Leonardo, Volume 48, Issue 5
https://leonardo.info/sites/default/files/favicon.ico
Leonardo/ISASTwith Arizona State University
This essay surveys a 20-year period of the author’s studio-based research into “spatial montage” and windowing, elaborating on his use of space imagery in a symbolic system describing the critique of fantasy::reality through symbols that are still used in the contemporary world—how the mythic dimensions of interpreting the “heavens” collide and contradict contemporary scientific interpretations. “Visionary” art is the dynamic focus, with the Moon as the central icon, providing a direct means for the author to consider ambiguities and complexities of symbolic transformation: earlier descriptions of heavens and Earth provide a visionary subtext to scientific exploration. The author considers himself a “revisionary” artist whose work engages the implicit semiotics of visionary film/visual music to problematize the pseudoscientific theories found there.

Traditional artist-in-science-residency schemes have tended to focus on artists using scientific tools and technology as a medium for their art. What kind and quality of work might occur, however, between scientists working on cutting-edge solar energy research and a visual artist (a sculptor) when they are integrated in a truly collaborative environment? Is it good for the art? Is it good for the science? The authors describe a new methodology for art-science interactions whereby they have integrated arts practice within a scientific environment. A critical aspect of the methodology for the residency was the development of an interaction framework that ensured that both artist and scientist had equal voice in discussions involving the art and science of the project within an environment of mutual respect. The integration led to the development of outcomes that would not have occurred otherwise.

We are almost always visible to ourselves. Depending on how you are seated, reclining or standing, you will see parts of your nose, legs, hands, arms, shoulders or trunk from your own point of view. Yet these everyday features of our visual world are rarely depicted—and hardly ever in a way that accords with our perceptual experience. This paper will consider why we tend to ignore this “egocentric perspective” and how it can be represented.

The author describes two recent sculptural projects with bacteria that produce electricity while decomposing organic matter, in a technology known as a microbial fuel cell. These works encourage a ludic relationship to microbes, allowing us to acknowledge their aptitude for building ordered societies that sustain many life systems in the environment and within us. Relationships between humans, technology and microbes emerge in these theatrical scenarios.

The literature on art and mathematics has focused largely on how geometric forms have influenced artists and on the use of computer visualization in mathematics. The authors consider a fundamental but undiscussed connection between mathematics and art: the role of drawing in mathematical research, both as a channel for creativity and intuition and as a language for communicating with other scientists. The authors argue that drawing, as a shared way of knowing, allows communication between mathematicians, artists and the wider public. They describe a collaboration based on drawing and “inverse vision” in which the differing logics of the artist and the mathematician are treated on equal terms.

Domestic craft-based textile activities, such as knitting, crochet, hand weaving and lace making, are often viewed as being of limited creative potential. The perceived lack of creativity arises, in part, out of the extent to which these activities copy, reproduce and re-create existing pattern forms and use preexisting templates. This paper reports on the findings of an experimental research project that explored the creative potential of crochet lace making using digital media, technologies and practices. It provides critical analysis of how new technologies, practices and theoretical frameworks have implications for ongoing domestic craft-based textile activities.

ArtScience is emerging as one approach for creating novel ways of seeing and new ways of knowing. The authors propose a role for ArtScience research and creative work in contributing to the necessary shifts to go beyond the current crisis of representation. DataRemix, a recombination and reappropriation practice intended to trigger novel subjective experiences and associations, is described.

This paper describes the design of two university courses that integrated practices and processes from the visual arts and engineering. In both cases, patterns of creative process were used as a means of integration. Researchers found that by focusing on process as a way to structure the integration of these two disciplines, students were able to create emergent, hybrid artifacts along the spectrum between art and engineering, beyond the range of their previous work. Creative process became the backbone that allowed students to integrate knowledge, materials, techniques, and culture across the art and engineering disciplines.

When art students at Emily Carr University take a hybrid humanities/studio class with a scientific theme, they are challenged to materially transform abstract concepts. Students interact with physicists and make work on site at TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics. Strategies for art and science partnership models are tested in a curricular Transformation Art Lab as well as the RAW DATA project, where students view studio faculty struggling with similar challenges.

In this paper, the author looks at the evidence from the international Leonardo Education and Arts Forum on art/science cloud curriculum workshops he instigated in Copenhagen and Prague in 2012. These workshops discussed the aims of affecting a shift in perception toward a foundational understanding of new paradigms for research and learning that challenge and transcend disciplinary boundaries. The curriculum privileged a metacognitive interrogation of content and (re)visioning of traditional disciplinary research methodologies using a syncretic integration of heuristic and practice-based inquiry.

At liberal arts institutions, physics faculty struggle with the daunting task of creating a Bachelor of Arts physics offering (often referred to as Physics for Poets) that is both engaging and approachable. Over the past several years, the author has worked toward a new educational paradigm that presents introductory physics as a set of physical metaphors rather than an incomplete collage of problem-solving equations. By engaging the physical metaphors from both traditional physics and art historical viewpoints, students are forced to integrate two seemingly disparate sets of information into a cohesive knowledge base.

Undergraduate animation students at the Maryland Institute College of Art teamed up with scientists from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to produce a set of animations on several astronomy topics. Here, the authors describe the process and discuss the results, educational benefits and the cross-cultural experience. These animations are available for free online.

A cross-disciplinary team of artists and scientists is working to illuminate the detailed properties of dynamic coloration in squid, cuttlefish and octopus. They have synergistically fused the 3D animation software Blender with scientific bio-imaging techniques to better visualize the organization of cephalopod skin and its intricate web of nerve connections. This paper presents the practical benefits of the collaboration: how scientific detail has enriched artistic appreciation of these exquisite marine species and how artistic visualization has enriched scientific understanding of how cephalopods dynamically manipulate color.