The ideas and collections of D’Arcy Thompson, the University’s first Professor of Biology, have profoundly influenced many artists and writers who re-interpret natural history, projecting it through the lens of evolution, fantasy, consumption, fear or desire. This unique exhibition features site-specific prints and video work in the Tower Foyer Gallery with additional elements in the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum. “Seeing Through” proposes tours of Thompson’s collection visualised as if through the lenses of futurist author J G Ballard and pop-artist Richard Hamilton. We visit the collection through dizzying perspectival renderings of merged organic/machine hybrids, eco-catastrophes and space travel, as alluded to by Hamilton and Ballard. Levy’s speculative exhibition explores our synergistic relationship with technology, including our aspirations and its threats. Our notions of evolution are, themselves, evolving.

Dr Ellen K Levy is a multimedia artist and writer based in the US. Her works explore complex systems and some of the unintended consequences of technology. Levy highlights these issues through exhibitions, educational and curatorial programmes and publications.

The Tower Foyer Gallery is open Mon-Sat. Additional elements in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum may be seen on our monthly Saturday afternoon openings - 13 April, 11 May and 8 June - and on Friday afternoons from 7 June.