

Science. Art. Film.: Under the Skin
Wed
13
Wed 13 Aug 6:00 PM
Arc Cinema
Allocated Seating
108 Mins | Science.Art.Film
August
2013| DCP | UK | D: Jonathan Glazer
An alien invader, played by Scarlett Johansson, harvests men from the streets of Glasgow until she begins to experience human emotions.
Jonathan Glazer’s moody and stylish sci-fi horror explores loneliness, sex and gender roles.
Don't miss the post-screening panel discussion exploring the film's key themes and how they can be studied. Topics will include extraterrestrials masquerading as humans, the power of film scores and speculative futures that centre on skin and identity.
‘It’s an intoxicating marvel, strange and sublime: it combines sci-fi ideas, gloriously unusual special effects and a sharp atmosphere of horror.’ – Time Out London
Presented as part of our Science. Art. Film. series in partnership with the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, ANU.
Panellists:
Professor Kenneth Lampl received his Doctor of Musical Arts in music composition from the Juilliard School of Music and was a student of John Williams, acclaimed American composer and conductor best known for his iconic film scores, including Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones, E.T., and Harry Potter. As a composer of film music, Professor Lampl has scored over 100 films including: Pokémon: The First Movie: Mew vs Mew Two, Pokémon Mewtwo Returns, Frontera (starring Ed Harris and Eva Longoria), and 35 & Ticking (starring Kevin Hart and Nicole Ari-Parker). His recent Australian scores include: The Furies, 2067 and Sissy. The 2067 film soundtrack was released by Sony/Milan Records and was also listed as ‘one of the Best Scores of 2021’ by the Film Music Institute, Los Angeles. Lampl is currently the convenor of the Composition for Film and Video Game program at the Australian National University School of Music.
Dr Dan Santos is a Research Fellow at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, ANU. He is broadly interested in science-society relations, especially questions around innovation, public engagement and openness in science concerning emerging or speculative technologies. He is also a film buff and former film reviewer.
Jerome Luxon is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the Australian National University. His research explores evolutionary explanations for distinctively human cognitive capacities and abilities. In other words, he investigates questions what, if anything, makes humans unique? More specifically, Luxon’s research focuses on a new framework of the human mind gaining traction called Cultural Evolutionary Psychology, or the Cognitive Gadget Theory. This approach challenges ideas that many uniquely human psychological traits are innate or hardwired. Instead, Luxon argues that such abilities, including emotions, are constructed and built over extended developmental timeframes through social learning and cultural inheritance. More broadly, they work at the intersection of the philosophy of biology and cognitive science with interests in nativism-empiricism (or nature-nurture) debates, the nature of human emotion, and our capacity for normative and moral cognition.
Moderator:
Dr Anna-Sophie Jürgens is a Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, ANU and the Head of POPSICULE, ANU’s Science in Popular Culture and Entertainment Hub. Dr Jürgens’ research explores cultural meanings of science, the history of (violent) clowns and mad scientists, science and humour, and the interface between science and (public) art.
An alien invader, played by Scarlett Johansson, harvests men from the streets of Glasgow until she begins to experience human emotions.
Jonathan Glazer’s moody and stylish sci-fi horror explores loneliness, sex and gender roles.
Don't miss the post-screening panel discussion exploring the film's key themes and how they can be studied. Topics will include extraterrestrials masquerading as humans, the power of film scores and speculative futures that centre on skin and identity.
‘It’s an intoxicating marvel, strange and sublime: it combines sci-fi ideas, gloriously unusual special effects and a sharp atmosphere of horror.’ – Time Out London
Presented as part of our Science. Art. Film. series in partnership with the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, ANU.
Panellists:
Professor Kenneth Lampl received his Doctor of Musical Arts in music composition from the Juilliard School of Music and was a student of John Williams, acclaimed American composer and conductor best known for his iconic film scores, including Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones, E.T., and Harry Potter. As a composer of film music, Professor Lampl has scored over 100 films including: Pokémon: The First Movie: Mew vs Mew Two, Pokémon Mewtwo Returns, Frontera (starring Ed Harris and Eva Longoria), and 35 & Ticking (starring Kevin Hart and Nicole Ari-Parker). His recent Australian scores include: The Furies, 2067 and Sissy. The 2067 film soundtrack was released by Sony/Milan Records and was also listed as ‘one of the Best Scores of 2021’ by the Film Music Institute, Los Angeles. Lampl is currently the convenor of the Composition for Film and Video Game program at the Australian National University School of Music.
Dr Dan Santos is a Research Fellow at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, ANU. He is broadly interested in science-society relations, especially questions around innovation, public engagement and openness in science concerning emerging or speculative technologies. He is also a film buff and former film reviewer.
Jerome Luxon is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the Australian National University. His research explores evolutionary explanations for distinctively human cognitive capacities and abilities. In other words, he investigates questions what, if anything, makes humans unique? More specifically, Luxon’s research focuses on a new framework of the human mind gaining traction called Cultural Evolutionary Psychology, or the Cognitive Gadget Theory. This approach challenges ideas that many uniquely human psychological traits are innate or hardwired. Instead, Luxon argues that such abilities, including emotions, are constructed and built over extended developmental timeframes through social learning and cultural inheritance. More broadly, they work at the intersection of the philosophy of biology and cognitive science with interests in nativism-empiricism (or nature-nurture) debates, the nature of human emotion, and our capacity for normative and moral cognition.
Moderator:
Dr Anna-Sophie Jürgens is a Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, ANU and the Head of POPSICULE, ANU’s Science in Popular Culture and Entertainment Hub. Dr Jürgens’ research explores cultural meanings of science, the history of (violent) clowns and mad scientists, science and humour, and the interface between science and (public) art.
August