Science and art: Two branches of the same tree

LUCY DAVIES

The year 1905 revolutionised physics with the publication of Einstein’s paper describing his special theory of relativity. His theory stated that time is not a universal experience but relative to the observer, and it is not a separate entity, as human experience would suggest, but is joined with three-dimensional space to form four-dimensional spacetime.

As well as Einstein making the front pages, only a few years earlier, Henri Poincaré’s book, Science and Hypothesis, had brought ground-breaking science and mathematics to the masses. Amongst these masses, and said to have carried Poincaré’s book with him, was Pablo Picasso, a founder of a revolutionary new art form – Cubism.

Picasso, like Einstein, rejected the limits of human perspective, and filled his works with abstract geometric forms, showing objects from multiple temporal and spatial perspectives. This treatment of reality as more than just the three-dimensional world we see, reflected both Einstein’s discoveries and the non-Euclidean geometry discussed in Science and Hypothesis. Scientific and artistic creativity were uniting in reflecting a new abstract view of the world.

This is a partnership that continues today, notably at one of the world’s most famous research organisations – CERN. The home of particle physics research and the Large Hadron Collider, research at CERN spans from trying to detect dark matter to recreating the conditions of the universe moments after the Big Bang. CERN’s visionary work has sparked the imaginations of artists and, in 2008, an art residency was set up. Artists are paired with a CERN researcher – an ‘inspiration partner’ –and produce artworks inspired by the physics they discover during their residency.

One such artist, is Ryoji Ikeda, a Japanese visual and sound artist who was resident at CERN from 2014-2015. Ikeda is known for his immersive live performances and installations combining visuals and sound with mathematical and physical phenomena. During his residency, Ikeda met with experts on theories of extra dimensions and supersymmetry and developed his installation supersymmetry. It combined 40 projectors and computers to produce a disorientating combination of light, sound and visual data that mirrored the breath-taking complexity of the mysteries of the universe being tackled at CERN.

There are many different kinds of creativity, and art and science are two equally creative ways of channelling the need to understand and portray the world around us. Whether the chosen medium is mathematical equations or oil paints, both portray the beauty of reality that is beyond the limits of our senses. Perhaps, by standing at their intersection, we can truly appreciate the full picture.