UNSEEN dIMENSIONS >> Dialogues in Art and Science
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“Today artists and scientists are working more and more frequently together to create intriguing
Art, Science and Technology in the 21st Century
and spectacular works which transcend categorisation. Are we moving beyond C P Snow’s ‘two cultures’ – ‘art’ and ‘science’ – into a Third Culture, where art, science and technology fuse?“
by
Arthur I. Miller Emeritus Professor, UCL
Science-inspired art goes back to Leonardo and Dürer, when there was no ‘art’ and no ‘science’ as such. As science developed, the two moved further and further apart. But then in the 20th century, developments in relativity theory, quantum physics, electronics and bio-technology brought a renewed interplay between art, science and technology. Einstein and Picasso largely invented the twentieth century, for Einstein thought like an artist and Picasso like a scientist. Many artists followed in their footsteps. Among them Duchamp, Kandinsky, Malevich, El Lissitzky and Dali. The next great leap forward was actual collaborations between artists and scientists. This occurred in the early 1960s when New York artists like Andy Warhol teamed up with electrical engineers from Bell Telephone Laboratories, renowned for its pioneering inventions and discoveries. The result was a hugely successful show at the 69th Regiment Armoury in New York. But in the late 1970s and 1980s, collaborations declined. Then in the 1990s, dramatic developments in bio-technology threw up new and exciting topics for artists. Since then art movements influenced by science have grown, including sonic art, interface art, physics art, mathematics art, media art, digital art, and data visualisation art.
These are all examples of science-influenced art. But can there ever be art-influenced science or, better still, works that combine art and science to create images that reflect a new aesthetic, a redefinition of art – a Third Culture? The answer is yes. This is happening already in media and data visualisation art. Probing the world beyond sense perceptions is a key issue for artists and scientists and involves a fusion of the methods of both. Indeed, we live in a highly interdisciplinary and visual world which can only be understood using both art and science. Art for beauty’s sake will always have its place, but there has to be more than pure art or indeed pure science. This will require radical changes in education beginning with a curriculum that trains students in both, which in turn will lead to a new understanding of culture and of life itself, essential for taking on board the rapid changes of the 21st century. It is exciting that this is the theme of the City of London School’s series of lectures. Let us leave our minds open and let our imaginations roam. Who would ever have foreseen even thirty years ago that science, technology and art would be as they are now, with the boundaries between them rapidly blurring? Arthur I. Miller is emeritus professor of history and philosophy of science at University College London. His book Colliding Worlds: How Cutting-Edge Science is Redefining Contemporary Art will be published in June 2014. www.arthurimiller.com
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UNSEEN dIMENSIONS >> Dialogues in Art and Science Art and Science Dialogues Committee: Students: James Aung Mahmoud Ghanem Rhys Goodall Hamish Rea
Staff: Alison Gill (Artist & Art Teacher) Hugh Jones (Head of Science) Marco V. Pereira (Science Teacher) Angelina Giannarou (Writer & Philosophy Teacher) Tom Kelly (Graphic Design & IT)
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Whilst transferring from the broad curriculum of our earlier education to taking only the subjects that lead to the particular university courses we want to study, it seemed like we were obliged to align ourselves to the typecasts of either studying “Arts’’ or “Sciences’’.The problem is that, frankly, we are neither artists nor scientists! It is really a shame that there is no way for us to carry on studying absolutely everything which interests us at school. It may be important for us to specialize, but to sever all ties we had with subjects which we are no longer taking exams in is to give up on having any cultural understanding of the world outside the national curriculum. This seems wrong! In our mind there has always been a parallel between the imagination exercised in scientific discovery and the
creativity enshrined in art; as such it seems ridiculous that in continuing one we are obliged to turn away from the other. The divide is so widespread that last year there was only one student who studied both the physical sciences and the visual arts at A-level. This project then is to get students thinking about what is really stopping them from studying a broader range of disciplines; if not simply as A-Level subjects then as important parts of their development.
Hamish Rea James Aung Rhys Goodall Mahmoud Ghanem Art & Science Student Team (photo, left to right)
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introduction
‘Breaking the Mould’ Alison Gill ARTIST & Teacher Art & DesigN
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pecialisation leads to great benefits, allowing people to master subjects, skills and develop deep expertise. But specialisation comes at a cost. We all know that innovation comes from creativity and that creativity is about sharing ideas outside your particular box. We can nurture that approach in schools and reap the rewards when students take that approach into their later lives. Sometimes you cannot quite predict the way the flow of ideas and interactions will take you. Openness and curiosity are key. Just over a year ago Professor John Ellis gave a talk at City of London School and enticingly hinted that Physicists at CERN were getting really close to discovering the elusive Higgs particle. By coincidence I was going to Geneva a few days later and so, greatly inspired, I hastily arranged a visit to the LHC in CERN via Hugh Jones in our Science Department. It felt like travelling to the beginning of time! In touch with the cosmos in unexpected ways, so began the chain reaction reminiscent of Peter Fischli and David Weiss’s video The Way Things Go (1987) in terms of one event leading inevitably to another, and finding a path of least resistance, sometimes comically... It was on this first trip that I was introduced to physicist/artist Michael Hoch and Art@CMS CERN. We talked – and ideas began to form. Back at School, an art and science committee was established with colleagues and with a dynamic group of sixth-form students who led the way. Sharing interests, curiosity and using Basecamp’s to-do-lists, we brought substance and structure to our enthusiasm. From its inception, Unseen Dimension>>Dialogues in Art and Science has been a collaborative process that required the generosity of many people, and they really have contributed their time and expertise to make things happen. One year on, here we are with brilliant speakers and artists, workshops, collaborations, experiences and more to come later, we hope. It is all grounded in this very simple idea: imagination and creativity are at the heart of learning and innovation. We would like to inspire, encourage and share ideas, and it is fun that way too. Students have always made art which engages with
science, and is reflected in (and shaped by) the world in which they live. It seems like the right time to spotlight the art and science activities and conversations that are going on under the radar in school and which are also happening in the broader culture. For those students that have felt the loss of having to choose one direction over another this offers new possibilities: it is still important to specialise, follow natural talents, capabilities and personal passion, do your 10,000 hours of mastery but if you keep an open mind you will find there are plenty of opportunities to cross borders in-between, whether in education, cultural spaces such as GV Art or the Wellcome Collection, and soon the Science Gallery at Kings, to name a few. Later on, perhaps it will happen in their professional lives. Students and their contemporaries are the ones who are in the prime position to shape the future. They have the potential to work together, spur each other on and discover new ideas and ways of thinking, being, doing and observing etc. It is a big responsibility - there are great opportunities, challenges and of course some risk, but it is a thrilling prospect. What could the world be like in the future? Where will we live? What energy will be used? What will entertain and sustain us? What resources will we need? Will we finally get to live on another planet? A vision will be required and so will an ability to put theory into practice. This is already happening ‘out there’ and is what we aim to encourage in school, gaining knowledge and common understanding through actions, making, talking, sharing ideas, observing, questioning, and being prepared sometimes to follow through with no clue where you will end up. Where there are people investigating their doubts, and listening to others who think in different ways to themselves it is possible for transformation and new ways of thinking to emerge. We hope that this conversation will grow between the arts and sciences, with students at CLS in future following their passion and making this a recurring event, a biennial or a triennial perhaps? That is up to you… We hope you enjoy it.
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Hugh Jones Head of Science
Angelina Giannarou Teacher Religious Studies & Philosophy
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illiam Henry Perkin (ex CLS) was a great scientist who, while trying to find a cheap cure for malaria by synthesising quinine, accidentally discovered a mixture which was a reliable dye. He called the colour ‘mauve’ and it was a special moment in the development of chemistry - and art. Up until that time, purple had been an important colour in royal art circles, but reliable dyes of the colour had been expensive to make. This was a major discovery which influenced both Science and Art. I have no idea whether CLS contributed much to the young William’s successes but we must have had some influence. When we first put our heads together to see whether there was any mileage in linking Science and Art for a week as a celebration, I did not expect to be taken too seriously. The two departments are on opposite sides of the building, have different outlooks, and seem to be chosen for A level by distinctly different student characters. CLS and other schools encourage this diversity. Yet the support I have had in trying to explore common themes has been a revelation. The Philosophy section of CLS, with Angelina Giannarou
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n the last week of October our school will play host to a multiplicity of events which attempt to cross the boundaries between art and science and engage in a dialogue between these two important human activities. Many boys in the school have already been working hard to offer their own contribution to this dialogue. They have filmed interviews of eminent people in the fields of philosophy, art and science who give their responses to questions about imagination, creativity and experimentation and their views on whether these essential human qualities can be proclaimed as the exclusive domain of the scientist or the artist or whether benefit can be gained from interdisciplinary work between these two fields. A class in year 7 are already crossing the boundaries by creating interdisciplinary work that looks at the scientific and aesthetic elements of all creation myths that human kind told itself since the dawn of civilisation. They have come to realise that the need to explain what you observe around you is interwoven with the need to create a narrative that will capture and excite the imagination, and that concerns about simplicity, truth and beauty are fundamental to any great human narrative whether this is
at the helm, has stepped in to add extra valuable material to the event. This week, and the spin off workshops coming up later, are ‘experiments’ because in a school, such a specific cross-curricular theme is pretty unusual. The exploration of the ways our two disciplines relate is an attempt to get a better understanding of our world and our place in it, and hopefully it will give us a broad appreciation of all that is so valuable in life. In encouraging Alison and me to go through with this project, CLS has shown that it is not afraid to take risks in order to strive towards giving people of all ages a novel but rich experience. Brilliant. Our thanks go to many people, and their names appear later in this booklet, but here I want to mention the two people who accelerated me around the Arts-Science Collider; Michael Hoch of CERN, and Alison Gill of CLS. Working with these two is always fun, as is having an association between two such great institutions; CLS and CERN! The whole event is really ‘owned’ by senior sixth form students who have written in this programme. All of us have been joint directors
artistic, mathematical or scientific. Einstein believed that imagination is more important than knowledge in every human activity that attempts to push the boundaries of the human mind. He attributed this to the fact that knowledge is limited to all we currently know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire cosmos. And the astrophysicist Hoyle observed that it is the same impulse which drives the scientific man of the twentieth century and the builders of Stonehenge. They both try to capture in their work the elegance, simplicity and beauty which create in them the sense of awe and wonder towards the cosmos of which each one of us forms a tiny part while having, at the same time, a unique, unrepeatable outlook upon it. The Senior Philosophy Society has produced a series of questions that will appear all around the school and which attempt to stimulate our thoughts in this idea that we are both objects within the world and minds looking at it and creatively engaging with it. It may be that in this double capacity of every human being to be both subject and object in its relation to the world, science and art will continuously meet and fruitfully engage with each other. 5
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Exhibition & Workshop Exhibition:
Unseen Dimensions (28/10–30/11)
Hosted by the City of London School and curated by Alison Gill Featuring Artwork by Heather Barnett, Annie Cattrell, Michael Hoch, Melanie Jackson, Jason Wallis-Johnson, Bill Woodrow and work by the students of our school. Including OGH ‘Fantastical Botanical’, 1R ‘Seeker’s Guide to A Universe’ and 2M ‘Under the Microscope – Stranger than Fiction’.
>> Dialogues in Art and Science
UNSEEN dIMENSIONS
OVERVIEW Workshops/Visits planned for 2014:
Broad Vision
University of Westminster
P3i Design: STEM Interactive Studio Laboratory (Islington) Northumbria University
Talks & Events Monday 28th October 1300–1350 Arthur I. Miller
Emeritus Professor, UCL ASQUITH ROOM
Tuesday 29th October 1300–1350 Professor Raymond Oliver
Northumbria University, Faculty of Arts, P3i Design STEM Interactive Studio Laboratory and visiting Professor, Royal College of Art. ASQUITH ROOM
Wednesday 30th October 1300–1350 Michael Cook PhD
PhD researcher in the Computational Creativity Group ASQUITH ROOM
Friday 1st November : 1700–1815 Heather Barnett
Artist and Lecturer in Art/Science at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the University of Westminster
Dr Daniel Glaser
1815–1945
Reception
Director, Science Gallery London, King’s College London
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LOCATIONS
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G As alle Gr qu ry ea ith Sp tH R a all oo ce m
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Work in progress... To coincide with the exhibition, the Photographic Society and some OG, 1st and 2nd Form classes have been working on special projects in their Art & RS lessons which will be forming part of the display. Here is a selection of photos showing their work in progress...
Photos by Dougal MacArthur
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guest Talks 28/10–01/11
All talks are held in the Asquith Room, except Friday (Great Hall) (see locations on page 7)
Monday 28th October
1300–1350 Asquith Room
Arthur i. Miller
>> The New Avant-Garde I will comment on the emerging art movement based on the interplay among art, science and technology and what this means for these disciplines.
Emeritus Professor, UCL Arthur I. Miller is emeritus professor of history and philosophy of science at University College London. His book Colliding Worlds: How Cutting-Edge Science is Redefining Contemporary Art will be published in June 2014.
Tuesday 29th October
1300–1350 Asquith Room
Raymond Oliver
>> Towards Future Ways of Living (that matter to people)
BSc, PhD, D Eng, FREng, FIChemE, CEng Professor and Chair, Active and Interactive Materials, University of Northumbria School of Design Career Summary:
The talk will outline the development of a multidisciplinary Design:STEM activity through Printable, Paintable, Programmable materials that can contribute to the creation of intelligent devices and systems – P3i. Using Design, Science and Engineering principles and expertise to explore and investigate the continuing and rapid convergence between :
Graduated with a Chemical Engineering Degree, then took a PhD in Chemical Physics, including post-doctoral research at University of California, Berkeley.
BIOLOGY
POLYMERS
ELECTRONICS
DESIGN
(Hierarchical)
(responsive)
(Printable)
(Textile,Product)
Has spoent 25 years in ICI PLC in senior research and manufacturing roles, 3 years at Royal College of Art as Senior Research Fellow in Materials, and is now Director of P3i Design:STEM Interactive Studio–Lab, Islington. During his career he has also published 2 books, 24 Patents and over 100 papers, lectures and presentations.
(structures &)
(surfaces &)
(Electro & photo)
(and Industrial)
(morphologies)
(Interfaces)
(Active Materials)
(Design)
“The main purpose of my current work is to illustrate through evidence based investigation and prototype demonstration that Human Centred Needs are best and most effectively delivered by a cross disciplinary Creative Design : Innovative Science approach.”
that can contribute to implementable product and systems applications in Assistive Healthcare, Smarter built environments, Automotive, Aerospace &Space and Performance Products for Fashion, Lifestyle and Wellbeing. After this short presentation, we will follow up in the ensuing weeks with an arranged visit to our studio-lab where we will guide Art and Design students through a short workshop illustrating the use of some of the tools and techniques we use and the applications we are tackling.
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Wednesday 30th October
1300–1350 Asquith Room
Michael Cook
>> My iPod Just Had A Great Idea – How Computers Can Become Creative
Michael Cook is a Research Associate with the Computational Creativity Group at Goldsmiths College in London, where he researches new ways to build videogames using artificial intelligence. He is the creator of ANGELINA, an autonomous game design tool which has designed dozens of games, including Android puzzle platformer A Puzzling Present. In his spare time he develops games independently and writes about the bits where science and games rub up against each other.
What’s the next big bit of technology on the horizon? We can already talk to our phones, and wave at our games consoles - soon we’ll be strapping on virtual reality headsets and 3D-printing our mobile phones. But what about something more? What about something that lets technology be more than just a tool? This talk will introduce the exciting field of Computational Creativity, where scientists are trying to give computers the ability to compose music, design videogames and write stories. Can a computer have a new idea? How can software be independently creative? What happens if you ask a computer to design a videogame about Santa Claus? All will be revealed in this talk - as well as why now is the best time to join the field.
Friday 1st November
1700–1815 Great Hall
Heather Barnett
>> Matter and Material – an artist’s relationship with science
Artist and Lecturer in Art/Science at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the University of Westminster
Dr Daniel Glaser Director, Science Gallery London King’s College London Formerly with The Wellcome Trust, where he was Head of Special Projects, responsible for commissioning and funding initiatives to engage the public with health research.
For many years artist Heather Barnett has worked with biological systems and imaging technologies, often in collaboration with scientists, technologists and other artists. She will talk about how artists engage with science as matter, media and material, and will draw particular reference to The Physarum Experiments, an ongoing collaboration with an intelligent organism, the slime mould Physarum polycephalum.
>> What is the right space for art and science to collide? What is the best context for people from radically different places to work together? Interdisciplinarity is now at the heart of science and scientists collaborate with ever wider cultural circles. But can these relationships be productive without nurture? I will examine examples from the Institute of Contemporary Arts in the 1960s and 2002 and a range of work commissioned and funded by Wellcome Trust. I will also describe the challenges in constructing Science Gallery London at King’s College London as a new space where art and science collide.
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VIDEO interviews PHILOSOPHER
A.C. Grayling Anthony Grayling MA, DPhil (Oxon) FRSL, FRSA is Master of the New College of the Humanities, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. Until 2011 he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy and other subjects; among his most recent are “The Good Book”, “Ideas That Matter”, “Liberty in the Age of Terror” and “To Set Prometheus Free”. Anthony Grayling’s latest books are “The God Argument” (March 2013) and “Friendship” (September 2013).
Artist
Melanie Jackson Senior Lecturer, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Melanie has exhibited work internationally, and she say of her work “I am interested in the potential for art and for science to explore reality through their understanding of the world, and their potential to change it. I have been making films, ceramic sculptures and comics.”
SCIENTIST
Richard Wingate Lecturer and team Leader of the Wingate Lab at Kings College London, who use a variety of approaches to investigate how integrated neuronal systems are established during the development of the vertebrate central nervous system. The lab also has a strong commitment to public engagement.
Interview Questions: Are scientists as imaginative as Artists? Could an object be a work of art without ever being observed? Can art materialise through chance? (Can nature make art?) Can we compute originality, and as such can computers be creative? Is the difference between the artistic and the scientific disciplines so fundamental that they could never be unified by a single concept? Would it be possible for a society to function without either Art or Science within its culture? Are there ever situations where the marginalisation of one discipline could be beneficial? Are the objective standards against which science is judged the similar to the standards with which art is judged? Can a discredited piece of work ever be of value; is there a fundamental difference between the arts and the sciences in this regard? Is the process of experimentation the same within art and science? Can scientific progress be made without imagination? As a result is there a benefit to be gained from interdisciplinary work?
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PHILOSOPHY SOCIETY QUESTIONS
?? Is creativity an expression and foundation of science?
?? Is scientific creativity the same thing as
?? Should art be objective? ?? If truth is the purpose of science, does art have a purpose?
creativity in artistic self-expression?
?? Is there any logic in art? ?? Can science be considered self-expression? ?? Is the pursuit of simplicity in mathematical Can the scientist eliminate all subjectivity sciences as much an artful endeavour as a ?? from his observations?
scientific one?
?? Are the criteria by which scientific
?? Does science homogenise and even out
?? Is art useful? ?? Does the practical usefulness of science
?? Is art highlighting the individual character
narratives are judged the same as those by which art is judged?
imply its truth?
?? Is there a reality out there which only science comes in contact with?
?? If art is not about reality, what is it about? ?? Can art ever be objective?
all differences in the pursuit of order and patternicity?
of things and their uniqueness?
?? Are art and science both attempts to capture the unknown?
?? Can we ever bring together the subjective and the objective in one single activity? Would this activity be art or science?
?? If there is structure and pattern in a work
of art, how much is this structure and pattern important to what the work of art represents?
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Artist profile
Heather Barnett
dendritic patterns reminiscent of forms seen at varying scales within nature, from blood vessels to tree branches, from river deltas to lightening flashes. The Growth Studies capture single significant moments in the navigational behaviour of the slime mould. As the organism explores new territory, it quickly learns where it has been, when it meets itself and where it is yet to venture. These single frames derive from ‘The Physarum Experiments, Study No: 011 – observation of growth until resources depleted (2009)’
Selected WORKS on Display The Physarum Experiments: Growth Studies (3, 4, 5) 2013 Archival digital print 12” × 16” (print) 18” × 22” (frame) Edition: 50
Heather is a visual artist, researcher and educator working with biological systems and scientific processes. With interests ranging across medicine, psychology, perception and visualisation, projects have included microbial portraiture, cellular wallpapers, performing cuttlefish and self-organising installations. She is a National Teaching Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Art/Science at the University of Westminster, where she is project lead for Broad Vision art/ science research and learning programme and she is Lecturer on the MA Art and Science at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Barnett’s animations and photographic studies take inspiration from the array of scientific research - which includes city planning, cellular computation, decision-making, and complexity - in a game of creative control and authorship. The Physarum Experiments is an exploration of the simple yet complex behaviours of this biological and cultural phenomenon. Physarum polycephalum 2009-2013 For some years Heather Barnett has been working with the true slime mould, Physarum polycephalum, observing and capturing its growth patterns, navigational abilities and seemingly human behaviours. Used as a model organism in diverse scientific studies, the single cell organism is attributed with a primitive form of intelligence, problem solving skills and the ability to anticipate events. It is also quite beautiful, the 14
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Growth Studies #4, 2013
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Artist profile
Annie Cattrell
Annie Cattrell was born in Glasgow and studied Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art, University of Ulster and at the Royal College of Art. Her practice has been at times informed by working with specialists in neuroscience, meteorology, engineering, psychiatry and the history of science. This cross-disciplinary approach has enabled her to learn about cutting edge research and in depth information in these fields. As a result she is particularly interested in the parallels and connections that can be drawn in and between both art and science. Annie employs a range of research and material strategies in order to make visible (in her artworks) the subtle changes and transformations continuously happening inside the human body and brain, and also such almost imperceptible shifts in the natural environment.
hearing and smell. This data was translated into three dimensional digital files in collaboration with Professor Morten L Kringelbach, Drs Mark Lythgoe and Steve Smith. Using rapid prototyping techniques the files where built into sculptures and embedded into transparent resin. Sense isolates and reveals the individual shapes and volumes within our brains of our sensory experience. Drawing in its broadest understanding is central to Cattrell’s practise. Pour is a drawing using a knife to precisely incise directional arrow marks. The cutting embeds the marks irreversibly through the surface of the paper altering and warping its inherent material structure. This is part of a series of drawings concerned with flux and fluidity being a universal constant.
Selected WORKS on Display CAPACITY 2007 Edition 3/3 300mm × 270mm × 140mm SENSE In collaboration with Professor Morten L Kringelbach, Dr Mark Lythgoe and Dr Steve Smith 2001-3 SLS rapid prototype in resin 5 pieces @ 250mm × 250mm × 250mm 5 plinths @ 1140mm × 300mm × 300mm POUR 2007 300 gram Bockingford cut paper 900mm × 900mm framed
Included in Unseen Dimensions are three artworks by Cattrell: Capacity, Sense and Pour. Capacity references the bodies organ of air, the lungs. It was made (in part) by blowing air into malleable glass, therefore the act of breathing creates the organ of breath. The fragility of glass, used in this manner, intensifies the connection between the intricacy and complexity of the body and the precarious relationships that underpin and enable its survival. Sense uses fMRI scans (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) of the active areas within the brain of the five senses: taste, touch, sight, 16
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clockwise from top left: CAPACITY (2007), POUR (2007), SENSE (close-up & full set) (2001-3)
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Artist profile
Michael Hoch
My artwork is meant as homage to the Large Hadron Collider LHC and the experiments at CERN. In the centre of this exhibition is the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector. Natural Science - Natur-WissenSchaften I have been working for several years as a member of the CMS Collaboration mainly on the central tracker. The CMS experiment is a science installation as high as a 6-floor building, designed for measuring subatomic processes produced by collisions of protons in the LHC. This huge measuring device is built with a precision of the thickness of a human hair. It takes 40 000 000 pictures per second of the proton collisions which create states of matter predicted by theory but not yet observed. Both CMS and the LHC are not only engineering marvels and at the forefront of science and technology, but have intrinsic geometries with exceptional aesthetics that can be viewed as works of art. The aesthetics of CMS are associated with its functionality as a gigantic measuring device. Periodic multiplicities emerge out of the physical measurement constraints. A strict scientific precision allows us to unfold the secrets of nature. In my artwork the human-designed strict scientific apparatus merges with the quasi chaotic appearance of nature. However, nature also follows strict rules in its creation.
Matter-Anti-Matter Looking back 14 billion years, at a time shortly after the Big Bang, it turns out that our existence is nothing but a fluke: at that time, not only matter was created, but also antimatter. This was not a small amount of anti-matter, only 0.00000001% less than the amount of matter. Shortly after their creation, matter and antimatter collided again and annihilated, disintegrating into pure radiation. If it was not for the 0.00000001% more matter, today’s universe would be filled with radiation, and nothing else; no galaxies, no stars, no planets, no life. But nature decided to allow for a small violation in the perfect symmetry of matter and antimatter for some reason - and this miniscule excess of matter is what our whole universe is made of. I come from the documentary tradition in which personal access and the authentic moment of capture is central. My work is always a move from distance to intimacy and back. I try to capture not only the object but evoke a sense of wonder and mystery. My artwork tries to show excitement for the detail and the cross link of the overall geometry.
Selected WORKS on Display Rock – horizontal 2012 Collage 100 × 100cm Natural Science – RED 2012 Collage 100 × 100cm Natural Science – White 2 2012 Collage 100 × 100cm Matter Anti Matter – Symmetry 1 2012 Collage 100 × 100cm The GodParticleHunting Machine_3.1 2012 Collage 100 × 300cm Waves 2012 Photograph
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Matter Anti Matter – Symmetry 1 (2012)
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Artist profile
Melanie Jackson
Selected WORKS on Display The Urpflanze Part 2 2013 mixed media installation moving image, ceramic sculpture, printed matter Dimensions variable
I am interested in the radical transformations in our material world provoked and promised by contemporary science and technology. New forms and modes of material performance promise to conjure into existence unseen materialities, narratives and possibilities. I have been holding an investigation into the impulse for transformation and novel forms, which takes its lead from Goethe’s concept of an imaginary primal plant, the Urpflanze, that contained coiled up within it the potential to unfurl all possible future forms. Contemporary science likewise imagines the potential to grow or print any form we can envisage, by recasting physical, chemical and biological function as an engineering substrate that can be programmed into being, opening up a potential for us to “grow� any form we choose. What is at stake in these manipulations of material at this this scale? How might this reshaped matter in turn shape our visual, tactile world, as well as our dreams? I am interested in the potential for art and for science to explore reality through their understanding of the world, and their potential to change it. I have been making films, ceramic sculptures and comics.
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Images from The Urpflanze Part 2 (2013)
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Artist profile
Jason WallisJohnson
“Suppose that an inhabitant of Venus or Mars were to contemplate us from the height of a mountain, and watch the little black specks that we form in space, as we come and go in the streets and squares of our towns. Would the mere sight of our movements, our buildings, machines, and canals, convey to him any precise idea of our morality, intellect, our manner of thinking and loving, and hoping—in a word, of our real and intimate self? All he could do, like ourselves when we gaze at the hive, would be to take note of some facts that seem very surprising; and from these facts to deduce conclusions probably no less erroneous, no less uncertain, than those we choose to form concerning the bee.” Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgian author. The Life of the Bee, ch. 2; 1862 – 1949) Jason Wallis-Johnson appears courtesy of England & Co Gallery
Selected WORKS on Display Paris Périphérique 2010 – Black and white silicone in acrylic case keeping the roads and rivers in place, I have grown the city accordingly, responding to these items. The central core density is high and the urbanising elements reach out from core and develop along existing highway and river routes. 56 × 64 × 5 cm Thames River Systems (white on black) 2009 – Black and white silicone in acrylic case Similar to the Paris map but here, it’s only the rivers that remain unchanged allowing me to play with the topography. The Thames and it’s tributaries dictate, revealing the areas of higher ground to the north and south of London. These have been vertically exaggerated, from South London mesas and uplands around Blackheath dropping down to the urbanised shores of the Thames and rising again to the more rugged mountain terrain of Highgate, Finchley and beyond. 43 × 55 × 6.5 cm Irish Cities 2010 – un-framed Coloured silicone on white silicone background Comparing the major urban areas of The Republic of Ireland with those of Northern Ireland. I used Michelin maps (1:300,000) as the source. The Elements such as airports, industrial area, railway lines, motorways, interchanges etc are shown using stylised symbols. The general built up areas of each city are colour coded. The information is arranged in a way so that even though stylised, comparisons of areas, lengths and volume can be made with a degree of accuracy. 33 × 46 × 0.5 cm Valencia and Zaragoza 2011 – un-framed Coloured silicone in clear silicone medium The translucent, three dimensional map of Valencia and Zaragoza are similar to the Irish cities though less stylised and more fluid. The scale is similar but the complexity of the flowing motorways are more obvious. 30 × 20 × 2 cm Rome 2011 – Black and white silicone in acrylic case The map of Rome has been overlaid onto a fictitious surface resembling an area on the Moon or Mars. A lonely colonisation of an alien landscape by the modern motorway network of an historic city. The craters, rilles and valleys have been shaped around the motorways and the built up areas have grown from in the crater basin, crept up the crater walls and spread out across the plains of ejecta. 37 × 47 × 6.5 cm
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clockwise from top left: Rome (2011), Thames River Systems (2009), Paris Périphérique (2010)
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Artist profile
Bill Woodrow
Selected WORKS on Display Centrefold 2001 Bronze, Goldleaf 87 × 83 × 19cm Beekeeper (4 prints) 1999 Etched linoprints with hand colouring 92 × 61cm (each) published by Paragon Press, London
Bill Woodrow was one of a number of British sculptors to emerge in the late 1970s onto the international contemporary art scene, others include: Richard Deacon and Tony Cragg. Woodrow’s early work was made from materials found in dumps, used car lots and scrap yards, partially embedded in plaster and appearing as if they had been excavated. He went on to use large consumer goods, such as refrigerators and cars, cutting the sheet metal and allowing the original structure to remain identifiable, with the cutout attached as if by an umbilical cord to the mother form. Collecting all manner of things, altering them and giving them a new context, allowed Bill Woodrow an element of narrative in his work. In the 1990s, he began to make work in bronze, the stories remained, such as in a seminal work - In Awe of the Pawnbroker, 1994 - in which the meaning of the pawnbroker’s symbol is unravelled. This sculpture has a number of elements that add up to what is virtually an installation. One of three artists selected to make a sculpture for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square for the year 2000, Woodrow chose to explore a recurring theme in his work, the destruction of our planet and the insistent strength of nature over man. Source:Wikipedia
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Centrefold (2001)
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Discover more Our Website:
Annie Cattrell www.anniecattrell.com
The Arts Catalyst www.artscatalyst.org
Places to visit:
Melanie Jackson et www.melaniejackson.n
Strange Attractor strangeattractor.co.uk
ain Tate Modern & Tate Brit k g.u .or ate w.t ww
ies Mathematical Art Galler .org art ath esm idg .br gallery
& Science Museum London ts jec Pro s Art m seu Mu Science rg.uk www.sciencemuseum.o
Ars Electronica www.aec.at
Wellcome Collection tion.org www.wellcomecollec
AM STEM to STE n to the national agenda ive to add Art and Desig is a RISD-led initiat ) education and nology, Engineering, Math of STEM (Science, Tech research in America.
GV Art
W1U 6LY 49 Chiltern Street London
STEM_to_STEAM/
www.gvart.co.uk
www.risd.edu/about/
m Barts Pathology Museu
Arts@CERN arts.web.cern.ch
London
ot.co.uk
www.potts-pots.blogsp
Art@CMS
scientists to trigger a artists and CMS (CERN) A collaboration between art world scientific world and the LHC een betw gue dialo
Grant Museum ums/zoology www.ucl.ac.uk/muse tival.com fes nce cie www.londons
ent/artcms
cms.web.cern.ch/cont The Science Gallery sciencegallery.com
Hunterian MuseumSurgeons at The Royal College of
seums/hunterian
www.rcseng.ac.uk/mu
Rhizome rhizome.org
Current Events:
e It’s About Tim y-Kent Niederberger & Paul Care Curated by Christina
Heather Barnett .uk www.heatherbarnett.co
C-Lab bioart collective c-lab.co.uk
scienceart.github.com
Queen Mary University
Artists:
Online resources:
(opens 01/11 November – December use Ho ng Erla ASC Gallery, 1 8EQ 128 Blackfriars Road SE
@ 6pm)
bit
sculpture ‘Fiboonacci Rab – includes Alison Gill’s ion)’ 2001/2013 vers e dTim (Wil or Generat
Michael Hoch www.adventureart.org Jason Wallis-Johnson m www.englandgallery.co Bill Woodrow www.billwoodrow.com
Speakers:
Arthur I. Miller www.arthurimiller.com er Professor Raymond Oliv k/sd/academic/scd/ c.u a.a bri hum ort www.n ense/p3i/ ngs aki s/m research/theme Michael Cook .org www.gamesbyangelina .uk .ac c.ic ccg.do Heather Barnett .uk www.heatherbarnett.co
i Maker Faire Elephant & Castle Min technology engineering, science and Inspired by arts, crafts, com tle. cas and makerfaireelephant
Dr Daniel Glaser gallery www.kcl.ac.uk/science
Broad Vision
A C Grayling www.acgrayling.com Melanie Jackson et www.melaniejackson.n Richard Wingate wingate/team.html www.mrcdevneuro.org/
ary research and interdisciplin Art/science collaborative ersity Univ ster tmin Wes at learning
www.broad-vision.info The RSA www.thersa.org
Video Interviews:
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Acknowledgements A big thank you to all the artists – a special thanks to Heather Barnett for speaking and involving students from Westminster University ‘Broad Vision’ group for future workshops, to Annie Cattrell who suggested Richard Wingate as the Scientist for the video interview and Melanie Jackson who agreed to be interviewed and filmed, to Michael Hoch for being the catalyst of all this, and not least, Jason Wallis-Johnson and Bill Woodrow. Deep thanks to all our speakers including Arthur I Miller, Raymond Oliver and P³i - D:STEM Interaction Studio Lab who we will be developing workshops in the studio labs in Islington, Michael Cook and Daniel Glaser. Another special thanks to A C Grayling for agreeing to be filmed and interviewed and encouraging the project. Many thanks to Charlie Dutton, who guided the Photographic Society in new directions, and to all the members who have contributed their work. Early on we sought advice from those established in the field of Art and Science and would like to thank them for their time and generosity - The Arts Catalyst’s Nicola Triscott gave us several pointers and GV Art founder and curator Robert Devcic offered valuable suggestions and kindly introduced us to Arthur I Miller, suggesting him as a speaker. Thank you to OGH pupils for their ‘Fantastical Botanical’ display and 1R, a joint Art/RS project for ‘Seekers Guide to a Universe’, also 2M for ‘Under the Microscope – Stranger than Fiction’. We have been delighted by the response from students to participate in the exhibition so many thanks to all students who have got involved. Great thanks go to John Hawson, Facilities Manager and all the technicians and support staff, in particular Nadine Schofield in the Art Department for assisting with the installation of the exhibition and handling all the work with such care. Also thanks to Mike Paternott in the AV Dept, who filmed and edited the talks. We would like to thank the librarian David Rose for creating a special display of art & science-related books in our School library. Many thanks to the Head, David Levin, for supporting this initiative from the start and encouraging its realisation. Thanks also to the Philosophy Society for posing questions for us all to discuss and think about at our leisure, headed by the inimitable Ms. Giannarou who has been deeply engaged with the project from early on in its inception. Thanks also go to Marco Pereira of the Physics Dept for his advice, and to James Shaw for managing all the invitations. A very big thank you must also go to Tom Kelly in IT whose ceaseless commitment, sharp design vision and can-do approach to the planning made it all possible. Lastly, we would like to express our thanks and admiration for the exceptional, inspired students who have driven the whole thing forward - James Aung, Mahmoud Ghanem, Rhys Goodall and Hamish Rea – Thank you. Booklet design and cover art by Tom Kelly. Additional photographs of students by Dougal MacArthur
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