Art in Science

 

The SciArt (science and art) movement brings together artists working on scientific themes and scientists using art as a means of creative representation of scientific concepts, methods, materials or simply tools.

 

This I exemplified in a solo exhibition in Cambridge, UK, in late1984, called "Art in vivo". This was complemented by two journal covers for Elsevier publications Elsevier publications around this time. Cambridge was very open to such new artistic endeavors, and especially art depicting scientific subject matter.

 

The first approaches to addressing scientific subject themes are to be found in illustrations of scientific texts as early as the 1600´s, such as those of Maria Sibylla Merian or Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. With the turn into the 20th century, biological forms were incorporated into art, designs and buildings, incorporating curivlinear, or "biomorphic", forms, as in Art Nouveau movement and continued into the second half of the 20th century, as exemplifid in Frank Gehry´s architecture or in the sculptures of Henry Moore, or in the fine arts, Duchamp, Salvador Dali and Robert Rauschenberg, just to name a few protagonists. And this artistic interest of artists of scientific subject matter has continued to this day, irrespective of the term.

 

However, until the 1990`s there was still a clear demarcation between science illustration, and that, which was considered art. Illustrations are produced as visual explanations or representions of concepts or objects of scientific investigation. A better known protagonist was Irving Geis, although he also produced some artworks of his own intent. Artistic freedom is limited to the descriptive intention and thought lines of the scientist and author for whom the artist provides a service. Exceptions have appeared with artists who are also scientists, as notably demonstrated by David Goodsell in his depiction of cell biological objects, or by the partnership of Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison, who focused of ecological views (it should be noted here that that the latter has also been referred to as "Eco-Art").

 

The advent of digital art tools has desolved this demarcation, at least to a great degree. It has enabled and provoked science illustrators, mostly themselves scientists, into taking a more liberal approach to illustration, creating images beyond the strictly explanatory purpose. And thereby gradually dissolving the delineation between the iIllustration in its strict sense, and liberal imagery of science subject matter that goes well beyond the explanatory purpose of illustration. 

 

The term Sciart originated in the 1990´s, it appears almost simulataneously, from a number of projects initiated by organisations with a technological focus, to transport their message by way of art (1) or to raise funding based on this new avenue of art. For example, one such project was initiated by the pharmaceutical organisation, the Wellcome Foundation.

 

To varying degrees these projects were also tied to some fuzzy hopes that opening science to art might further a new approach to scientific investigation. Contrary to some narrower definitions and expectations tied to these early projects, Science Art need not lead to, or even be expected to provoke new thought in science, let alone spark off new lines of scientific investigation. Even without these hopes, the social and economic impact of the biotechnological sciences during the 1980s and 90s would eventually have found its expression in art, just as some technology entered to artworld, as exemplified by Jean Tinguely. "SciArt" is simply a new and catchy term for the artistic expression of science-based subject matter. However, also one, which typically, demands a degree of knowledge of the chosen subject matter by the artist. This is one aspect that strictly distinguishes SciArt from its historical predessors, as mentioned above.

 

What science art has done is open a visual window to our reality as it expands with the progession of science-deduced knowledge.

 

As such, SciArt is the artist expression of scientific subject matter. Typically this includes visions of the cellular cosm, but of course does not stop there and may equally include the depiction of any other scientific topic , image or concept. This of course begs the question as to what is "scientific" (as in hypothesis-investigation-data-information/knowledge) and what lies beyond or outside this term .

 

References

1. SCIART: PRÁCTICAS TRANSDISCIPLINARES EN LA SINERGIA DEL ARTE Y LA CIENCIA

Rocío García Robles y Amalia Ortega Rodas, Universidad de Sevilla

e-ISSN: 2530-8432; DOI: 10.25145/j.bartes