April 30, 2012
by Bill O’Brien, Senior Advisor for Program Innovation
“Signals,” a collaboration between Casey Reas and Ben Fry, depicts an image where each graphical cluster represents signals between networked proteins in a cancer cell as they change over time.
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious—the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” — Albert Einstein
The fundamental emotion described by Einstein above has been felt by artists and scientists across the eons. Increasingly, artists and scientists are eager to explore creative practices emerging at the intersection of their two fields. Some are motivated by how these ties can spur vibrant new economies for the 21st century. Others are interested in how they may foster creativity in our schools and in more informal settings. Still others share the same motive that likely drove the ‘seeker’ who turned the bone of a vulture into a musical instrument 40,000 years ago; a mysterious quest for beauty and meaning.
Terms like “art/science hybridity.” “inter-disciplinary,” “trans-disciplinary,” and even “anti-disciplinary” have emerged to describe new and fertile terrain that exists outside the confines of our traditional silos. The platforms for these new modes of investigation and expression range from theaters and museums and other traditional performance spaces to research labs, personal computers, health facilities, public squares, hacker spaces, Processing software, maker-faires, and cyberspace.
The “transformative impact of art” is a challenge to define, and tricky to prove. Recent neuro-scientific advances by Nobel Prize-winner Eric Kandel and others have shown that the brain constantly re-wires itself based on how we experience the world in our daily lives. It’s intriguing to think how we may one day (perhaps soon!) be able to build on this work to solve the mystery of what happens at the molecular level when our brain is “on art.” We sense that it enhances our awareness of ourselves, each other, and the world. In profound examples, it radically alters the perceptions of the person experiencing it, infusing them with new insight and understanding. Great moments of scientific discovery can produce similar eurekas. Artists and scientists both chase the exhilaration of “knowing” something new and important. And the urge to share this new knowledge with others is strong.
The paths that artists and scientists take on their quests for truth can seem unrelated at the surface. The scientific method is, by definition, objective. Here, truth is typically pursued by designing experimental studies that test a hypothesis. The hypothesis must be proven to be repeatable before it’s accepted. Artistic method and evaluation can tend to seem driven more by intuition. Artistic truth is largely pursued via the creation of an art object, which may go through a series of drafts or revisions. Typically, when the object is finished, it’s time to move on. The work may be reviewed by others who will attempt subjectively to evaluate its merit, but John Lennon and his critics were not compelled to keep writing and recording “Imagine” over and over again to prove that it was true.
But at their core, artists and scientists are not so different from one another. Both endeavor to solve our greatest mysteries through the power of imagination. The great American playwright Eugene O’Neill described his work as an effort to explain the mysterious forces behind life that shape human destiny. I suspect Einstein could relate.
At their intersection, artists and scientists can borrow freely from each other’s methods and practices and share insights with each other that they might be unable to find on their own. The National Endowment for the Arts is eager to support this type of exchange through all of our existing mechanisms and disciplines. All this week, the Art Works blog will feature posts by distinguished guests who have been actively engaged in promoting art/science collaborations.
People interested in learning more about how the NEA can support art/science projects in the future are encouraged to join our art/science mailing list by emailing us at artandscience@arts.gov. We would be happy to forward information related to our upcoming Art Works application deadline on August 9th. In the coming months we will also host a webinar highlighting NEA’s funding opportunities and application process to provide further information on how art/science projects can be supported across all agency disciplines via our existing agency funding programs and mechanisms. We hope you’ll join us for these conversations.
Tags: art, collaboration, culture, imagination, inter-disciplinary, invesitgations, neurology, problem-solving, science, technology, trans-disciplinary
“Anti-disciplinary” now there’s an arts and sciences movement that I can get behind! It reminds me of Eric Farber’s concept of “an attitude of intentional inefficiency.” I won’t post a link here but if someone is interested in a very readable work on Heidegger I will be happy to oblige.
Looks like a Kandinsky painting. Or better yet Kandinsky, painting.
Art and science are on common ground. Film, television, video, computer graphics, computer music, The Web, and holography are all new media that were born out of scientific and engineering innovations. Given the common ground, we can plant our feet at this intersection and forge a link. NEA can look to encourage works of art that rely on new means of expression. Science and engineering can continue to invent more tools for expression as understanding of the transmission of light and sound advances.
The flip side is this: our culture which has brought startling new levels of awareness through science remains to be remembered in its art. The past century of art that had a foundation in “primitivism” provides small heritage for its innovations in science and engineering. The NEA ought to encourage works of art that address, investigate, expose, reveal, and celebrate scientists and their contributions.
As Einstein points out, there are common emotional engines driving both art and science. It would seem simple enough for artists to transmit the emotions scientists feel.
The problem is that artists possessed of these emotions often do not understand science, and scientists do not necessarily have outlets, as artists do, for their emotions.
Again, one can think of high technology media as a way to bridge the gap, because on the one hand, artists who have mastered technology have indirectly entered into the halls of science, and the scientists who live there are not at a loss when it comes to pushing photons and electrons around their laboratories.
The NEA Media Arts program of the 1970′s encouraged experimentation. It could happen again.
This delights me! I think the reason I fell in love with the arts work I do now at the NeuroKitchen Arts Collective is because my co-director has a background in biology. The way we teach ensemble performance skills is mixed with an understanding of biological systems, physiology and neuroplasticity. I love the kindred spirit of seeking and delighting in new connections that is inherent in true art and true science. I’m very excited to see art/science collaborations being highlighted. Science + Art = Closer to Understanding “Truth”
“Non-disciplinary” is a term used more and more when it comes to describing creative/experimental modes. Today the tools of one discipline are not enough. All means of exploration must come into play. Rapid advances improving our world and everyday lives require us to learn more and to know more. We’re entering into a critical time in history where there is much crossover of fields, themes, and inquiries. Being “non-disciplinary” is a welcome change from staying within the confines of one’s area of expertise or intellectual comfort zone. In some ways, we’re becoming (or returning to) bricoleurs; we must experience the existing world by reconfiguring it through weaving everything together.
I’m delighted to see the NEA take interest in the borderlands of art and science!
[...] an art-science post called “The Imagine Engine!” on the National Endowment for the Arts’ (NEA) Art Works blog this spring, I stated that it [...]