Science-Art: The Burgeoning Fields of Niche Artwork Aimed at Scientific Disciplines

2 Responses to “Science-Art: The Burgeoning Fields of Niche Artwork Aimed at Scientific Disciplines”

1. 

   Pat Bowne February 16, 2011 at 9:38 pm #

   Thanks for this very interesting discussion! I was thrilled to see Glendon here because his was the first science-art link I put on my website (under Arcane Arts).

   A possible example of art driving science could be the creation of luminous rabbits and butterflies back around 2000; though perhaps it is just another example of art using scientific techniques. Art and science certainly worked together in Tinbergen’s work on the stimuli for herring-gull behavior, in which more and more abstract models were used to identify just what the animals were paying attention to. A related area in which I wish artists would have some input is animal marking methods. I’ve seen several methods used which seemed likely to change the animals’ appearance enough to alter their fitness (e.g. flipper bands, nasal saddles, injected color patches in fish). I wonder if some of the scientists designing these techniques could have benefitted from the input of more visually oriented colleagues?
2. 

   Glendon Mellow February 18, 2011 at 12:27 pm #

   Thanks for the kind words, Pat! (Love the idea of fantasy centered on pigeons…those little rock doves are one of my favourite things about living in the city).

   Interesting ideas of how art can drive science – I’ll have to think and read more about those examples, thank you! I suspect in some cases it’s more that aesthetics have been pressed into scientific service than visual art informing the direction of the research ( I have a high bar for what I’m looking for).

   I do especially agree -provisionally, as an outsider- that researchers could in many cases benefit from visually oriented input.

   Glad you got so much out of the session!

Leave a Reply