allows
limited freezing to safeguard an embryo
whose mother, for example, falls ill in the
process. The embryo will be implanted
immediately after her recovery.
The first lesson to be learnt is that there
needs to be official agreements between the
leaders of publically influential groups —
consultancy is inadequate. Differences of
values bring about conflict; it is not enough
to resolve disputes. In this case, it was
assumed that there was no conflict, that all
parties were agreeing in principle to IVF but
had to resolve the disputes. It cost us dearly
to realize that the leaders of the Church
were not happy with the values involved.
A second lesson is that we need to be
sure what we are talking about. We cannot
speak about different moral problems
within the same pot. Therefore, the
legality of IVF has nothing to do with
problems such as embryo freezing. This
led to many issues being confused, like IVF
being labeled as wrong because of embryo
freezing and experimentation that occurrs
in other countries but not in Malta. The
misunderstanding shows that the issues have
also been misinterpreted.
Lesson three is simple: make no
assumptions. The moral position has
always been clear, but having ecclesiastical
representatives at all stages does not
mean that the Curia will agree — despite
continuous reassurances that their
representatives are on the committee. I
would like to think that this was not done
purposely, but moral theologians have
suffered a big loss along the way.
Bioethics committees cannot continue
to assume that theologian’s advice will
satisfy the Church. Many people working in
good faith on the committees have suffered
considerable damage to their careers unless
they pulled the traditional line.
•
Pierre Mallia is Associate Professor in
Family Medicine, Patients’ Rights and
Bioethics at the University of Malta. He is
also Ethics Advisor to the Medical Council
of Malta, and Chairman of the National
Health Ethics Committee.
11
OPINION
Brain Awareness,
Research and Facts
Prof. Giuseppe Di Giovanni
B
rain illnesses are among
the most important causes
of death and disability
worldwide. While 0.4 million
people die from breast cancer
every year, 1 million commit suicide. Add
death due to drugs of abuse, Alzheimer’s,
Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative
disorders, and the numbers skyrocket. Yet,
despite the high numbers, social awareness
of brain research is low.
Mental illness is still perceived as
an indulgence, a sign of weakness or
punishment. For patients, it carries powerful
negative attributes in all of their social
relations. The situation must be improved.
Neuroscientists need to work together
with the media and educators to raise
awareness among the general population
and politicians. Mental illnesses are just as
important as other physical illnesses, only
much more complex, due to the limited
understanding of our brain.
In order to improve mental health,
research needs support. Funding is needed
from national and international authorities
for both basic and clinical research, patient
care, and to support patients’ families. Brain
research is important: a message that needs
to be understood by all societal sectors
including government, academia, industry,
and the general public.
In Malta, biomedical and in particular
neuroscience research is in a period of
growth. Thanks to a number of talented
people, the number of research groups
focusing on brain function and disease has
12
increased. This growth has pushed Maltese
groups into the international scientific
spotlight, which helps provide our students
with both local training and work.
Malta still has a long way to go. Research
funding is limited and the government
body responsible for research policy, the
Malta Council for Science & Technology
(MCST) through the National R&I
Programme, focuses on academic research
done in partnership with industry.
“Mental illnesses are just
as important as other
physical illnesses”
Unfortunately, the number of industrial
partners interested in neuroscience
is limited. Like other European and
worldwide funding organisations, Malta
needs to provide financial support for basic
research. Ideally, the programme grants will
be between 3 to 5 years, which allows for the
initial scientific discoveries to be developed
into new technologies. These developments
can sometimes take much longer, but
science can only contribute to the economy
when it has solid basic discoveries. Science
awareness in Malta is poor.
Neuroscientists at the University of Malta
are fighting on all fronts. My colleagues and
I are trying to improve our understanding
of devastating pathologies that underlie
epilepsy, drug addiction, stroke, Alzheimer’s
and Parkinson’s disease and other movement
disorders. Outside the lab, we are constantly
searching for new funds and European
grants to continue this research and I am
helping to connect my colleagues to Europe
by informing them about available funds.
To communicate recent discoveries in
neuroscience, I have started Neuroscience
Days at the University of Malta: day-long
seminars dedicated to neuroscience. This year,
the third Neuroscience Day will be part of
the VIII Malta Medical School Conference
2012. As members of the Malta Chamber of
Scientists, we also communicate the workings
of the brain to the general public.
But all our efforts are in vain without you.
We need your help to unlock the mysteries
of the brain.
•
The author is an associate Professor at the
Faculty of Medicine & Surgery, an honorary
senior lecturer at the University of Cardiff and
the Maltese representative for the Biomedicine
and Molecular Biosciences domain at COST.
He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Malta
Chamber of Scientists journal called Xjenza
(http://www.xjenza.com), a peer-reviewed
journal on all branches of science, technology
and humanities. Xjenza’s main aim is to
offer training in scientific writing for young
researchers and publish studies by established
academics. If you would like to know more
contact Prof. Di Giovanni directly at
giuseppe.digiovanni@um.edu.mt
facebook.com/neuroscience.uom
@neuroscienceUoM
SCIENCE
THINK IN THE CITY
O
SP E C I A L F E AT U R E
n the 28th September, Malta’s
Science and Art festival
launched to over 12,000
people, as part of the EUwide celebration Researchers’ Night.
Science carnival parades, busking,
art installations, performances and
more filled Malta’s capital with over
20 events — bleeding into the Notte
Bianca festival.
Science and art are usually
seen as two separate cultures.
Some humanities branches have
directly rejected it, but other fields
are embracing science. In Malta,
top artists leafed through books,
or had a chat with University of
Malta scientists to find sources of
inspiration (or criticism). Valletta
became filled with giant fruit flies
and DNA strands (see pg. 20 for
more). You could even have sat
down, had a coffee, and pondered
why there were acetate brain slices
hanging in front of Malta’s »
13
SCIENCE
IN THE CITY
National Library. The city could be viewed through a
different lens for a few days.
There are other ways science and art can interact.
Science and technology can be used to explore art
and analyse it. Van Gogh’s Sunflowers was recently
examined by chemists, identifying why the pigment
was becoming a mucky brown, shedding insight on how
to reverse the degradation and bring back the artist’s
true vision. Artists and scientists can come together
to collaborate on new research. Recently in Ireland, a
weaver visualised a large data set by making a huge
tapestry. The scientist then analysed the giant carpet
to interpret her data. Art can also be an excellent way
to explore the ethical implications of science — its
potential harm, benefit or relation to society.
Science in the City was simply a start that dipped its
toe into this new pool. It saw researchers and students
combine their efforts with artists and performers to
bring together a range of events (read about Alexandra
Fiott’s experience on pg. 23). Nine scientists (see pg. 31
for list) appeared live on prime time TV to talk about
their research with prominent entertainers Angie Laus
and Pawlu Borg Bonaci. From within large crowds,
science students performed science demonstrations,
while MCST (Malta Council for Science and Technology)
held a highly successful science fun fair for kids, with
another kids activity at Auberge D’Italie by MARes
(another EU funded project). Scientists met politicians at
Science in the House organised by the Malta Chamber
of Scientists. There were talks on the health benefits
of local honey by Simone Cutajar (science graduate),
mathematics and piano recitals by Tricia Dawn Williams,
electronic and flute performances from Italy with
compositions based on the Chaos Theory that explains
hurricanes, and a bit more. The big night was followed
up by talks and discussions. Ira Melkonyan spoke about
the new field of BioArt (see pg. 29) while there was even
a discussion on human cloning after the play A Number
by Caryl Churchill. Over the next few pages, THINK
has selected the major artworks created for Science in
the City.
Photos by Elisa Von Brockdorff
•
14
Words by the Editor, full disclaimer: author is the project
manager of Science in the City.
SCIENCE
THINK IN THE CITY
Photo by Edward Duca
Joyride
Emmanuel Bonnici
Scientists consulted: Roberta M. Rizzo
Location: St George’s Square
Sponsor: St James Cavalier
I
magine a bus with no front and no back, no doors, just
windows. Joyride is a doughnut-shaped bus built to scale
— if buses were round.
Circles have fascinated humans since the dawn
of recorded history. The Greeks saw it as the perfect
form, pushing science, agriculture, and technology. Our
fascination with circles has also led to conservative ideas
that have held back science and technology.
The dual aspects of circles are intrinsic within Joyride.
Genetic engineering is a powerful and frightening new
technology. It involves the insertion, or manipulation,
of DNA — the stuff of life. Joyride provokes viewers to
ponder about what tinkering we should do. Through gene
therapy, genetic engineering could cure incurable diseases
Photo by Elisa Von Brockdorff
from cancer to Alzheimer’s, but it could also lead to
ecological devastation through certain genetically modified
organisms.
A circle’s qualities could also be perceived in research.
Is all research needed and useful? Does some research
simply go round in circles? It is up to the viewer to decide,
whether the circle is futile or a masterstroke of nature and
science.
The artwork also challenges its viewers to question our
cultural identity by re-modeling the familiar Maltese Bus.
The artwork is a means of facing both our personal and
cultural identity face on. Never obliged to change our views,
but offered the chance to play out the full extent of our
relationship to such ‘cultural images’.
•
15
SCIENCE
IN THE CITY
cortex
Raphael Vella
Scientists consulted: Dr Mario
Valentino and his team
Location: In front of the National
Library, Pjazza Reġina, Republic
Street
Sponsor: Nexos Lighting
Technology
C
ortex makes us reflect
about the different physical
and behavioural factors that
make humans similar to other
animals that have often been
perceived to be ‘inferior’. It is a
transparent sculpture made
of twelve thin, acetate sheets
that look like a human brain,
but is actually composed of
twelve mammalian brain
slices: from domestic animals
like goats and horses to
the Rhesus monkey and a
Californian sea lion.
A slice of the human brain
is also included, but which one
is it? What, indeed, makes the
human being stand out among
fellow creatures in the world?
And what makes us similar to
other animals?
•
Photos by Elisa Von Brockdorff
16
SCIENCE
THINK IN THE CITY
Humanised Fruit Flies
Liliana Fleri Soler
Scientists consulted: Dr Edward Duca
Location: Merchant Street,
St James Cavalier, now located in the
Biology Department to be permanently
exhibited in the new medical wing at
the University of Malta
F
ruit flies are red-eyed insects usually
found circling bananas. They are
2mm pests that devastate and spoil
millions worth of crops every year. Due
to their similarity to humans, they are
used as research subjects. Findings
due to fruit flies have taught us
humans a lot about ourselves.
Liliana Fleri Soler’s five-foot tall
papier-mâché sculptures reflect this
similarity in the fly’s complex courtship
rituals, which go along these lines.
The male sees an ‘attractive’ female
and positions himself in front of her
at an angle so that he appears bigger.
Then, the male goes round and taps
the female sending her many signals
with his touch. He swivels back in front
of her vibrating his wings to ‘sing’ and
‘soothe’ her. The female then allows
him to explore her. At this point, he
attempts to copulate with her. If she
likes him, the two fruit flies mate. As
you can see, this ritual is eerily similar
to us humans.
Photo by Elisa Von Brockdorff
•
17
SCIENCE
IN THE CITY
silence in strait street
Chris Briffa Architects
Team: Chris Briffa, Justin Schembri, Joe Galea, Michael Quinton, Alex Spiteri Gingell, Andrew Doneo, Ryan Xuereb, Lily Agius,
Maggy Mitter and Matthew Pandolfino
Sponsor: Halmann Vella Ltd, Ecotechnique, Doneo and Nexos Lighting Technology
Words by Justin Schembri
A
rchitecture has always been a craft of logic and
reason. The profession can also be considered
a ‘talent’ by uniting it with a creative reflex. When
an individual creates something, be it an object,
a sound, a building — anything that can be
acknowledged on a perceptual level — he is taking
on the mantle and role of ‘the artist’. Whether or
not he may be considered a good artist — that, as
always, depends.
On the other hand, ‘the scientist’ solves, reasons
and deduces — he performs the act of thinking.
When an individual is faced with an obstacle, he
is impelled to the point of obligation to provide a
solution. He is obliged to crunch numbers and use
his problem-solving abilities to remove the obstacle.
Some consider finding the solution to a problem a
wholesome, satisfying feeling.
But there is an immediate flaw in the above
artist-scientist distinction. If we claim that the
artist’s role is to create and the scientist’s role to
think, the question is instantly raised: is not the
scientist’s “thinking” simply a means to an end, that
end being the creation of something? Does an artist,
who “creates”, not think or reason as well? Nothing
worthwhile can come from careless thoughts, and
good artists and scientists do not fall into the trap
of half-baked ideas.
The truth is that while the ultimate goals
of the artist and scientist differ, on a more
metaphysical level they are both thinkers and
creators. Perhaps the concept of art and science
being separated has become more redundant
with the passage of time.
Silence in Strait Street was an experiment in
solving an acoustical problem in an elegant way.
Our brief: to create an acoustically insulated space
in Strait Street that simulates a low-echo, quiet
room, somewhat similar to anechoic chambers of
recording studios. Luckily for us, typical solutions
to this self-imposed problem are appealingly
aesthetic.
18
Photo by Elisa Von Brockdorff
Initially we wanted to physically (by working
with certain types of materials) recreate a high
quality, acoustically absorbent enclosure, but we
soon modified our ideas due to realistic budget
constraints: acoustic insulation materials (be they
foam or fibreglass) are extremely costly.
The sound engineers in our workgroup
suggested — and went on to produce — a very
particular sound that would help simulate silence.
It compensated for the use of less adequate
insulating materials. This sound may be described
as a sort of pulse, almost like heartbeats, that
steadily crescendos into silence. The brief, “false”
second silence would be created by a sudden
absence of sound. We imagined it as a sort of
silence of contrasts, similar to the way rests work in
written and performed musical scores.
“Perhaps the concept of art
and science being separated
has become more redundant
with the passage of time”
With this sound prepared, we set out to design
our enclosure. Many solutions and permutations
were investigated in an organised, almost scientific
way. Some of these solutions were drawn and
modelled, then scrapped. But it was a productive
scrapping, and each time we learnt something new.
Our design was concluded a few weeks before the
launch of the first edition of Science in the City. The
finalised design involved the water-jet cutting of
rigid thermal insulation boards that would form the
imagined enclosure. The linear distance of water-jet
cutting was over 1.2km! Large rectangular panels
SCIENCE
THINK IN THE CITY
Red Rum, Red Room
Art critic Lisa Gwen Baldacchino on
Silence in Strait Street :
“the claustrophobic
redness engulfing, soothing,
menacing. A rising hum
threatens to deafen; yet as
fast as it began, it subsides.
The mood lingers, it
pervades. It seeps within,
with an unbeknownst
clarity. And it commences all
over again. On a loop, loop,
loop, loop...”
of acoustic insulation were cut into six smaller, now
slender, pieces. These foam cut-outs now had a
carefully designed saw-tooth profile, which allowed
us to reduce waste drastically, since “negatives” of
our cutting process became “positives” instead of
being discarded. Each of these wedges had small
16mm holes punched at their ends. When these
wedges were slid through the metal rods and baseplates we had prepared, the interlocking mechanism
created large walls with a texture like an egg carton.
Amusingly enough, egg cartons are often considered
the poor man’s acoustic insulation and are often
used to insulate areas where bands practise.
Construction began hectically a few days before
the event’s opening. There were stability issues
that required immediate resolving on site as well as
other technical issues with lighting and sound.
As Science in the City was opening, at 7 pm our
installation was launched. The crowd’s reaction
— and, more importantly, their attitude — was
excellent. People were intrigued and interested. We
also achieved our ultimate goal since the acoustic
performance of our enclosure worked surprisingly
well, which was a relief to all of us.
The entire experience, from inception to
completion, was a typical collaboration between
‘the sciences’ and ‘the arts’. Without our ‘scientific’
study in acoustics, this entire exercise would
have had no point, and without a strong ‘artistic’
visual element tying it all together, the events
outcome would have been less satisfying. ArtScience collaborations like Silence in Strait Street
are regular occurrences, even the most cynical
amongst us would be forced to admit that most
professions which concern themselves with the
manipulation of the physical world need both the
arts as well as the sciences to continue to function
and survive.
•
19
SCIENCE
IN THE CITY
You are the staircase
Norbert Francis Attard
Scientists consulted:
Prof. Alex Felice
Location: Merchant Street
Sponsors: Nexos Lighting
Technology, Kee-Klamps
system, Joseph F. Spiteri and
Co. Ltd
Mad About Video Multimedia
20
Photos by Norbert Francis Attard
SCIENCE
THINK IN THE CITY
climbing your dna
the editor talks about a single strand of
DNA which transformed Valletta’s streets
D
NA is the stuff of life,” said many famous scientists.
The discovery of DNA has revolutionised biology. It
proves that all life came from one primordial ancestor,
which means humans are very closely related to other
animals. DNA supports a reason for sex, needed to
make sure we are all individuals with a unique code.
DNA is so powerful because its four letters contain a
code which, when read, make practically every organism
that ever lived. Norbert Francis Attard waded into this
maelstrom.
His artwork You Are the Staircase took two twists of a
single strand of DNA and magnified its outline hundreds
of thousands of times into a six metre metal structure.
It was perfectly set on the cross roads between St John’s
Street and Merchants Street in Valletta. The structure
was based on a spiral staircase inviting any visitors to
climb and gain a previously impossible unique vantage
point.
The idea formed during a conversation over brandy
with Prof. Alex Felice in his living room. Prof. Felice
began outlining what DNA is, its significance in the
scientific world, and how it has advanced biology and
medicine. An extremely enthusiastic Attard asked
question after question, but I noticed that the sparks
started flying when the images started rolling on Felice’s
Macbook. The four colours used by DNA sequencing
machines flew up: red, green, blue and black, they
became integral in the light strips that swirled around
Attard’s artwork — although he didn’t stick to them
religiously. Sequencing machine data output results in
graphs with elegant peaks, and four repeated letters: A,
T, G, C. These DNA letters represent a three-letter code,
which relate to 64 different combinations. For example,
ATG is a sequence that signals other components
to start reading a gene. That gene will eventually be
translated into proteins, which form our hair, teeth, eyes
and heart. Attard incorporated this into the style and
content of the light strips. Unifying everything, threedimensional artist designs of DNA provided Attard with
his elegant swirl. Science was integral in inspiring and
structuring the artwork.
In their research, Felice’s team use DNA technology
continuously. A former Ph.D. student, Dr Joseph Borg,
studied a Maltese family to investigate the disease
thalassemia, common in Malta. With an international
team of people, he sequenced stretches of this families’
genome to find a mutation in the KLF1 gene, which
helped family members cope with the blood disease.
If researchers manage to turn off this gene in adults
suffering from this disease it would help stop dangerous
complications in millions around the world.
Apart from this form of gene analysis and therapy,
locally researchers are also using organisms with unique
genetic inserts that help their investigations. Dr Mario
Valentino uses mice whose neurons shine green when a
laser is lit on them (see pg. 27). With this technique, his
team can study how stroke develops in humans.
Dr Ruben Cauchi uses fruit flies that have had their
genetic code modified to study the human muscle
wasting disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). The
mutation causes the flies to develop a disease very
similar to humans (see pg. 17). Other scientists are using
techniques based on our knowledge of DNA to study
cancer. In the future, we might be able to sequence a
cancer and give patients a treatment that specifically
treats that unique tumour — not every cancer is equal
(last year there was an international conference on this
issue in Malta). We will also be able to take samples »
21
SCIENCE
IN THE CITY
of skin cells, and turn them into fully-fledged organs to
replace failing ones. DNA has given us a bright future
full of the technology that usually fills science fiction
novels.
DNA has now become mainstream in the art world.
Be warned. There is a lot of gimmicky DNA ‘art’, some
pushed by leading magazines. DNA seems to have
become a fad. You can send in a swab and receive back
a DNA portrait, which is just a technique applied on
your DNA giving pretty fluorescent bands separated
by size. The method is a very common, and cheap,
laboratory technique, followed by some Photoshop
colour replacement. The DNA can be printed on t-shirts,
posters, gifts, calendars, shoes, and more all for your
friends, office, restaurant, or lounge — it overwhelms
even this geneticist.
Fortunately, it is not all commercially driven cheap
tricks. A two-mile cycle path winds through Cambridge’s
beautiful streets created from the colours used in DNA
sequencing. Apart from the aesthetic, the path identified
a stretch of DNA found in breast cancer patients.
Staircases are also quite common. In Florida, USA, a
Dali Museum has a 75-foot spiral DNA staircase, while
in Strasbourg, France, two DNA helices wind around
each other creating an impressive design dominating
the interior of a building. Attard’s work differs in many
important characters.
By placing a harsh metal structure in the middle of a
Baroque city, progress seems to have clashed headon with tradition. Yet, unexpectedly, many passersby commented how it seemed a natural part of the
city. Some suggested a permanent residence. The
artwork also had a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde persona. The
contrast between day and night is stark. The day’s
grey scaffolding was transformed at night when the
LED strips sprang to life transforming the art piece and
bathing the surrounding square in coloured hues.
The stairs are central to the piece. By climbing these
stairs are we simply going nowhere? A criticism on
science? Or is it a shared collective experience (6 at a
time)? On the other hand, as everyone has a unique
sequence of DNA, the staircase is a unique journey of
discovery of the city and upon introspection: ourselves.
•
22
90
G C
GC A G
100
G A C A T G
G G C C C
G G G
DNA sequence of a Maltese family. Taken from a research paper by Dr Joseph Borg,
Prof. Alex Felice and an international team.
SCIENCE
THINK IN THE CITY
Destroying boundaries through
Science in the City
Biomedical Ph.D. student Alexandra Fiott (TV show and logistics) shares her thoughts
on why the walls between the public and scientists need to come crumbling down
S
cience has long been depicted as something
unreachable and isolated by non-scientists,
something shrouded in mystery and excessive
complexity. There seems to be an insurmountable
obstacle between scientists and the rest of the world,
with divisions simmering between the different
scientific fields. Even cartoons show mad scientists
seemingly cut off from reality and either bent on
world domination or carrying out some stunningly
convoluted experiments. Such depictions have fed a
fear of science, a fear that is unfortunately passed on
from one generation to the next. It has also led
to numerous stereotypes of scientists, such as
scientists having a god-complex and no respect for
human life.
These ideas are clearly unrealistic and create
additional barriers. They need to be demolished. Science
is not the terrifying sector it is believed to be. On the
contrary, science is something that we are surrounded
by and embrace in our everyday lives. It strives to
improve the health and quality of life, and sometimes
even has an element of fun.
The aim of Science in the City, part of the EU initiative
named Researchers’ Night, was to bring science closer
to the general public and therefore try to remove some
of these misconceptions. Different scientific disciplines
were shown, while the events and exhibits were
designed to attract a varied audience. Science was also
portrayed from an artistic aspect, showing that art and
science may go hand in hand.
Behind the scenes, scientists were working non-stop
for weeks to make sure that this event was a success.
Everyone involved in coordination, events, or exhibits
had to constantly push forward to overcome problems
that never ceased to crop up. Pleading with transport
providers, attempting to fit in multiple meetings in an
impossibly short time, never-ending lists of urgent
emails and work-filled weekends became a norm, with
pressure rising and culminating with the start of the
event. The event, the bulk of which only lasted a few
hours, took months of hard work, before and after the
28th September.
On the whole, I believe that Science in the City
did manage to make science more attractive and
understandable to the general population. By having
several areas dedicated to different audiences, everyone
could find something suited to them. Children were exposed to the more entertaining side of science and by
showing the scientific basis behind everyday things that
we might take for granted. Different scientists came
together to show the high level of research happening in
Maltese laboratories. Previously shot video footage gave
insight into life behind a laboratory’s walls, exemplifying
the scientific work that goes on away from the public eye.
Although they involve a great deal of hard work,
further efforts need to be made to bring science
closer to the general public. Without the public’s
understanding and acceptance, a great deal of scientific
effort will be hindered and research growth will be
stunted.
•
23
SCIENCE
IN THE CITY
Screengrabs from Ruby’s video
From DJ to videographer:
Ruby on Science
Lily Agius, the artistic curator of Science in the
City met up with DJ Ruby to talk about science
and art. Ruby created a video for Science in
the City that will be available in 2013 on
scienceinthecity.org.mt
Recently, you progressed from DJ to VJ (video jockey).
Was it a hard transition?
No, not really, because it has taken quite a few years
to get it in motion. For the past 5 years I have been
working with videography on an amateur basis, but all
of a sudden at the beginning of this year I decided to
take it on professionally, and in a matter of few weeks I
learned all that I needed to.
Have you ever been to a festival of its kind in Malta or
abroad before?
It was a first for me, and was very impressed about
how professional the event was.
Which was the art installation or event that you enjoyed
the most? Certainly the live music session by Andrew Alamango
and Mario Sammut a.k.a Cynga. It was electronically
based, which is my cup of tea.
Did you expect to see something more from the festival?
Is there anything you would like to see at the festival
next year?
Well, from my point of view it may be no surprise to
hear me say: more music.
One of the exhibits in the exhibition at St James
presented fruit flies within their own eco system in
bulbs. These organisms are used to investigate musclewasting diseases, obesity, cancer, diabetes, and more.
Did you ever imagine that humans could be related
enough to a fruit fly to use them to learn more about
human disease?
I never knew about it before. I was mesmerised to
find out at the exhibition at St. James. That was very
interesting!
How would you describe the audience of the Science in
the City Festival?
People of all ages and from all walks of life were there
— it was certainly an event for everyone!
How did you feel when interacting with the art: climbing
the DNA staircase, or entering the echo-proofed room
in Strait Street?
It was an amazing experience, not just as a regular
person attending the event but also as film maker while
on the job.
24
Do you think that art can be used to explain science?
Yes it can, Science in the City proved that.
How does science play its part in your own life?
I am very into IT, computers, software, gadgets
and electronic music/visual. Technology is all around
me and with me everyday, and forever evolving and
improving.
•
For more information on DJ Ruby: www.pureruby.com or
www.facebook.com/djruby. For Ruby’s videography and
visual work: www.facebook.com/puremediamalta
SCIENCE
THINK IN THE CITY
How to get rid of fruit
flies?
Sarah Maria Scicluna
Scientists consulted: Dr
Edward Duca and Dr Ruben
Cauchi who studies muscle
wasting diseases using the
fruit fly
A
n interactive exhibition in the upper galleries
of St James Cavalier aimed towards adults
and children. It ran from the 28th September
till the 28th October as part of the Science in
the City festival. The exhibition brought science
and art together with local artists exploring
various scientific phenomena. How does the
human mind work? How can a fly be compared
to a human or be useful towards the future
of the human race? How is a child born with a
deformity? How does something stretch but get
fatter?…
The fruit flies used for this
work were housed in lightbulbs
modified to provide them with
everything they needed to
survive. The flies were flightless
mutants, since their genetic
code had been altered to stunt
their wing growth. The mutation
provides irony to its name and
renders it unable to survive in
the wild.
Photo by Elisa Von Brockdorff
How?
Fruit flies are commonly viewed
as pests by the agricultural
industry and in households.
Scientists view these insects
differently, having studied them
for over 100 years. They’ve found
out how organs develop, how
genes are inherited and learn
more about obesity, diabetes
and muscle-wasting diseases
— these killed Chinese chairman
Mao Zedong. At the University
of Malta, Dr Ruben Cauchi is
studying similar muscle-wasting
diseases. Fruit flies share around
70% of human genes that cause
disease, allowing scientists to
use fruit flies to understand
ourselves — an ironic twist.
Each artist reflected on scientific research,
and had the opportunity to work with Maltese
scientists in their chosen area for inspiration
and accurate results.
Exhibition Sponsors: St James Cavalier, Nexos
Lighting Technology, Malta Arts Fund
25
SCIENCE
IN THE CITY
the techibots
Elisa Von Brockdorff
Say hello to the TechiBots! Technology
is a welcome element to contemporary
living, yet it can often create a society
dependent on it. It can transform
man into ‘programmed’ creatures, on
which many decisions, procedures and
strategies are often based. Systems
collapse once technology fails, even
momentarily! Agitation and anxiety soar!
Inspired by George Ritzer’s
McDonaldization of Society, the
TechiBots are constructed out of pill
sheets, utilizing the structured material
element as a basis for this rampant
creature.
O Ye of Little Faith (heart)
Matthew Farrugia
We all need a heart to live. Your body dies within
minutes if it stops. The heart is mostly pure muscle, it
is around the size of your fist, and located a little to the
left in the middle of the chest. The heart’s job is to pump
blood around your body to provide oxygen and nutrients.
This responsibility leaves the heart prone to
complications. The most common complication is heart
failure, which is when it cannot pump enough blood to
the rest of the body. Most of the time this is because of
a heart attack when blood flow is blocked, which is the
most common kind of complication. Other more severe
heart diseases include Angina which is when the heart
isn’t getting enough blood, giving a severe pain in the
chest.
-hEx: inverted geometry
by the rubberbodies
collective
see pg. 29
26
Photos by Elisa Von Brockdorff
The Human Brain: The only
known structure that can
study itself
Michael Xuereb
Scientists consulted: Dr Mario
Valentino and his team who study
the mouse brain
When scientists research, examine,
and map the brain, they are using the
same organ they are studying. This
simple fact is celebrated in Xuereb’s
installation. He magnifies a single connection point from the
trillions of connections in our brain called ‘connectomics’.
Connectomics is used by scientists to project complex brain
images. These connections transfer signals and commands
that together compute our thoughts. These can be thoughts
about what to wear, who we love, mathematical calculations
or even reasoning our emotions.
4.1868: The Theory of Heat
Adrian Abela, actors & performers: Tia Rejlić, Martha
Vassallo, and Aidan Corlett
brain study
Scientists consulted: Video by Dr Mario Valentino and Dr
Christian Zammit
Dr Mario Valentino (University of Malta) has carried out
extensive studies on mouse brains to find out how brain
injury occurs and develops in humans. During this research,
Dr Valentino captured striking 3D images of mouse brains,
which were then displayed in St James Cavalier. The images
are mainly focused on mouse vasculature on the surface of
the brain and the close association of cells called astrocytes
that maintain the blood-brain barrier, which is essential for
the survival of neurons.
Scientists consulted: Prof. Kenneth Camilleri and his
team who research biomedical engineering at the
University of Malta.
4.1868 discusses various theories of how life began, such as
that by Charles Darwin, using both a visible camera and a
thermal imaging camera donated for this exhibition by Prof.
Kenneth Camilleri and his team at the University of Malta.
Adrian Abela interprets the traditional story of Melqart, the God
of the Sea and Underworld, through a scientific eye.
Thermal imaging cameras are used to diagnose disease and
study medical problems. They detect radiation in the infrared
range of the electromagnetic spectrum (roughly 9,000–14,000
nanometres or 9–14 μm) and produce images of that radiation,
called thermograms.
The installation was a 40 minute video.
27
SCIENCE
IN THE CITY
Photos by Elisa Von Brockdorff
The Cuckoo’s Nest (brain)
Matthew Farrugia
Scientists consulted: Prof. Giuseppe Di Giovanni and his team, and
Dr Neville Vassallo who are studying brain diseases at the University
of Malta
The brain is a wonderful organ — what would we be without it?
It is able to absorb information and hold memories and keep it stored for
years to come. The brain is divided into various parts, all linked and working
together.
The brain is more complicated than the heart, and is prone to going wrong.
Addiction, epilepsy, Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, are all
illnesses the root of which lies in the brain.
Medical School: How does medicine define the
body?
Photo by Edward Duca
Raphael Vella
Scientists consulted: Textbooks used by medical students
at the University of Malta
A series of fifty, small mixed media works were displayed on
the walls of a classroom within a room in St James Cavalier,
complete with blackboard. The images are photographic
transfers on paper, reworked in ink, graphite and additional
layers of Chinese paper.
This installation of fifty framed, photographic images
transports us from the beginnings of the power of medicine
over the infant’s body, through the internalisation of medical
knowledge via the mechanical components of ‘public health’
policies and systems, and ending with postmortem analyses
that conceptualise murder and suicide in the cold language of
science.
How does medicine define the body? How is the body
constructed in the image of medical textbooks? And how does
the inaccessibility of medical knowledge to ordinary persons
affect their understanding of their own bodies?
Humanised Fruit Flies
Liliana Fleri Soler
see pg. 17
28
SCIENCE
THINK IN THE CITY
Glowing rabbits,
inverted geometry,
and feeling normal
Words by Ira Melkonyan
T
o me, the idea of having art and science in
one’s life is not surprising. As I am writing
this article about my artwork in a science
and art festival, I sit working in a research
laboratory wearing a white lab coat. My
challenge might be how easily society accepts
this combination.
In the 2012 edition of Science in the City
festival, my participation was marked by two
events: a digital performance installation
-hEx: inverting geometry and a talk at Malta
Café Scientifique called Bioart: Merging borders
between art and science. The starting point
for -hEx was the research of Prof. Joseph
Grima and his team on auxetic materials. The
term refers to particular molecular structures
that make a material become fatter when
stretched. Normal material, like fabric or
rubber band, becomes thinner. So, what does
this feature have to do with art? Or how can
such a structural and scientific topic become
art; it definitely is not arty-colourful! This
contradiction is exactly what inspired us to
distill the technical side of meta-material
research and turn it into a pleasing aesthetic.
Beyond beauty, perhaps we also wanted to
stimulate individual associations, abstract
thoughts, and conclusions.
The artistic team involved two performers,
video, and sonic artists. We started from basic
keywords and concepts, worked separately,
and then joined our independent achievements
into one artwork. Rebecca Camilleri and I
created the choreography. It was based on the
geometrical lines that auxetics have to offer.
Video artist Anthony Askew »
-hEx: inverting
geometry
the rubberbodies collective
(Rebecca Camilleri, Anthony
Askew, Ira Melkonyan)
Sound Designer & Composer:
Andre Borges
Scientists consulted: Prof. Joseph
Grima and the Auxetic Materials
group, UoM
Photos by Elisa Von Brockdorff
29
SCIENCE
IN THE CITY
also created a clinical, sterile
environment by working with
lines. At the same time, he
emphasised the transformation
and deconstruction elements of
auxetic materials. He created
two videos which became
part of the installation. The
first introduced visitors to the
background information on what
they were going to see in the
installation space. The second
was integrated into the main
installation and directly affected
by the performer’s spatial movement. This video
showed hexagonal shaped structures being constructed
and deconstructed. Through in-built coloured light bulbs,
the performers could control how the shapes developed
using specially created software. The choreography
could literally dictate structural changes.
Sound was created using different household and
acoustic equipment. It was looped as the 10-minute
long choreography repeated six times. There was no
definite beginning or end.
We didn’t want to give a digested illustration
of auxetic materials. Instead, -hEx is an aesthetic
experience aimed for anyone to appreciate. Along with
scientific linearity translated into visual surroundings,
the piece was meant to raise questions of a live
performer presented as an inanimate object in the
context of an art gallery. Routine was evident in the
purposefully looped sound and movement, while
we touched on the audience’s personal associations
with outer space, extraterrestrial life, and robotic
technologies.
I noticed a striking difference between the audiences
over our two performances. The first night was the
exhibition opening for a selected range of invited
people, the second evening’s audience were mainly
families with many young children. Our artwork was
very conceptual and rather intellectual. However, the
installation appealed to the elite architect or curious
housewife, elderly University professor or a young
boy. Everyone could control the time they spent at
the performance; some stayed to observe for only a
few minutes but as our video documentation shows
several people stayed for the whole hour of looping
actions. Many hour-long observers were young
children. I am unsure what was going through their
minds, what kind of science-fiction cartoons our
30
movements triggered in their imaginations. It showed
how artwork is about energy flows that have to
connect to its audience and less about the concept.
I also gave a talk on Bioart at Malta Café Scientifique.
Bioart is a relatively new term that refers to many
different artworks that deal with or use different
methods of biotechnology, a science that aims to create
useful products by using or modifying living organisms.
The talk mainly covered examples of conceptual visual
and installation art. Such artworks include bacteriamade paintings, genetically modified human cells,
floral and animal tissues, photographs and paintings
portraying the invented reality of our bio-technologically
modified future or scientifically oriented present. The
after-talk discussion was rather heated, picking up on
several basic concepts. What is art? What is the idea
behind an artwork or its execution? What is ethics?
Why does bioart raise scathing ethical debates? And
is it legitimate to call genetically modified animals an
art piece, for example the glow-in-the-dark rabbit of
Eduardo Kac? No doubt, this debate pointed out an
existing interest of local people towards the crosseffect of two disciplines. Nevertheless, there is a need
to question all of these ultra-modern tendencies and
whether they are suitable for a calm, tiny Mediterranean
island.
While asking questions and looking for answers are
essential human activities, both art and science are
ways of channeling these activities through different
reference points. In this way, festivals like Science in the
City are a great opportunity for people like me to feel
normal for a change, despite operating within the oftenquestionable union of Science and Art.
•
For more on bioart: www.bioartira.com and the
rubberbodies collective: www.rubber-bodies.com
SCIENCE
Main Funders
EU FP7 Programme
Malta Arts Fund
Organising Committee
University of Malta (Coordinator)
Research Innovation & Development Trust (RIDT)
Valletta Local Council
Where’s Everybody
Lily Agius Gallery
Malta-EU Steering & Action Committee (MEUSAC)
iCreatemotion
St James Cavalier
Malta Chamber of Scientists
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
Partners & Sponsors
Malta Council for Culture & the Arts
Malta Council for Science & Technology
Nexos Lighting Technology
Microsoft Innovation Center
Notte Bianca
Malta Association of Contemporary Music
Ministry of Education and Employment
Science Students’ Society (S-cubed)
Malta Association of Dental Students (MADS)
IEEE Malta Student Branch
JEF
University Engineering Students’ Association
(U.E.S.A)
Information Communication (ICTSA)
Malta Medical Student Association (MMSA)
Valletta 2018 Foundation (V.18)
Kee-Klamps system
Joseph F. Spiteri and Co. Ltd
Mad About Video Multimedia
Vodafone Malta
iValletta.com
Chemic Ltd
Levo Lab Services Ltd
Angelica
Papier Plus Studio
Hulda Festival
Chris Briffa Architects
Spooky Monkey
Econetique
Halmann Vella Ltd
Doneo
Skolasajf (2012)
Organising Team
Prof. Alex Felice
Dr Edward Duca
Wilfred Kenely
Karen Fiorini
Conrad Attard
Dr Alexiei Dingli
Fabian Galea
Chris Gatt
Albert Delia
Lily Agius
Kevin Ellul
Stefania Cassar
Dr David C. Magri
Scientists Involved
Prof. Kenneth Camilleri
Dr Owen Falzon
Dr Ing. Stephen Abela
Ing. Paul Refalo
Dr Joseph Borg
Alexandra Fiott
Prof. Ing. Simon Fabri
Dr Ing. Marvin Bugeja
Prof. Joseph Grima
Dr Daphne Attard
Dr Ruben Gatt
Simone Cutajar
Dr Neville Vassallo
Dr Mario Valentino
Dr Christian Zammit
Dr Godfrey Grech
Jeanesse Scerri
Prof. Christian A. Scerri
Jackson Said
Prof. R. Muscat
Dr Stephen Abela
Massimo Pierucci
Antonella Marino Gammazza
Gergely Orban
Prof. Giuseppe Di Giovanni
Dr James Borg
Prof. Irene Sciriha
Dr Gabrielle Zammit
Dr Adrian Muscat
Audrey Zammit
Gianluca Valentino
Dr Ing. Nicholas Sammut
Dr Ralph Assmann
Joanna Vella
Clint Mizzi
Artists & Performers Involved
the rubberbodies collective
Chris Briffa and his team (see pg. 18-19)
Raphael Vella
Tricia Dawn Williams
Alistair Attard
Ruben Zahra
Corrado Pasquotti
Federika Lotti
Alvise Vidolin
Emmanuel Bonnici
Norbert Francis Attard
Malcolm Galea
Pawlu Borg Bonaci
Angie Laus
Ingrid Desira Buttigieg (Malta Dance Council)
Carnival Makers (Joe Griffiths, Henry Caruana [Kiku
Carnival], Norman Hill, Paul Mizzi)
Andrew Alamango
Mario Sammut (Cygna)
Cesar Zamacola Parama &
James Micallef Grimaud (Troglodyte)
Liliana Fleri Soler
Thanks to everyone else who helped out or supported the first edition of Science in the City.
Calls for 2013
Science in the City
Science in the City: Thank You!
THINK IN THE CITY
Want to make your idea
happen? Want it to be
seen by over 12,000
people? Science in the City
is looking for scientists,
artists, performers, and
volunteers for 2013.
Please get in touch if you
are interested by emailing
info@scienceinthecity.org.mt
The committee will be looking
for ideas after the proposal
deadline.
For more information: http://bit.ly/SitCIDEAS
31
FEATURE
News extracts from the pro-Tory dailies Yorkshire Post and Morning Post, 3 November 1933
32
THINK FEATURE
Maltese school children waving the Union Jack at the Manoel Theatre in the mid-1930s
MALTESE HISTORY:
not as we remember it
Patricia Camilleri meets up with Professor Henry Frendo to look behind the
making of his new book Europe And Empire: Culture, Politics And Identity In Malta And
The Mediterranean
T
he book is a doorstopper” —
Professor Henry Frendo didn’t altogether appreciate this comment.
Of course, it was meant as a compliment since the book rigorously covers
over 150 years of Malta’s history and two
World wars — the events help to understand Malta’s current trials and triumphs.
What the author does in these twenty-two chapters is bring Malta to life. He
creates the coordinates for an understanding
not simply of the facts but how those facts
have intertwined to make Malta’s past.
One of his aims was to achieve, “[…] a
sustained critique of Colonialism” showing “Colonialism with regard to human
rights and democracy and more”. Frendo
is clearly concerned with examining what
Colonialism was in Malta and in the British
Empire, especially in the Mediterranean.
His narrative shows the personalities of
the day within the context of Colonial rule
and tries to explain what that rule meant.
How did these meanings influence the development of the islands’ politics, economy,
and overall identity? Through these pages,
the reader observes how the Maltese saw
themselves over nearly two centuries of
British rule. Frendo sustains that those two
hundred years have left a mark on the Maltese identity and induced a modus operandi that is not easily changed. However, he
also asks the question: is it legitimate to
go on ‘blaming’ or ‘explaining’
things through Malta’s colonial paradigm? Clearly, what the Maltese
were and what they are is important.
It might also reflect Malta’s future. »
“Colonialism imposed
its control of the social
production of wealth
through military conquest
and subsequent political
dictatorship. But its
most important area of
domination was the moral
universe of the colonized,
through culture, of how
people perceived themselves
and their relation to the
world.”
wa Thiongo’o Ngugi, Decolonising the
Mind (1986)
33
FEATURE
The author has used his skill as a historian
sleuth to access archives and libraries in at
least six different countries (Tunis, Italy,
UK, Malta, Australia and the USA). He was
persuasive enough to receive very early access to the Fascist archive at the Farnesina in
Rome. Historical evidence is found in official correspondence, the occasional personal
letter discovered amongst the documents,
dissertations, maps, photographic records,
biographies, autobiographies, as well as documents provided by private individuals. The
author also refers constantly to the local and
international media, using vivid examples of
cartoons and memorable extracts from the
plethora of material available for the period.
However, apart from his undoubted talent
as a researcher, it is the skill with which Professor Frendo has translated those facts on to
the page that has created a fascinating, eminently readable, and profound work.
The book spans the period from 1800 to
1964. The context is Malta as a Mediterranean island within the British Empire. Great
Britain was present in the Mediterranean
before it got involved with Malta and the
first chapter sets the stage for that intervention. The whole period is studded with major events on the international scene which
were happening outside Malta but which
inevitably affected the
islands. The panoply of
protagonists ranges from
significant governors to
influential Bishops, from
local politicians to foreign statesmen. Familiar
names such as Manwel
Dimech, Lord Strickland,
Carmelo Borg Pisani,
Nerik Mizzi and myriad
others are all discussed
with deep understanding.
Frendo’s style engages the
reader through constant reference to the social scene with examples of local culture and
grassroots reactions.
“Is it legitimate
to go on
‘blaming’ or
‘explaining’
things through
Malta’s colonial
paradigm?”
One of the overriding themes is, inevitably, the ‘language question’. Frendo follows
this thorny issue as it runs through the narrative like a leit motif, linking practically every aspect of the colonial period. The author
examines the British language policy in other colonial contexts and clearly expresses the
complexity of the ‘assimiliation-resistance’
paradigm. The analysis goes a long way to
explaining why the issue still fills today’s
newspaper columns and political discourse.
Ethnic identity among Maltese migrants
is another of Frendo’s significant themes.
He has published extensively on this issue.
On this occasion, the author analyses how
34
Orazio Laudi
language, religion, and other factors impinged on the feelings of self-esteem and
self-preservation amongst Maltese migrants
in North Africa. He mainly achieves this
through his close examination of the newspaper Melita, published in Sousse, Tunis in
the 1930s.
In the chapter ‘Strains in Anglo-Italian
Relations in 1934’, Frendo traces the disintegration of those relations and its effect
on Malta’s language culture. He discusses,
amongst other issues, the last thrust by Sir
Ugo Mifsud’s administration to maintain
the teaching of Italian in elementary schools.
He recounts how, in 1933, Governor Campbell ‘unequivocally refused’ to hold a vote
in the legislative assembly on the matter.
When, the legislative assembly passed a vote
of confidence in the Mifsud administration,
London simply dismissed the Cabinet. This
action, coupled with others reducing the importance of Italian, sounded the death knell
of the primary position of the language in
Malta. For example, Italian was removed
from entry exams to secondary school, and
the law was changed making it unnecessary
for notarial deeds and judicial proceedings.
The final blow came in 1934 when the Letters Patent made English and Maltese the
official languages of the colony.
Along with these serious reflections,
Frendo also cites an excerpt from Johnnie
Marks’s farce Il ‘Lingua Nostra’ performed
in 1932 at Teatru San Ġorġ, Bormla. The
play satirizes, in a most amusing way, the use
of Italian in judicial courts. Marks’s dialogue
might bring a smile to our face but the chap-
THINK FEATURE
ter entitled: ‘From Prison to Exile Without
Charge’ certainly does not. The unforgettable events surrounding the exile in 1942 of
a group of forty-seven Maltese, suspected of
sympathising with the Italian cause, is clearly outlined with references to a wide range
of writings on the subject. In the previous
chapter, ‘The Clampdown on “Disloyalty”
in Malta’, Frendo paints the background scenario in great detail, describing the events
that led up to the decision. The list of deportees is fascinating as it includes people
from very diverse backgrounds: amongst
them well known personalities such as the
Chief Justice Sir Arturo Mercieca, Vincenzo Bonello and Herbert Ganado as well as
members of the Latteo family who worked
in the food market and in a travel agency,
and the Laudi brothers, all dockyard fitters.
Frendo asks searching questions about the
motives behind the action and suggests avenues of investigation which are still unexplored.
Prof. Henry Frendo
His well-researched pages remind us that
history ‘as we remember it’ is not a viable option if a country — any country — is trying
to understand the complex issues within society: identity, vision for the future, legacy,
ethics, or human rights. Facile, emotional
historical attachments linked to powerful
and very immediate media interaction must
surely be a recipe for a mis-reading and
mis-understanding of society’s present.
In the words of Simon Shama, paraphrasing Cicero: ‘to know our past is to grow up’.
This is where university scholarship assumes
a crucial role in the public domain. This is
also where the study of the humanities becomes a vital tool for self-understanding
and community in the search for truth and
its interpretation. Although elements of
universality are pervasive in human history, Frendo believes in analyzing diversity as
well as the individual’s contribution to the
big picture. After all, this is what history and
especially ‘nation building’ is about.
•
Tea Party given at The Colonial Restaurant Valletta to 100 school children on the occasion of the coronation. Edward VIII’s coronation in 1936
35
FEATURE
Laughter
is the best
medicine
Dd
Dr Joseph Agius
36
Creativity and humour are being used by Dr Joseph Agius
to help people who stutter. His techniques have helped
hundreds in Malta. They are now being used all over Europe,
which is no laughing matter. Words by The Editor
The Smart
THINK
Intervention
Strategy (SIS)
prepare & motivate
Parents
S
tuttering affects around 70 million people worldwide. This
amounts to one percent of the
world’s population. In Malta,
this means that over 4,000 people stutter. I am one of them, so I was really
looking forward to meeting the speech language pathologist Dr Joseph Agius.
Dr Agius didn’t start off treating his clients using humour. “My first client was
an 8 year old child who stutters. After two
months, he became very fluent under a fluency shaping programme. It’s a behaviour programme, like when you use slow speech to
stutter less [ED: a technique I use] or when
you use some modifiers to relax your vocal
cords — prolonging speech. So he became
fluent, discharge, success. Ten years later, I
met his mother again […] he’s very depressed,
he doesn’t want to go to a psychiatrist, he
wants to come to you. I thought this must
be a relapse. When I met him, he was still
fluent, but he kept saying that he stutters, he
stutters. […] It took me ages to understand.
His mind was still viewing himself as a child.
That perception remains. Then I realised that
we can’t just work on fluency, but also the attitude.” This led Dr Agius to laughter.
Changing Perceptions
In 2007, the ‘Think Smart, Feel Smart’ strategy showed his vision to incorporate creativity and humour to change attitudes. The ten
session programme focuses on developing
thinking skills to help people (usually school
age children) with stuttering. The main idea
is that by changing thoughts, a person’s feelings can be changed. For stuttering this is
perfect, since although stress or anxiety do
not cause stuttering, stressful situations can
make it much worse.
Dr Agius illustrated the power of changing attitudes with a story about a stuttering
nurse*.
A girl phones me crying and crying, I had
to do something. I asked her if stuttering
had helped her in some way. And she told
me: ‘as if it never helped… well, maybe, I’m
a good listener, I’m very sensitive.’ Like this,
I showed her how it was a gift. ‘You know
its true, without stuttering I don’t think I
would’ve become a nurse’.
“By changing
thoughts, a person’s
feelings can be
changed”
The nurse now is a regular public speaker. But to develop public speaking skills, the
strategy also incorporates Dr Agius’s earlier
methods of fluency shaping and basic communication skills. For example, every eight
minutes the presenter should show a clip,
crack a joke, and so on since that’s the limit
of our attention span. A major difference is
that the programme makes it fun. Humour
helps people enjoy it providing the motivation they need to stand and speak on the
pulpit. And that’s exactly what Fr Ivan Scicluna (another client of Dr Agius) had to
do in front of 150 other religious figures at
a mass in Rome.
‘I cannot go up on the pulpit and give a
sermon.’ I asked him if he ever talked about
it to his parents. ‘No, no how could I tell my
parents, that’s unheard of ’. Friends? ‘No, no.’
Then I managed to convince him that »
school-age child
who stutters
THINK SMART,
FEEL SMART
ATTITUDES PERCEPTION HUMOUR
COOL SPEECH
FLUENCY TECHNIQUES,
PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILLS
CHALLENGE THE
DRAGONS
DESENSITISATION EXERCISES,
TREAT FEAR DIRECTLY
INTO THE
‘REAL’ WORLD
HOME SCHOOL COMMUNITY
37
FEATURE
“Today the
real cause of
stuttering is
still unknown,
however several
clues are
appearing from
genetic and brain
studies.”
he can be a very good public speaker even
though he stutters. I managed to do that
by training him in public speaking. While
studying in Rome, he sent me an SMS: ‘You
were right Joe, I have just addressed 150 Capuchin brothers, yes I stuttered but it went
excellent.’ He then told me that he wants to
do a thesis on spirituality and stammering
and was wondering if I knew other priests
who stutter. This person who never wanted
to talk about stuttering wrote one of the nicest theses that I have seen called God’s Power
made Perfect in Weakness: Towards a spirituality for stuttering priests.
Harry Potter also features in his approach. In the third Harry Potter movie,
Professor Lupin (a good werewolf ) teaches
the children to cast the Riddikulus charm
against Boggarts. The creature terrorises its
victims by taking the shape of their most
feared nightmare. The spell changes the fear
into something ridiculous. For example, the
wizardly school children turned their most
feared teacher into a cross dresser. “In psychological terms this is desensitisation, using humour as a desensitisation technique.
You are having fun and enjoying the sessions
and perceiving that it [stuttering] is not a
problem. I do not use the word problem, I
do not see it [stuttering] as a problem […]
but a condition”, said Dr Agius.
38
The programme was developed into the
Smart Intervention Strategy, targeted at
school children who stutter. By documenting the strategy and comparing it with a
control group that received a different programme, he showed that “there is a significant positive change in attitude towards
communication and themselves” — it
helped people cope with stuttering. The
research formed part of his doctorate and
the strategy is now being used all around
Europe.
Causes of stuttering:
the evidence
In the movie The King’s Speech, King George
VI is seen spitting out pebbles after being
treated for stuttering. The King obviously
wasn’t helped, but he had it easy. Others
before him had their tongues cut, reduced
in size, chopped off, golden forks placed to
support the tongue, and even more bizarre
treatments. Today the real cause of stuttering is still unknown, however several clues
are appearing from genetic and brain studies.
Dr Dennis Drayna and his team identified three mutations in Pakistani and North
American families. The three genes which
malfunctioned in stutterers are related to
the cellular lysosomal pathway, which sends
proteins to the cell’s garbage dump. It’s a bit
unclear how this is related to stuttering.
Another study by Professor Shelly Jo
Kraft, Wayne State University gave more
promising clues. A genome-wide association
study linked stuttering to 10 genes in the
development and function of neurons, plus
behaviour.
The above nods towards stuttering running in families. “60% of my clients have a
family member who stutters” mentioned Dr
Agius. People can be predisposed to stuttering, in my case (the author): I had my mom.
She grew out of it, I needed speech therapy
and a lot of willpower. If your child is developing a stutter it’s much easier to take them
to a therapist at an early age, with much
higher chances of success to learn coping
skills.
The genetic study also hinted towards the
brain, rather than the tongue, being responsible for stuttering. The idea is supported by
brain imaging studies on adults. Dr Agius
referred to recent studies showing the over
activation of the right side of the brain rather than the left. Auditory processing is the
most activated brain area. To find out if
the hyperactivity causes stuttering—or the
other way around — scans need to be performed in children. Unfortunately, scanning
THINK FEATURE
children is unethical since it requires utter
stillness and long exposures that can be dangerous. On the plus side, recent technological advancements might make the studies
possible and really find out what causes stuttering. What is clear is that the ancients had
it all wrong and stuttering is hereditary and
mostly based in the brain.
Science behind humour
Research into the benefits of humour started in the 1980s. The magazine editor Norman Cousins had very severe and painful
arthritis. After discharging himself from
hospital, he started watching candid camera and comic movies at home. He noticed
that 10 minutes of laughter reduced his
pain by two hours. The observation motivated him to write the book Anatomy of
an Illness. It wasn’t research, but inspired
artists and scientists alike, which led to numerous studies.
Dr Rod Martin reviewed all of the literature investigating the beneficial health effects of humour. Immunity, blood pressure,
diabetes, and more have been studied, but
pain tolerance shows the greatest consistency. The idea is that having a laugh will make
you feel better and reduce chronic pain. The
other conditions, while exciting, haven’t
borne consistent fruit and await further research.
Humour’s role in relationships is another hot topic.
According to Dr Agius the trend tends to
be that “a girl wants
someone who makes
her laugh, a guy wants
someone who laughs
at his jokes.” He contin-
ued by explaining that this holds true in the
beginning of the relationship, later on when
the relationship gets serious “a girl doesn’t
want someone whom she is telling something
serious and he changes it into humour. Girls
can’t stand this. In a well established relationship a sense of humour can detract.” »
L
LO
Famous people who stutter
King George VI
nicole kidman
Bruce willis
Highly popular
King of Great
Britain during
World War II,
immortalized in
the movie The
King’s Speech.
Award-winning
actress known
for: The Hours,
Batman Forever,
and Moulin
Rouge!.
Action movie
actor who rose
to fame with the
Die Hard series,
followed by Pulp
Fiction, Armageddon, and The
Sixth Sense.
Samuel l.
Jackson
Activist and
actor known
for Goodfellas,
Jurassic Park and
Pulp Fiction.
isaac newton
One of the greatest scientists
who ever lived
famed for his
work on light,
gravitation, and
the three laws of
motion.
39
FEATURE
The dark side of humour is also under
study. Gelatophobia, or the fear of being
laughed at, is a big research area. Dr Agius collaborated with researchers from the
University of Zurich who wanted to know
how many people suffer from the condition.
Malta topped the charts with 33.7% of people compared to Switzerland’s 5%. Dr Agius
explained, “being a small island everyone
knows everyone, also because we were a colony we have a bit of an inferiority complex.
They all contribute to make us rather obsessed and suspicious about what others are
thinking.” Malta’s results were comparable
to Fiji, another island.
The studies indicate that if you’re in a
group and hear someone
laugh,
around one third
of Maltese would
think: yes they must be laughing at me, and
not in a good way. “This is our Maltese character,” said Dr Agius.
Together with an international team, he is
now studying how gelatophobia affects stutterers. In general, people who stutter tend to
find laughter malicious, they don’t like being
teased. In non-stutterers it sometimes helps
relationships. The extent of the phobia gets
even worse. In non-social laughter, when
stutterers even hear any laughter it causes
discomfort. Even reading a comic describing
laughter can annoy stutterers. “People who
stutter tend to view laughter as evil and associated with bad emotions”. This could be
related to bullying, but that question awaits
other studies.
Perhaps predictably, Dr Agius is constantly telling stories and cracking jokes — rather
Did you know?*
• Over 4,000 Maltese and 70 million people worldwide
stutter.
• Stuttering affects four times as many men as women.
• Approximately 5% of children pass through a stuttering period that lasts around six months. Three-quarters will recover by late childhood, leaving about 1%
with a long-term condition.
• Studies show that there is no difference in intelligence
between people who stutter and those who don’t.
• People who stutter are self-conscious about their stuttering and often let the disability determine the vocation they choose. There are no instant miracle cures
for stuttering.
* taken from The Stuttering Foundation website (see Further Reading)
40
good ones. His approach is a breath of fresh
air compared to the formality of most therapies. And, while stuttering might not be
considered life threatening, it has unfortunately long been linked in popular culture
to being a bit stupid, shy, or someone easily
pushed around. History has proven otherwise with Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, and others (see textbox) being famous,
ultra successful people who used to stutter.
Yet, stutterers do need therapy, a shameless
fact. I’ll leave the final words to Dr Agius
“during The King’s Speech, they contacted a
consultant speech pathologist. The director
asked: what is the breakthrough in the film?
When they started working, they realised it
was not in some particular therapy, but in the
therapeutic alliance between the therapist
and patient. So the breakthrough is when
the speech pathologist is asked to sit with the
king’s family. […] Looking back on my clients, I can remember hundreds. If you asked
me what is success in stuttering, I would tell
you: it’s when I have the client and he creates
this bond with me, of respect, trust, and is
capable of talking to me freely.”
•
Part 2 of the article will talk about the work
of Dr Helen Grech who developed an assessment tool to detect speech and language problems in Maltese children. Read all about it in
the next issue of THINK.
FURTHER READING
• McGhee, P. Humor. The Lighter
Path to Resilience and Health. 1st
edn, (AuthorHouse, 2010).
• Agius, J. G. The ‘Smart Intervention
Strategy’ for School Age Children
Who Stutter. Themanummer
Logopedie: Special Issue Speech
Fluency 4, 4–11 (2012).
• The stuttering foundation.
http://www.stutteringhelp.org
• The groundbreaking initiative that
incorporates Dr Agius’s approach.
http://www.ecsf.eu
THINK FEATURE
Caravaggio, ‘Beheading of St John the Baptist’, Oratory of the Decollato, Valletta
C A R A V A G G I O
...was a murderer, brawler, and one of the greatest
artists that ever lived. As he travelled from Rome
to Malta, he inspired fellow artists in different
regions who developed distinct styles. In Malta, he
left some of his greatest artworks
W
Prof. Keith Sciberras
hen on 6th October
1608, Michelangelo
Merisi da Caravaggio escaped from detention in Fort St Angelo on the Island
of Malta, he became Malta’s most wanted
fugitive. He was one of the world’s greatest
artists and a Knight of the Order of St John
of Jerusalem, Rhodes, and Malta. Ironically, his arrival on the island some fourteen
months earlier was also that of a disgraced
fugitive, of a person who was trying to rebuild his career and social standing through
an impressive network of protectors. »
41
FEATURE
“Long hours in taverns,
brawls, blasphemy,
gaming, the colourful
aspects of street life,
and consorting with
prostitutes…”
Caravaggio, ‘St Jerome’,
Oratory of the Decollato, Valletta
42
THINK FEATURE
He had escaped from Papal Rome after
murdering Ranuccio Tomassoni and surprisingly deciding to go South rather than
North. In doing so, he also shaped the
character of South Italian early Seicento painting. Afterwards, he sought to try
his fortune with the Knights of Malta.
The artist’s search for new patrons and
protectors, his patrons’ desire to have
him in their service and the misdemeanors of his lifestyle all impinged
on the character and influence of
his art.
The story of ‘Late Caravaggio’ is that of
a fugitive who produced some of the most
powerful pictures of the entire century
and, indeed, of the entire story of art. He
was constantly on the move and, in many
instances, looking over his shoulder. This
movement, conditioned by the artist’s
fast-paced lifestyle, brought about the fast
spread of Caravaggism in the central Mediterranean (South Italy, Sicily and Malta).
Caravaggism is the stylistic umbrella of
works influenced by Caravaggio.
Caravaggio’s story is filled with powerful patrons who sought to protect him despite knowing that he
was a fugitive and
that protec-
tion could lead to diplomatic consequences. It happened in Naples, Malta, Syracuse,
Messina, Palermo, and Naples. Wherever
he went, the artist was honoured and protected. Patrons were interested in securing
his brush rather than justice.
The artist first arrived in Malta in
mid-July 1607, starting an exciting fifteen-month-long Maltese period. In this
time Caravaggio, still yearning for Rome,
produced outstanding masterpieces only
seen by a handful of the great artists. The
Knights of Malta honoured his virtuosity
and elected him Cavaliere in July 1608.
At his first opportunity, the artist proudly
signed his name as Fra [Knight] Michael
Angelo, painted in the blood oozing from
Saint John’s head in the Beheading of Saint
John the Baptist painted for the Confraternita della Misericordia’s Oratory of the
Decollato in Valletta.
As a Knight of Magistral Obedience,
Caravaggio’s social life took on the entirely new dimension of chivalry; he was now
bound by obedience, respect for his
superiors, and by the »
43
FEATURE
strict observance of the Statutes of the Order. Long hours in taverns, brawls, blasphemy, gaming, the colourful aspects of street
life, and consorting with prostitutes were
to become a thing of the past. He was now
obliged to be obedient and decorous in his
demeanour.
But Valletta was a cosmopolitan city and
temptations were around every corner. It was
also a violent city, full of young nobles from
various langues, arrogant and difficult to
contain. Duels and violence were the order
of the day. For a man of such a tumultuous
nature as Caravaggio, Malta was a dangerous
place. The artist’s turbulent nature could not
be contained for too long.
His chivalry was disgraced barely four
weeks after being knighted. Recent archival
research refers to Caravaggio’s involvement
in a brawl. In Valletta, on the night of 18 August 1608, a fight broke out in an organist’s
house. The organist was from the Conventual Church of St John. The fight involved
seven Italian knights and an illegal pistol
which was fired.
The Organist’s front door was smashed
and the knight, Fra Giovanni Rodomonte
Roero, Conte della Vezza di Asti, was seriously wounded. The Venerable Council
was immediately notified. An investigation
was set up the following day. On 27 August
1608, Caravaggio and his companion Fra
Giovanni Pietro de Ponte were identified
and detained in Fort St Angelo. Caravaggio
escaped soon afterwards.
Caravaggio has been studied inside out,
and in some cases even turned upside down.
At the University of Malta’s History of Art
Department a programme has been set up
just to concentrate on Caravaggio. Over
the past ten years, Caravaggio’s 400th anniversary has been celebrated in one form or
another. Despite the public successes that
the name carried, no one single exhibition
(and publication) can be considered to have
satisfied all scholars, even though some were
obviously much more valid than others.
The speed of research on the artist is fast
and keeps on growing, but this Caravaggio
craze has taken research off on tangents. A
44
“Were the
Knights
responsible for
his death?”
vast plethora of opinions, attributions, and
judgments has split Caravaggio studies and
many new issues have surfaced. Many questions about Caravaggio’s life and art have
been answered, with scientific tools helping
to solve problems of attributions and dating.
Most major pictures now have a documented story behind them.
Over the past decade, Caravaggio’s late
years have come under intense study revealing many important findings. However, several questions remain unanswered.
What are the precise reasons why the artist
came to Malta? Who directed him towards
the island? Why did the Knights support a
full Papal pardon? What happened on his
eventual return to Rome? Were the Knights
responsible for his death? These subjects are
still being debated.
How Central Mediterranean Regional Caravaggism was ignored or excluded
in major exhibitions and publications is
another concern. Caravaggism is not a
unified movement. There are important regional differences in Caravaggio’s influence
on artists.
When Caravaggio died prematurely in
1610, he had not set foot again in Rome.
In Rome, his followers’ work had rooted itself strongly and had become so established
that his death at Porto Ercole did not affect
their style. Roman Caravaggism became the
‘mainstream’ type of Caravaggism, but the
artist’s movements outside Rome, specifically in Naples, Malta, and Sicily had established other regional styles within the wider
context of Caravaggism. These regional
styles led to important and unique works
of art.
•
FURTHER READING
(KEITH SCIBERRAS)
• ‘Frater Michael Angelus in
tumultu: the cause of Caravaggio’s
imprisonment in Malta’, in The
Burlington Magazine, CLXIV, April
2002
• ‘Riflessioni su la Malta di
Caravaggio’, in Paragone Arte,
37-38, 2002
• ‘In Memoria Principis: Dying Well
in the Late Baroque’ in Journal
of Baroque Studies, Vol. 1 No.3,
International Institute for Baroque
Studies, 2003
• with David Stone, ‘Caravaggio in
bianco e nero: arte, cavalierato e
l’ordine di malta (1607-1608)’ in
Caravaggio L’Ultimo Tempo 16061610, Electa Napoli 2004
• ‘Due persone à lui ben viste:
The identity of Caravaggio’s
companion for the prospective
Knighthood of Magistral
Obedience’ in The Burlington
Magazine, CLXVII, January 2005
• with David Stone, ‘Malaspina,
Malta, and Caravaggio’s ‘St
Jerome’, in Paragone Arte, 2005
• Cat. Entries in Vittorio Sgarbi (ed)
Caravaggio, Skira (Milan), 2005
• (with David Stone), Caravaggio:
Art, Knighthood and Malta, Midsea
Books, 2006
• ‘Caravaggio and Realism in Malta’
in Caravaggio and Paintings of
Realism in Malta, Foundation of St
John’s Co-Cathedral, 2007
• ‘Caravaggio, the Confraternità
della Misericordia, and the
original context of the Oratory
of the Decollato in Valletta’ in
The Burlington Magazine CXLIX,
November 2007
• Baroque Painting in Malta, Midsea
Books, 2009
• ‘Caravaggio en la encrucijada’, in
ARS, V.3, N.7, Madrid, 2010
THE
WIG
HUNT
I
magine a crime story told through
film, photoshoots, autopsy reports,
audio recordings, emails and more —
how would you read it? Where would
you start? This is the nature of transmedia, taking a universe and spinning from
it many stories and subplots. Its an exciting way of telling a story, used to advertise
Game of Thrones, the latest Batman mov-
ies and the Star Wars franchise. But even
a church can be a Transmedia experience
with statues, sermons, stained glass, and architecture retelling the Bible’s stories.
At this year’s Evening on Campus, Josianne Mamo’s The Wig Hunt entry won the
first Transmedia Storytelling Competition
ever held in Malta. I managed to meet her
just before she left to Scotland. »
TRANSMEDIA
SPECIAL
THINK
Transmedia
Competition
Winner
Josianne Mamo
45
TRANSMEDIA
SPECIAL
What is The Wig Hunt?
The Wig Hunt starts off with
a car crash near Loch Lomond
(North of Glasgow). In the car they
don’t find anyone, just blood. A
short distance away they find a brutally murdered and sodomised woman. And, PC James Murray — he’s the
investigating officer — is quite new
to the business. He’s not really doing
well, but he slowly builds his skills as
he goes along.
Is he inexperienced?
He was in a different field, but because of love he changes his career.
He moves to Glasgow to be closer to
the person he loves, but this move has
made the relationship difficult. Probably inspired by my own life. He was in
scuba diving before moving into police
investigations. He finds the suspect... I
shouldn’t be giving too many spoilers.
Let’s just say there is another murder
and the investigation takes a whole
new turn. It’s a story about sex, drugs
and crime in Glasgow. I’m trying to
take freemasonry as we know it in
the Mediterranean and place it in
Scotland. Will that be successful?
We’ll see.
Photography by Brian Grech
Where did the inspiration come
from?
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski was a major influence in my
writing. What’s fascinating about it
is the form in which the story is told,
which inspired me. My story started off
as an exercise in free writing and then it
moved from there. The idea was to give
bite sized information. I tried to keep
the reader going by giving snippets of
information then moving on to the next
part and the next part and the next part.
It fascinates me how a titbit of information grows and becomes never ending.
Of course, at the end you need to find
a resolution — you need to tame your
idea.
46
Many of my friends won’t read novels
or anything longer than 2000 words.
That’s why I chose this form. The
idea was to simulate something that you
would find on the internet. Let’s say you
found a newspaper article and it got you
piqued, and you moved to the next article. It’s like surfing the web and letting
those bits of information unfold.
What media do you use?
The actual text, simulating official
documents (autopsy reports, police
reports and so on); a short film on
the website; audio clips similar to
police investigators talking into a recorder and hearing the conversations
as they go along. The idea is not just to
give a manuscript but supplementing
it with other material.
Following the story through different media is what is exciting about it,
because it is so different. I moved on
and created a website with a timeline
where the reader could actually go and
read whichever piece of information he
wanted, be it the video clip, audio, and
you don’t need to read all the titbits. If
he’s more interested in the personal relationship then there is another section
he can go into. The reader can choose
what he wants to read and how to read
it.
What changes did you need to do to
make it as a writer in the way you
thought of the story to be able to
write in a transmedia style? How did
you research your novel?
I went there as a writer of historical
novels and I ended up writing a crime
novel. That went beyond my wildest
imagination — it was something
major. I had to change in my way of
thinking.
The fact that I am studying at
Glasgow opens various doors. What I
did was instead of approaching actual people, I read genuine reports that
were leaked online, like David Kelly’s
Joseph Zammit and Malcolm Galea in character. Shots taken from scenes of The Wig Hunt
report and various others. I try to go online.
My next step is to go to this crime writing
festival called Bloody Scotland, which I am
very excited about. There will be the likes of
Ian Rankin and Denise Mina whom I met at
an event at the University of Glasgow. On a
whim, I bought the tickets before I started
writing the story, now it will be even more
exciting. One of the talks will be on how
they do research, some people do go all the
way and follow police officers and some of
them have been police officers, like Karen
Campbell was and then she started writing.
There are different degrees of involvement.
“It was refreshing
for me to write
in these different
media, that
actually helped
me in the writing
process”
You had the likes of Malcolm Galea, and
other big names in your photoshoot
and film. Why do you think they agreed
to get involved?
I’m still asking myself that question. Malcolm was a major plus for me. He kept using
a word when I was showing him a particular character I wanted him to act out (Val
Gina — a transvestite performer), which
was ‘fun’. Injecting a bit of humour into my
script might have helped get him on board.
I always had him in mind for that particular
part — it was a major thing for me to get
him involved. »
The Other Participants
ed Reality, web-based role playing game
(MMORPG), Twitter and Facebook.
blogs, Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter,
Physical Installation, and Graphic Novel.
Cyber Secrets
The Dark
Daniela Azzopardi, Marta Vella
& Graziana Agius
The University of Malta’s Media Faculty
blog has been hacked and secrets... dark
secrets... are being exposed. The shameful
side of lecturers and students are being
exposed. Everyone has a secret — whose
will be next?
Media: blogs, online forum, mobile app, TV
series, and novellas.
Dreams of the Undeserving
Angelus
Simon Theuma, Gabriel Borg,
Mark-Anthony Fenech & Jean-Luc Portelli
Post-war 1950’s. A new city has sprung up
in the desert where life is dictated by God.
You are wellcome as long as you have God
in your heart, but what does that mean?
Media: an Alternate Reality Game, Novels,
Live Events, Comics, TV Series, Webisodes,
Podcasts/Radio, Newspapers, Augment-
Ivan Xuereb
Insomnia! Everyone can suffer from it,
but just imagine if you never slept. This is
the Sandman’s
fate. He offers people the
chance to have
their dreams...
at the expense
of others.
Media: website,
Jean-Marc Chapelle & Karl Xuereb
In Malta a secretive research company
called Obertek finds a dome under Mdina.
Inside it they find an artefact which has
extraordinary powers but after a failed
experiment the artefact vanishes. The
dome’s carvings hold a mystery that must
be solved to reclaim the artefact.
Media: website, TV series, Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, videogame, mobile app,
email newsletter, QR codes.
The Underdogs
Neil Attard & Valentina Cassar
Coming from a difficult background Donovan finds it difficult to succeed. He has
problems with work, colleagues and his
girlfriend. After meeting a stranger in a
bar, he is darkly reborn and seeks revenge
on his employers.
Media: webisodes, film, comics, game,
website, television, other promotional
media.
47
TRANSMEDIA
SPECIAL
How it all started
E
very story has a beginning. This competition was inspired by a BBC TV
programme which highlighted the Transmedia approach of telling stories. After
watching this, Patricia Camilleri got her
team hooked onto the idea, at the same
time as Jean Pierre Magro was organising
the first Transmedia seminar in Malta.
The rest, as they say, is history.
This year there were six entries. Daphne Kelleher, the event’s organiser said, “I
was intrigued by the stories […] I wanted to see them visually and what they
could come up with, […] they captured the
imagination”. Josianne Mamo’s entry was
the one which gave the most various and
well prepared media.
For next year, Daphne suggests, “Go
into what you know and use it in detail,
be enthusiastic and form a team with
people who have different skills.” Transmedia uses different media, but instead of
having one storyline, build a universe and
from it draw many stories.
To be continued… new competition launched in March 2012, see:
www.facebook.com/UoMtransmedia
Jean Pierre Magro presenting Josianne Mamo the trophy for her winning entry in the Transmedia
Storytelling Competition. Photo by Tufigno.com
Did you find it hard to write for so many
different types of media and why was
this a Transmedia story?
More than the writing it was producing
it that was very demanding. The challenge
was making sure that the tone for each
document was right. It was refreshing for
me to write in these different media. That
actually helped me in the writing process.
One big challenge was trying to inject
flavour, characterisation, bringing them
alive, especially the actual murdered victim. In the crime scene, I tried to strike
an emotional chord through the photos.
As for the actual investigator, having that
subplot going on hopefully makes the
character three-dimensional.
What does Transmedia bring to storytelling?
I would say that it adds richness.
Telling a story is challenging. As a writer you have a picture in your mind and
you have to place it in words. Showing
that picture that you have to the reader
is exciting and a writer of a traditional
manuscript would have to transmit that
only through words. In my case I am
doing this with various different means,
photos, audio clips, so people can hear
the suspect speaking. The challenge was
to link all this together to make sure that
there are no loose ends.
Perhaps this might inspire next year’s
participants: “It is a fantastic opportunity
to be working on something you really love
and winning this transmedia competition
means I’ll have even more time to work on
this project,” said Josianne Mamo. “You
learn so much by doing something different. And, I loved it,” she said
•
Simon Theuma presenting his story on the night to the judges, from left to right: Prof. Ivan Callus,
Alison Norrington, Jean Pierre Magro, Caldon Mercieca and Dr Alexiei Dingli
48
TRANSMEDIA
SPECIAL
THINK
Projects developed by Jean Pierre Magro.
Left: poster of Henry Waltz, middle: screenshot of No Pets Allowed.
From Hollywood to Cannes
JEAN PIERRE MAGRO shares his journey to understand storytelling
T
he appreciation of a good story is a
gift that is not granted to any other
species on this planet. It is reserved
for humans alone.
Over the centuries, we have come to
understand that stories have a clear function. Stories care for us from infancy to
maturity, from our maturity to our second
infancy, and then lead us to our exit.
This phenomenon always fascinated me,
so I decided to stop my studies in law and
read for a degree in Communications at the
University of Malta. I graduated in 1998
and saw myself as a writer. I was wrong. I
wrote and produced my first feature film
Genesis. It wasn’t successful, but failures
did not deter me. It helped me realise I
needed to learn much more. I embarked
on my quest to understand storytelling.
I entered the documentary scene, and
over the years my programmes were shown
on all major channels in Europe and the
US. Some of them won a few awards along
the way.
In 2006, I was lucky enough to meet
David Howard, Dean of University of
Southern California. His mentorship was
an invaluable experience that helped me
grow as a story analyst and a professional.
I went on to Edinburgh Napier University
for a Master of Arts in Screenwriting and
in 2009 was nominated for a BAFTA (New
Talent) for a short film I wrote.
I was then employed as Head of Development for FishCorb films. My job was to
buy properties (books, graphic novels, video games) and develop them into scripts.
There I collaborated with a number of
award-winning writers like Barbara Turner
and Victor Maldonaldo. I am currently
working on a Ph.D. focused on transmedia
narratives and migratory cues for children
under the tutorship of Dr Dan North and
Don Boyd, Governor of the London Film
School.
My work with producers such as Jimmy
Veres and Yan Fisher Romanovsky provided me with the inspiration, as well as
a ‘laboratory’, for my dissertation project
– an online world based on fairytales in
which children can interact, play games
and read stories. My vision is to create a
virtual library that is both engaging and
fun. The same characters that populate this
universe will also appear in a TV animated
series, comic series, console game and feature film.
The visual impact of this project is very
important. Hence, I am building the visual
narrative with Oscar-nominated animator
Geza M. Toth. Kevin A. Brown, Art Director and Game Designer for Sony Play-
Station’s God of War is mentoring me on
gaming.
On February 28th of this year, together
with the Malta Media Desk, I organized
the first transmedia seminar on the islands.
I invited Michel Reilhac, Head of Arte
Cinema, Alison Norrington, Chairperson
of Storyworld, and Dean O’Toole, producer of “Kick Ass.” We also had two Skype
interventions; one with Emmy Awardwinning Producer, Nuno Bernardo, the
other by Jeff Gomez, creator of the transmedia bible for both “Avatar” and “Halo.”
Over the years I have developed a number of workshops and masterclasses for
professional companies and institutions.
Together with Savina Nerotti, I am also
working with the Torino Film Lab to set
up a yearly workshop on web series production and design. Our main aim is to
pioneer digital content creation, strategy
and innovation through strong multimedia story engagement.
Finally, on 18th May, I launched a number of transmedia projects in Cannes.
•
Jean Pierre Magro was the main consultant behind the Transmedia Competition.
His advice was critical in turning the competition into a success. The Editor was also
part of the team.
49
ALUMNI
ALUMNI talk
Life after University: from quantum mechanics to rugby
The Exotic World of the Very Small
DR ANDRÉ XUEREB shines a light on some of the coldest atoms in the Universe
I HAVE ALWAYS known myself to
be infinitely curious, forever asking questions to my poor parents and siblings. Being mathematically inclined, reading for a
B.Sc. (Hons) degree at the University of
Malta was a natural next step after completing my ‘A’ level studies. Subsequently in
2007, I flew to Geneva and spent the summer working at CERN as part of the first
group of Maltese summer students. Acting
on a whim, I went to Southampton to read
for a Ph.D. in new methods for cooling
atomic gases.
Why did I find this interesting? Cold atoms are essentially a “blank canvas” whose
properties we can tailor at will. An incredible variety of different experiments are possible, all to explore an astonishingly wide
swathe of modern physics. My research is
theoretical, and during my PhD I focused
on devising ways of cooling almost any
atom or molecule to temperatures very close
to absolute zero (which is -273.15oC, a lot
colder than anywhere on Earth). This
work gave rise to several scientific
articles, and a rather long thesis,
which has just been published as a book.
After graduating from
the University of Southampton, in early 2011, I moved to the
Leibniz University in Hanover,
Germany, for several months,
50
and then back to the United Kingdom to
work at the Queen’s University in Belfast.
I am now a Research Fellow of the Royal
Commission for the Exhibition of 1851,
which allows me to work on problems of
my choice and devise my own research programme.
I split my time between Belfast and the
University of Malta. Recently I had the honour to be the first Maltese representative at
the Meetings of Nobel Laureates at Lindau.
This year’s meeting was dedicated to physics.
It brought several hundred young scientists
together with twenty-six Nobel Laureates to
discuss physics and foster collaborations, a
once in a lifetime opportunity.
Much of my current research is in the
field of optomechanics, where we study
the behaviour of (relatively) large objects
at temperatures a small fraction of a degree above absolute zero. I entered the field
when it was small but growing rapidly, and
had the opportunity to collaborate closely
with some great pioneers. A central point
of my research is to figure out why we don’t
see quantum mechanical behaviour in our
everyday lives: in quantum mechanics, an
atom quite happily passes through two slits
simultaneously, while a human would have
quite some trouble passing through two
side-by-side doors at the same time.
A surprising number of questions are
still open in physics, and there are
few things more fascinating than
being at the forefront of science,
pushing the boundary of human knowledge. I have never
stopped asking questions -Nobel laureate Roy J Glauber
called me “my favourite bully”
at the Lindau meeting — and
I do not plan on stopping any
time soon.
•
THINK ALUMNI
Photo by Marco Cecchini
A sports addict confesses
DR SHAWN AGIUS shares his return to University
to combine his interest in sports medicine and
neurosurgery
TO GET A JOB in neurosurgery,
I read for a Masters in sports medicine
at University College London. Naively, I
thought it would be a piece of cake because I
had read an article here and there. I was soon
to learn otherwise.
My time in London overlapped with
the Olympics that sent my lecturers wild.
All they could talk about were injuries and
biomechanics as if they were the simplest
and most obvious things. This wasn’t
the case and the exams were tough. The
course absorbed a huge chunk of my time,
ironically by studying sports medicine I was
not able to train and compete as much as I
wanted.
In the meantime, I was working on my
research project to complete my course.
The project my supervisor convinced me
to do was on how heart rate changes after
concussions. Rugby players were the ideal
test subjects, they practically self-induce
concussion. Before any testing took place I
read, got in the rugby players good books,
and filled a large stack of forms. I needed
to assess twenty athletes before and after a
rugby game. Seven came for the pregame
assessment, two were injured badly, and five
came for the post-game assessment. Of these
five, most came drunk — 20-year old rugby
players after a game; I should have known
better.
I pleaded and contacted other teams but
had to make do with this data: thankfully
I had attended nearly all the statistics and
SPSS lectures. So when I compared the
data with other similar studies the numbers
were similar. My study was feasible, but
with difficulty. This pilot study needs to be
increased to 200 rugby players, a daunting
task — they would probably need to be
physically forced.
Through this degree I re-visited university
years and met awesome students and
lecturers. Halfway through this degree, the
job I wanted appeared in Malta i.e. the need
for me to do this course vanished. But this
was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. I had my
moments of ‘I don’t need this, why do I even
bother’ and the obvious ‘I will definitely
fail this.’ But I had supportive colleagues
at work and in the course, so I managed to
push myself through.
Now I can combine the job I’ve been
wanting in neurosurgery with the passion
I’m addicted to. It was fun, it was thorough
and totally worth it.
•
51
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8
BOOK REVIEW
by The Editor
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12
The Geek
Manifesto
8
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100
WORD
ideas to
change
MALTA
Legal Contract
Drafting Support
by
PROF. GORDON PACE
The notary drafts the contract on
her computer – fixing a highlighted
typo, ignoring the complex grammar
warning. More worrying is the clause
highlighted with an explanation
of how it conflicts with another
contract her client has signed. A
few modifications later, she presses
‘Send’...
You open the document, selecting
‘Simplify’ to view a version leaving
out legalese linguistic somersaults.
But the complexity is still
overwhelming. You click ‘Query’
and ask ‘Can I always cancel an order
within 24 hours?’ A detailed scenario
is presented, involving different
time-zones, a re-order and another
agreement. You start composing a
reply to your notary...
•
52
Mark Henderson
SCIENCE IS EVERYWHERE!
A common calling card, Mark Henderson
(Head of Communications, Wellcome
Trust) takes it one step further. Henderson
demands that science pervades everything
and that our lives would be better off for it.
The Geek Manifesto starts with a call to
arms, in a similar vein to Karl Marx. By the
end of the book, Henderson demands that
geeks should unite! Being geeks, the call is
not to the nearest rifle or pitchfork, but towards good science, evidence, lots of computers, blogging, and a bit of well meaning
activism — none of that chaining yourself
to stuff.
Henderson makes a good case why
science should always be considered in
politics, government, media, economy,
education, justice, healthcare, and the environment. Some instances are obvious; few
people would support new health procedures that are not based on evidence. Others, like justice and government, might be
new to readers.
The author focuses on UK problems,
but they resonate locally. The problem is
that science is rarely considered in decision-making, since few scientists (or persons with a solid scientific background)
occupy public decision-making positions.
How many scientists occupy these positions in Malta? Scientists also rarely raise
their voices against policies based on thin
air. The idea: you have a vote so use it.
In the UK, science was the only sector
that did not suffer budget cuts when the
coalition government came to power. In
contrast, the humanities suffered a 25% reduction. Why? Science is Vital started after
the cell biologist Jenny Rohn heard cabinet
minister Vince Cable smear science with
false facts: ‘45% of public funds rewards research that is not of an excellent standard’,
Britain is a scientific world leader. Rohn
wrote a blog which went viral, received celebrity endorsement, followed by a protest
that chanted ‘Hey! Osborne! Leave our
geeks alone!’ Within two weeks, they lobbied over 140 MPs to sign a petition and
obtained over 33,000 signatures (I signed it
myself ) — government realised the fallout
from science cuts and decided to freeze the
budget instead. Science was saved.
The case raised easily applies to Malta.
Instead of large educational reforms that
seem to follow the latest fad, perform pilot studies with proper controls to see
what works and what doesn’t. In politics,
instead of abusing the evidence and shouting the loudest, which Henderson labels as
cargo-cult politics, let policies be formed
by independent rigorous data. Like in the
UK, our drugs policy is driven by political
ideology rather than evidence — as is crime
and sexual health.
The manifesto doesn’t push science
above all else, but asks for policies based
on evidence. Review the relevant data, if
it doesn’t exist then fund a good study, afterwards construct your policies. Instead of
pushing your own agenda, exploit science
to resolve questions. The Geek Manifesto is
a recommended read for any scientist, science student, or concerned citizen.
•
GAME REVIEW
by Costantino Oliva
Phone Story
Production: Molleindustria, 2011
Platform: Android
WHAT IS THE STORY behind
our smart phones? Phone Story retraces the
production stages of our favorite products,
showing us the dramatic working conditions
behind their assembly. It seems like Apple
didn’t like it: the game is now banned from
the App Store.
Mass riots and frequent suicides shed a
dark light on Foxconn, the company that assembles product for the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. Afterwards, it became
impossible to ignore the conditions of the
workers that mass-produce contemporary
tech gadgets.
Enter Molleindustria, the software house
funded by Paolo Pedercini, responsible for
a remarkable series of ferociously satirical,
“serious” games (check molleindustria.org
for more — it’s worth it). Phone Story takes
us through an uncomfortable ride of funny
minigames with classic, familiar mechanics juxtaposed to harsh vignettes: underage
miners extracting silicon, suicidal workers
jumping from the roof of the factory, and
an army of Apple — pardon, “Pear” — fans
taking a flagship store by storm.
Don’t expect a radical new gaming experience with Phone Story, but pick it up
if you’d like to reflect on the process that
brought you your mobile, while you’re
actually holding it in the palm of your
hand.
•
FACT or FICTION?
Did Albert Einstein
say we only use 10%
of our brain?
«» Probably not. It
has been misattributed to
Einstein to explain his great
intelligence. The idea being that
if only we used more, we would unlock the powers of our mind, become
mathematical geniuses, perhaps even
become telekinetic. Unfortunately,
even when we think we are being lazy,
like sleeping, our minds are quite busy.
Is all hope lost? Are we stuck with the
intelligence we have? Probably a good
education does not hurt and cognitive
scientists have identified two methods
that can push our brains further. The
first involves focus. By concentrating on
a single task, you can use more of your
brain and tackle those complex mathematical formulae. The brain is usually very
distracted.
The second strategy is optimisation. It
involves letting your brain find the optimal
solution by stopping to think and considering many alternatives before jumping on one
answer.
Creativity can use a totally different ball
game. Sometimes it is best to let your brain
wander and simply consider all alternatives.
Our brain is too complex for a few basic
strategies to apply to all situations.
RESEARCH
Supporting
the RIDT
…because research matters
W
hen researchers are at
work, they are taking
steps that will eventually change our lives.
Some steps are very
small and will take years to complete, while
others are faster and larger. Researchers are
part of a global process that will provide
solutions to a multitude of challenges. They
can resolve our problems to provide energy,
safeguard the environment, maintain food
supplies, improve healthcare, and sustain efficient transportation. These solutions need
innovation and the research that fuels it; this
is the only way for societies to survive… let
alone thrive! Our future needs hard work
and new approaches, ‘doing what we’ve always done’ will not be enough.
The globe’s successful economies all invest
huge amounts of money in research; much
more than Malta, even if scaled to our economy. Locally, research is particularly relevant
since we all know that Malta’s only real resource is the resilience, ingenuity, and diligence of its people.
THINK magazine helps pay tribute to
the valuable work of researchers within the
University of Malta. Over the centuries, the
University has supplied Malta’s intellectual
driving force. This institution has produced
the graduates who have transformed a small
barren archipelago into a civilised developed
country within the European mainstream.
Apart from a strong academic orientation,
54
the University of Malta is an increasingly
important centre for world-class research
projects, across a wide range of disciplines.
The University also collaborates with other
major seats of learning, educational centres
and institutes in a number of significant
projects. This publication is committed to
expose research and its social benefits.
For the University of Malta to fulfil its
true ‘University of the Future’ role, a much
greater emphasis on research and innovation is needed. This will serve as a catalyst
for on-going development and progress.
For this future to happen, society, and the
individuals within it, will need to support
the University of Malta’s thrust to prioritise
research and innovation. Malta will then
achieve a better, more sustainable, and ‘higher value added’ future.
The Research, Innovation and Development Trust (RIDT) has been set up with
this specific goal: to engage with all sectors
of society in a drive to support research activity. During the past year the RIDT has
managed to secure an encouraging number
of supporters who have made a donation towards its mission. Private companies, public
institutions and individuals have come forward with their donations — large or small
— because they believe that for a country to
thrive and prosper it needs the backing of a
strong University that maintains its role as a
higher education institution and as a centre
for research and innovation.
•
How can you help?
If you share our objectives, please consider what you or your organisation
can do to help us to achieve them.
• Has the University of Malta helped
you arrive at where you are today?
• You can donate financially through
the RIDT website. There you can
choose whether your contribution
goes to the current priorities of the
RIDT, or to a faculty, institute, or
centre of your choice.
• Why not consider leaving a contribution to the RIDT in your will?
Talk to us for more details.
Your gift, of whatever size, will play
an important part in enabling the University of Malta to increase its research
activities and to develop the necessary
environment for excellence.
You can donate and get to know more
about the RIDT by visiting
www.ridt.org.mt
THINK RESEARCH
Thanking our donors
During 2012 the RIDT received an encouraging number of donations from
individuals, companies and public institutions. The University recognises the
generosity of donors and would like to publicly thank them. Together with
these donors mentioned here, the RIDT received a number of donations
from individuals and organisations that preferred to remain anonymous.
The Central Bank of Malta
The donation of the Central Bank of Malta will go towards the establishment
of The Central Bank of Malta’s Chair in Economics at the University of Malta.
The chair will be instituted within the University’s Faculty of Economics,
Management and Accountancy. The agreement will run for five years,
starting 1st October 2012.
Malta Freeport Terminals Ltd.
Malta Freeport Terminals Ltd will be supporting the Research, Innovation and
Development Trust (RIDT) of the University of Malta, over a five year period
starting 1st January 2013. The funds will be received through the University’s
Research Trust, and will be administered by RIDT’s Board of Trustees.
Evolve Ltd.
Through the RIDT, Evolve Ltd, a subsidiary of Attard & Co that provides
laboratory products and services, donated three instruments to the
Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Malta. The instruments include a
Gas Chromatograph, a Particle Sizer and a FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared
Spectrophotometer). The new equipment will enable the Department of
Chemistry to increase its research activity while providing better facilities
for post-graduate students.
Music and Research
Two university students, Christine Zerafa and Philip Attard, came up with
a brilliant idea earlier this year. They put their musical talents to good use
and managed to raise funds that were donated to the RIDT. Christine is
finishing her Ph.D. in Chemistry and has recently obtained a Master’s degree
in performance music, making her an accomplished concert pianist. Philip
is doing a Bachelor’s degree in Music Studies and is fast becoming one of
Malta’s leading saxophone players.
55
CULTURE
Cultural Infrastructure
for Mega-events
A
Graziella Vella for the Valletta 2018 Foundation
successfully regenerated area
improves citizens’ quality of
life by enhancing physical,
social, and economic wellbeing. The process is similar
to walking a tightrope, where positive impacts can easily cross over with negative
outcomes.
Cities are using culture as a tool to regenerate themselves. Events are commonly used
to generate impact. Large scale events, such
56
as the Olympic Games and the European
Capital of Culture (ECoC) have become a
significant catalyst of urban change. In staging these events, considerable investment is
required. The huge impact they need is not
always sustainable if cities plan development
exclusively for a single event and do not consider long-term impact.
The European Capital of Culture (ECoC)
was originally created to celebrate established cultural cities, but has developed into
an opportunity for cites to create urban, cultural and social regeneration. Today, ECoCs
mainly focus on achieving the following:
sustainable long-term development, urban
regeneration, infrastructure development,
social inclusion, and more visitors.
Recent ECoCs’ capital expenditure budgets from 2005 onwards range from €984
million in Liverpool to a €30 million in Essen (2010). Investing in cultural infrastructure is a prime objective, but this investment
THINK CULTURE
often lacks a long-term perspective. Many
times, ECoCs end up with ‘white elephants’,
infrastructure which is under-utilised or not
utilised at all after the event.
One of the most common types of infrastructure development is the construction
of landmark buildings in decaying areas of
a city. They attract increased visitor attention but can remove the element of creativity and innovation, which is an essential
ECoC element. In contrast, the ‘Barcelona
model’ takes a different approach. During
the 1992 Olympic Games, Barcelona wanted to regenerate itself, using the games as a
catalyst for urban change, transformation
and renewal. Contrarary to other Spanish
cities, like Bilbao with the Guggenheim
Museum and Valencia with its City of Arts
and Sciences, Barcelona did not choose to
be associated with one building but looked
at an overall picture of sustainable longterm investment, which 20 years later is still
going strong.
ECoC cultural infrastructure development is not only about large-scale investment. The creative industries can be used
to showcase the uniqueness of a city. The
development of cultural quarters has often
been used to regenerate cities and specific
areas in a sustainable manner with a longterm vision. Urban regeneration can take
place through the re-creation of a vibrant
city space.
Culture should be integral to the vision
for the regeneration of an area. A cultural infrastructure strategy that places culture-led
regeneration at the centre of this strategy
will give a city and its citizens what they
really need after ECoC is over. Strategies
include the re-use of existing buildings and
local engagement to ensure full project ownership. It is vital to focus on developing human capacity in the Creative and Cultural
Industries. Developing human capacity will
make ECoC sustainable.
Malta’s capital city, Valletta has recently won the ECoC title for 2018. The bid,
V.18, encompasses the whole of the Maltese
Islands spreading investment, activities, and
events throughout the whole territory. One
of its most immediate concerns is the development of cultural infrastructure. V.18 has
recommended a number of projects after a
wide engagement process. These recommendations reflect the needs for Malta’s cultural
and creative scene in the long term. Overall,
one has to look at the importance of optimal
governance and management to ensure that
these projects are implemented in the best
way possible.
This is ultimately the challenge faced
by V.18 and the Maltese Islands to ensure
that 2018 leaves a long lasting legacy. The
way Malta devises the road to 2018: the
planning, management and coordination
involved, will ultimately reflect how its citizens will feel on 1st January 2019.
•
UNeECC
This article has been adapted from a paper
presented at the Vth University Network for
the European Capitals of Culture (UNeECC)
General Assembly and Conference in Antwerp (2011). UNeECC is an international
non-profit association which works at fostering inter-university cooperation in former and
future ECoCs. Since 2011, the University of
Malta has been a member.
FURTHER READING
• Ministry for Tourism, Culture and
the Environment, 2011. National
Cultural Policy,
www.maltaculture.com
• Creative Economy Working
Group, 2012. Draft Strategy for
Malta’s Cultural and Creative and
Industries,
www.creativemalta.gov.mt
• Palmer, R. 2004. European Cities
and Capitals of Culture: Part I
and II. Brussels: Palmer/Rae
Associates, http://ec.europa.eu
• Richards, G. and Palmer,
R. 2010. Eventful Cities:
Cultural Management and
Urban Revitalisation. Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann.
• Valletta 2018 Foundation,
www.valletta2018.org
57
MEME
culture genes
MEME
THINK
58
ISBN: 978-99957-0-277-9
www.um.edu.mt
I D E A S
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M A LTA
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R E S E A RC H
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P E O P L E
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U N I V E R S I TY