D'Alembert's Dream - script development. (360G-Wellcome-077932_Z_05_A)

D'Alembert's Dream - script development and pre-production for a cinematographic adaptation This project aims in the long run to create a film adaptation of Diderot's D'Alembert's Dream, an eighteenth century dialogue creating a delirious universe of scientific speculation and metaphor. One of the main results of the first sciart experimentation phase has been the development from multi-media performance to film and animation. This shift has been motivated by the powerful imagistic references to scientific illustrations, the importance of metamorphosing processes linked to proto-evolutionary ideas and the dream-like, science-fictional qualities which film can transmit more elegantly than theatre. Looking forward into the twenty-first century whilst looking back into the eighteenth century, the idea remains to explore the continuities of an often immaterial and ethically challenging materialism in the context of today's scientific research. This will be done by incorporating into the texture of the film the ideas and visions of contemporary scientists responding to statements in the original text. A dialogue will be created between contemporary innovative science researchers and Diderot's avant la lettre references to evolutionary theory, genetic engineering, cloning, eugenic experiments, chimeras and to the insubstantial nature of consciousness once it has been redefined in the context of materialism. During the next pre-production period towards a film, we will intensify experimentation as regards animation styles, thus developing a unique visual language for D'Alembert's Dream; produce a film script including a new translation of the Diderot text passages, and experiment cinematographically with the involvement of scientists as actors.