#thebighoot

[robabdul]

I had the pleasure of seeing the Sutton Coldfield Owl today created by Scarlett Byfield. It is beautiful. #TheBigHoot and looks great. #hospice #charity #goodcause #owl

[organiseddust]

Purty lady giraffe #thebighoot #birmingham #brum

[organiseddust]

Farting space owl #thebighoot #birmingham #brum

[charlofficial]

Blending in 😂 #libraryofbirmingham #birmingham #thebighoot #thebighoot2015 #owlsofbirmingham #owl #selfie

[charlofficial]

Recently....... #owls #thebighoot #thebighoot2015 #owlsofbirmingham #owl #birmingham

[giovaxaries-blog]

#theBigHoot @bighoot2015 #birmingham (at Birmingham Children's Hospital)

[giovaxaries-blog]

#theBigHoot @bighoot2015 #birmingham (at Birmingham Children's Hospital)

[unibirmingham]

Have you noticed the owls around Birmingham this summer?

The reason Birmingham has gone owl mad this summer is The Big Hoot 2015, a public art event comprising of 89 165cm tall fibreglass owls forming a sculpture trail across the city in support of Birmingham Children’s’ Hospital.

To celebrate this, the University of Birmingham has decided to host The Tiny Hoot on campus to complement our two owls, Hootunkhamun and The Bone Ranger. The six Tiny Hoot owls, Oliphant, Margery, Lapworth, Norman, Hilda, and Granville are joining their bigger friends on campus for the summer.  

The Tiny Hoot owls were 3D printed by academics from University of Birmingham’s Advanced Materials & Processing Laboratory using a process called Stereolithography (SLA). SLA creates a 3D model slice by slice using a UV-curable liquid resin that hardens when struck by a laser beam.

The little owls’ names have been inspired by figures on the University’s Blue Plaque Trail. Hilda is named after Dame Hilda Lloyd (1891 – 1982) who became the first female professor at the University in 1944, and was famous for her midwife ‘flying  squads’ set up in 1936 that travelled by ambulance to aid with deliveries, post-natal emergencies and complications surrounding abortion.

Norman is named after Sir Normal Hawarth (1883 – 1950) who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1937 for his investigations into carbohydrates and vitamin C.

Lapworth is named after Charles Lapworth (1842 – 1920), one of the most influential geologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He identified the Ordovician period which covered 485.4 to 443.4 million years ago. Lapworth noticed that the fossilised fauna were different to those found in the rock beds of the Cambrian and Silurian periods so placed them in a period of their own.

Granville is named after Sir Granville Bantock (1868 – 1946) who succeeded Sir Edward Elgar as Professor of Music and helped to found the City of Birmingham Orchestra.

Oliphant is named after Sir Mark Oliphant (1901 - 2000) who designed the Proton Synchrotron at Birmingham in 1953. Since then, proton synchrotrons have become the dominant source of high energy particles, including the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva.

Margery, named after Margery Fry (1874 – 1958) was an influential prison reformer and one of the first female magistrates; she was also the first warden of University house, the first all-women university hall of residence.

The Big and Tiny Hoot’s run until September 27, so come down to campus to see our beautiful owls and tweet a selfie @hootankhamun or @Bone_Ranger to win a mini 3D printed owl.