Artist seeks Scientist
February-May 2012
Cover image: Chaos and geomagnetic reversals This image illustrates reversals of the polarity of the Earth’s magnetic field. The magnetic field of the Earth has reversed its polarity several hundred times during the past 160 million years. Polarity reversals are known to be strongly irregular and chaotic, and the reversal durations are relatively short (typically a few thousand years) compared with the constant polarity intervals between reversals. Taken from Princeton University Art of Science competition: www.princeton.edu/artofscience
Study the science of art and the art of science’
- Leonardo da Vinci
Hello! Greetings from your “Artist seeks Scientist “organiser. Since I took over from Bushra in February, I have had a lot of fun meeting many of you and hearing about your work and ideas. I decided to share some of that with you in the form of a newsletter. I hope that you enjoy it, and that you feel inspired to contribute to the next one, or at least to join us in our upcoming events, or online discussions. We have 266 intelligent, smart and creative members and I truly hope that “Artist seeks Scientist” becomes a platform for exchanging ideas and developing new friendships. So please don’t hesitate to share, join and suggest events and activities.
And of course, I am happy to
receive feedback, criticism and comments. See you soon!
Houda
A little bit about us, in numbers‌ Where we started and where we are now
The last 100 active members were
Scientists (44)
Both (15)
Artists (31)
Neither Artist nor Scientist (10)
Popular reasons for joining the group
What we’ve been up to so far
Some favourites … Polymath @ GV Art
Polymath: Someone who knows a lot about a lot…but who also can do a lot; someone
who
displays
intellectual
polygamy as opposed to intellectual promiscuity...*
http://www.gvart.co.uk/
Some thoughts on the subject of the Polymath* “...The world may well be a better place for the specialisation that has come along... The pity is that progress has to come at a price. Civilisation has put up fences that people can no longer leap across; a certain type of mind is worth less. The choices modern life imposes are duller, more cramped” “Polymaths possess something that monomaths do not. Time and again, innovations come from a fresh eye or from another discipline. Most scientists devote their careers to solving the everyday problems in their specialism...and it takes ingenuity and perseverance to crack them. But breakthroughs—the sort of idea that opens up whole sets of new problems—often come from other fields. The work in the early 20th century that showed how nerves work and, later, how DNA is structured originally came from a marriage of physics and biology.” * http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/edward-carr/last-days-polymath
YayOi Kusama@ The Tate Modern This was a large exhibition that covered quite a lot of the artist’s work. Yayoi is obsessed with repeated patterns, especially with dots. I would love to hear a neurologist’s, or a psychologist’s view on how her art developed from the early days in post WWII Japan through her obsession with white, with dots, with white dots, with coloured dots, and finally to the bright and clashing colours of her years in a mental institution! The obsession with dots made me think of a very common pattern in biology, the positive feedback loop, which is what happens when two elements mutually stimulate and amplify each other. how
my
nerdy mind imagined what went on in Yayoi’s head:
p.s. I highly recommend seeing the exhibition if you missed it, it’s on until June 5th.
This is
Usurp Art Gallery A big thank you to Poulomi and Mary for having us at Usurp Art Gallery. We had quite an interesting afternoon there, drinking tea and redefining the laws of the universe ;) We also got to know a little bit about Usurp, a not for profit art collective that creates opportunities for communities to work with artists from diverse backgrounds, and to contribute to the creation of artworks that challenge conformity, prejudice and discrimination The gallery has hosted an impressive number of projects and events. They have worked with various artists but also with disabled groups in Harrow. Peeking at their website, I could not help but be touched by “Behind Closed Doors”, a photography project led by Poulomi that depicts Asian women’s experiences of domestic violence. The project
involved
photography
a
workshops
series
of
undertaken
by Asian women to help them overcome their experience of domestic violence. (more on www.usurp.org.uk) Poulomi has a lot of exciting ideas, and the gallery will soon be converted into a reading room that will host talks on various topics, including Art and Science. Stay tuned www.usurp.org.uk
Ads worth Spreading When I was little, my parents banned almost every programme on French TV.
Since Algerian TV was pretty boring, my sister and I
resorted to watching adverts.
As sad as that sounds, there were some
gems, some very entertaining bursts of creativity, and as a result, I am a big fan of good Ads. Ads Worth Spreading is a TED initiative that views Ads as a creative way to communicate ideas, and that recently set to reward innovative and intelligent advertising – “the ads that people want to see, and share with their friends”. Some of you might remember the “Xylophone in the woods” and the “Chipotle” Adverts that generated quite an interesting exchange on the discussion board (that was an organiser’s dream, thanks a million!) So here is another advert that I thought was worth sharing. This one is for Kinect, the motion sensing technology used by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game. What I love about it is that it is not Microsoft telling their customers what they should do with it, but the other way around. The Kinetic Effect Enjoy!
So what’s next? Next we are going to the Courtauld Gallery Late on May 10 (that’s tonight, come join us!), we’ll be checking out the “Mondrian || Nicholson: In Parallel” exhibition in a 1930s themed evening. There will hopefully be many of you at the Champagne Bar at Waterstone’s for a bit of a chat and debate on May 19. I suggest everyone brings something they would like to share. It can be a book, a picture, a jumper, anything you can tell us a little story about. We’ll go to the Science Museum Late on May 30 th. The theme of the evening will be science and music, more on that nearer the time.
On June 2, we will go to see Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomy
sketches at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. Please remember to book you tickets for 1.45 pm. On June 14th, we will go back to the Royal Society of Chemistry for a talk on GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) contribution to the Olympics. What happens after that is up to you! Shall we stop for the summer? Should we have one last get together, a picnic if the weather permits, or we could go for a meal? Let me know.
Help! Here’s a question: How can 266 sophisticated minds help make this networking group a more vibrant and dynamic group? I can think of many answers: 1. You could suggest events/places worth visiting. 2. Have you read/seen something interesting lately? Why not share it with the group? You can use the discussion board or if you are shy (nooo!), pass it on to me and I will do it. 3. You could share a picture of your art. 4. Do you want to contribute to the next Newsletter? Any help would be appreciated, especially since I am only a science geek, and I am very aesthetically challenged! 5.
How
about
giving
a
short
talk
work/organisation/aspirations? This comes up at
about
your
every meetup so I
know some of you are quite keen (some of you know who you are ;)). Let’s do it! We’ll make it informal and totally relaxed. 6.
Are
you
looking
for
a
collaboration?
May
be
looking
for
something/someone very specific? Why don’t you post it on the discussion board? Or if you prefer, e-mail me and I’ll be happy to help in any way I can. 7. You have an even better answer and you are dying to tell us all about it. Go on, just tell us!
And if you made it all the way here,
Thank you!
I am having
a brilliant time as the organiser for Artist seeks Scientist, you have been FANTASTIC! and I really hope that you are enjoying it too. See you soon! Houda