Royal Academy of Engineering - 4th May 2011 - Mike Towler speech
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Thank you, Sir John. I'd like to thank you and everybody at the Academy
for the opportunity to make a few remarks in which I hope - very briefly -
to introduce my lovely wife Samantha and the sculpture she's made for you.
I'm a Cambridge physicist with no qualifications or skill in any artistic
endeavour so my role in her work is limited to two things: giving speeches
like this, which she hates doing, but also carrying stuff, which is when I
really wish she didn't work in bronze. Does my back in.

Anyway, both Sam and I are tremendously impressed by the work of the
Academy and the exciting things that are going on here this year. And so
to help in sprucing the place up a bit, Sam would like to donate this
sculpture - called 'Life force' - to the Academy. Now given that we're
quite poor, there's a recession on, and these things are quite expensive
to manufacture, you might wonder why on earth she's donating it, instead
of selling it to some rich banker. Well, those of you who were alive in
the last century might remember legendary acid-house band and
art-collective the KLF setting fire to a million quid back in 1994 for no
readily apparent reason. It's a bit like that. The act of giving itself is
a sensationalist piece of art, as a symbol of love between Young British
Artists and some of the best engineers in the world, who of course are
British ones..

Because - as both Sir John and Lord Browne have already stressed -
engineers sometimes need a bit of love. They pointed out that in this
country it has been somewhat difficult to get engineering into the
'national conversation'. Now of course one of the main reasons for that is
that the media is dominated by scientifically illiterate arts and
humanities graduates who - completely unreasonably of course - think all
you people are nerds, while artists are of course, extremely cool. "I gave
up maths at age 9, me, never could figure out compound interest." Ha, ha
ha ha, ha ha, ha. As a theoretical physicist, I've heard it all before at
parties, and so have you. So - to help you fight these people, and to
regain your rightful place at the cutting edge of national life, Samantha
- a cool, sexy, fantastically hip Renaissance artist has decided to become
your mascot.

Why did I say Renaissance? This is the 21st century. Well, Samantha is
representative of a group of British artists - grounded in the ideals of
the Stuckist movement - who are moving away from sensational art to a more
disciplined aesthetic..  They have a Renaissance sense of the aesthetics
and the discipline and the hard work - the kind of thing you would have
found in a Florentine studio in 1504 - but designed with a contemporary
edge that nicely complements the way British engineering is moving to a
better future. Now there isn't necessarily anything wrong with the
sensationalism found in Turner prize exhibitions or in the darker recesses
of the Tate Modern - unless you really don't want to know the details of
Tracey Emin's private life - but sensationalist art doesn't meld well with
engineering.  Not least because of the problem of permanence. A sculpture
positioned in the same place for ever, in the open air, has to endure
changes in fashion and changes in attitude which a man in a bear suit is
unlikely to resist. Even on an elemental level, in the wind and the rain,
it's very difficult for art to survive, and that's why artists like Sam
have to think about engineering.  That's the great thing about bronze of
course - I'm not saying this bird is going to be dug up from a slag heap
somewhere in the year 12005 and have learned papers written about it by
archaeologists, but whatever happens to it, it will almost certainly
outlive all of us by hundreds or even thousands of years. I wonder what it
will see before it finally corrodes? A lot, I'll warrant, and that's
permanence.

Now, the connection between engineering and art is often stressed, not
least because the very best of you *are* artists, in a sense. The only
things that really underly engineering are art and mathematics and the
relevant bits of materials science. We all know how to do maths - except
Sam, possibly - but where does art come into it? Sculptors and engineers
share a great deal - first in the obvious sense that you have to respect
the laws of physics, you frequently use the same materials, and are
concerned with three-dimensional form. But of course you approach and
experience these things differently. While the engineer explores concrete
known things to create function, what a sculptor wants to do is to push
form to its limits, to show the unseen and communicate what can be *felt*.
How do you create a feeling in dense matter? Well, I dunno, but she does,
and that's something that the best engineers should strive for too. Sam
likes to talk - at least in private - about "the soul of the structure" -
using words that you'll be familiar with: force, energy, dynamics,
harmony.  To convey - as I believe she does - a sense of movement in a
static construction is perhaps the most exacting and the most beautiful of
sculptural expressions.

This bird, then - it's a symbol of power, resurrection, courage, vision -
all qualities associated with the eagle, king of the birds.  Which leads
me neatly into patriotism, which is one of the main things that Sam wanted
me to mention. Like the eagle is the king of the birds, we want to make
the UK the King of Nations again, hopefully without having to kill and
oppress anybody, and one of the ways to do that is through the quality and
brilliance of its engineers and artists. Patriotism is difficult in the
modern era, of course, where large groups of society tend to equate it
with racism or assume it's contrary to some EU regulation, but you
shouldn't be ashamed of it. Indeed, I tried to suggest that Sammy wear a
Union Jack minidress to this do - like our long-lost Ginger Spice - but
unfortunately in our Guardian-reading yogurt-knitting Cambridge street
where people believe the national flag is the official emblem of evil
fascists this risks social death and a brick through the window, and so it
didn't happen. That other great English pop star Mr. Johnny Rotten once said 
- in circumstances different to these - "Ever get the feeling you've been 
cheated?". If you never let a client go away thinking that, then you've had 
a good career. Instead you want them to say "Christ, that's amazing". The 
right blend of mathematical, physical and artistic thinking should help you 
do that.

So to conclude, Sam and I would like to thank Chris Nash and his team at
Arch Bronze foundry in Putney, who did their usual sterling work on the
casting and finishing of the piece. Also the Patterson Gallery who promote
Sam's work, represented here tonight by Glenn Fuller. And of course the
very wonderful Cyril Hilsum, distinguished Fellow both here and next door,
who helped Sam with advice and introductions when she first appeared here
in Carlton House Terrace. If you're interested in her work, Sam is
actively working with architects and engineers across London, including -
for example - on the redevelopment of the Elephant and Castle district -
which was so badly redesigned following the Luftwaffe's original
alterations. She's recently completed a pair of giant 20 foot decorated
bronze panels for the Embassy Court development in St. John's Wood. A
number of other projects are in the pipeline which can be seen on her
website.

So, it's an absolute pleasure for both Sammy and I to be here this
evening, and I hope you enjoy your bird. Thanks very much.