Ink: An exhibition with infinite spread

This month marks the opening of 'Ink', an interdisciplinary public exhibition exploring the rich and curious history of ink in all its forms. Taking place in UCL's North Lodge on Gower Street, the exhibition provides the setting for a series of interactions around the history and substance of ink. It draws from the one million objects housed within UCL's Museums & Collections and also includes contemporary art works, film, text and other media from across the breadth and depth of UCL's departments. Designed, built and transformed into an intimate and highly distinctive space by architects Mobile Studio, who also teach at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture, this is the first time UCL's North Lodge has been used for a public exhibition. In this audio slideshow, curator Simon Gould provides a preview of some of the objects on display and discusses the significance of this most visceral material. Contemporary artworks by Madi Boyd, Samuel Keyte, Ruth Maclennan, Janne Malmros, Jo Volley and Barry Sykes sit, amongst other things, alongside a Roman ink well, a fossilised squid, a 15th-century German prayer book, a miniature Hampton Court maze made of ceramic ink and a plastic unicorn. Every day a 'live respondent' will inhabit the space, including Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson, artist and poet Ansuman Biswas and calligrapher Paul Antonio.