'Drawin' on Darwin' - Live drawing created at the Meeting of the Primate Society of Great Britain

This charcoal pencil drawing with feet, 'Drawin' on Darwin' (copyright Saranjit Birdi December 2015), was created over two hours for during the Joint Winter Meeting of the Primate Society of Great Britain and the The Anatomical Society held in December 2014 at the University of Birmingham. People attending the conference were encouraged to have a go along side the artist. The process was to create a tracing of Darwin's photograph as a metaphor for his work on evolution. I devised this performance artwork for live presentation at the academic poster event, which brought together researchers, educators and students of human anatomy and human evolution. I had been invited by Dr Susannah K Thorpe, University of Birmingham Biosciences, to present something at the event. This followed on from an art-science collaboration where I offered my drawing practice for observation by students and staff of Bioscience and Psychology at the University of Birmingham. With my background knowledge of human anatomy and movement, I was able to have scientific dialogue on neuromuscular plasticity with the students in addition to presenting 'art', which has its autonomy and mystery beyond science. This led to an innovative learning platform for students. It also provided me access to a range of bioscience specimens to draw.