King’s College Cambridge has been given planning permission to install Sir Antony Gormley’s sculpture commemorating Alan Turing, but some councillors called for a more public view, reports the Cambridge Independent.
image: for illustration – Alan Turing – age 16 by Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Alan_Turing_Aged_16.jpg
… commemoration of the mathematician….was ‘long overdue’…
Cambridge Independent writes:
King’s College has been given planning permission to install a sculpture commemorating the wartime codebreaker Alan Turing within its grounds, but some city councillors argued it should be in full public view.
Historic England also raised concerns over the impact of the sculpture, designed by Sir Antony Gormley, on the historic setting of the University of Cambridge college.
Standing at more than 3.6 metres and made of 19 steel blocks, the permanent installation will be placed next to the Wilkins Building.
It means it will be visible to those at the college and to visitors, including those with a Cambridge residents’ card and those paying the £10 entry charge at King’s.
The college said a commemoration of the mathematician – famed for his role in cracking the Germans’ Enigma code during the Second World War – was “long overdue”.
A representative from the college committee behind it told the city council’s planning committee on Wednesday (August 3): “Turing, perhaps King’s most famous alumnus, is known for his groundbreaking work in computing, mathematics, mathematical biology and code-breaking at Bletchley….”
She said it had a “sculptural presence” but was without a plinth and “modest enough in scale” to feel human.
“Gormley wishes it to stand at the heart of the college community – the place where Turing felt most at home.”….
Councillors were supportive of the sculpture to commemorate Turing, but raised questions over the site and how easy it would be for people to see and appreciate it…
