"The idea of cross-disciplinary exchange seems to be catching on again. SEED, a NYC-based science magazine which pairs essays on genetics, geology, and history's most infamous math problems with knock-your-socks off design has partnered withThe Museum of Modern Art to host a salon aimed at sparking collaborations between designer, architects, and scientists.
'At the beginning the spheres can be quite separate,' MOMA's Curator for Architecture and Design, Paola Antonelli told Big Think. 'But when they discover each other and start talking the same language, it's really unstoppable.' One information architect offered solutions to help deliver accurate and readable data, a significant challenge to geneticists. Architects and scientists share an obsession with the building blocks of the world (and the universe), says Antonelli. 'Give them a push, and then they come together.'"
The quote above is from a recent Big Think article, The Beautiful Universe: A Convergence of Art and Science, that addresses a topic I've always been fond of: the dimension or discipline where art and science meet. For myself, that place has always been geometry. A mathematician operates and excels with numerical patterns, whereas the artist visualizes and utilizes actual patterns... in other words, a similar landscape described in two different languages. For the digital artist the two languages begin to meld into one via the fractal, and often by methodology, depending upon how the artist approaches the computer. Then again architecture, sculpture, and science are married through physics, inevitable matches. Archaeology and medical research are dependent upon physical pattern recognition... and the list goes on.
Perhaps, inside every artist is a scientist struggling to emerge, and inside every scientist is an artist following his or her own artistic muse. Art is a science, science is an art. The real question is, why would we ever think otherwise?
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"When people ask me what I think about while I am creating, my answer is: I am dreaming of a new world, a new landscape, a new place no one has ever been to."
- Renata Spiazzi, via this MOCA page
The beautiful Julia Set that begins this post is by digital artist, Renata Spiazzi. I planned to do a post devoted to her work last year, but, in my usual haphazard way, this never came to pass. Sorry, Renata, it was nothing personal; just the chaotic reality that I call home.
Two of my favorite images by Renata are below... click on them for larger views.
For more of her amazing work, go to her website, and, for a MOCA article featuring Renata Spiazzi from last year, try here.
For a Digital Art Guild article on art and science, see The Art of Science by Annie Cavanagh.
