J. Bronowski
(Harper & Row
Publishers: 1956)
As fields of study, science and art could be seen as having similar goals and
aspirations, but are different in methodology and application. The general consensus
on science and art relations today is that they are completely different professions
and have nothing to do with each other. Unfortunately, when science and art are
brought together in some form of collaboration, it has worked in a similar manner
to advertisement and art relations: to work their differences into a marketable
niche. Scientists and engineers often ask artists to collaborate with them by
having artists make something “pretty” with their latest technology
or artists asks scientists to give them materials for artwork. Hardly ever do
you see artists actually taking part in scientific research or scientists engaged
in an arts project other than serving as technicians. A better situation would
be where artists are invited to join in the process of scientific research and
scientists engage in artistic projects through workshops and lectures provided
under the circumstances based on the project.
The ancient claim that science and art are branches of one field is quickly dissolving
as science is being reduced to providing factual information about objective
findings, whereas art is perceived as a form of subjective expression that is
confined to the space of the artist, artwork and cultural clicks. Sian Ede, in
his chapter “The Scientist’s Mind: The Artist’s Temperament”
(Stranged and Charmed, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation: 2000) proposes a very
generalized understanding of the roles of scientists and artists. Unfortunately,
this view is the most common one: “Scientist, are governed by ‘the
scientific method’ and in investigating how the world operates theirs is
a shared search for agreement; contemporary artist work alone, they make things
up and encourage individual or even dissenting responses. The ‘genius’
is exceptional in science but the license is enjoyed by contemporary artists
to give expression to their unique individual experience suggests that any one
of them might lay claim to prodigy … … Artists today are, unwittingly
or not, still greatly influenced by the sentiments of Romanticism, which articulated
the role of the artist as divine messenger.” It is obvious that Ede does
not see art as anything beyond a self-proclaiming and egotistical act of desire.
In response to his comments, perhaps it is he who still lives in the mind-set
of Romanticism.
In the end, however, how different are the findings of the world when done scientifically
in the lab compared to work done in an artist’s studio? Objective –
subjective discoveries are an “explosion of a hidden likeness.” Both
science and art are similar in that they both strive to discover something new
about life and that they both work off of imagination and creativity. The image
of Van Gogh type artists, who remain in their studios going crazy, seem nothing
but ignorant in today’s world to the various ways in which artists re-shape
society. From politics, economics, sciences, to culture, artists such as Joseph
Beuys, musicians like John Cage, or writers like William Burroughs have contributed
to the transformation of society.
Einstein once stated that “imagination is more important than intellect”,
and imagination is the key to leading research in every field from science to
art. If we take Leonardo as an example, the quintessential Renaissance man, we
wonder if he was more an artist, scientist, or engineer. It is difficult to say
whether or not trying to be a Renaissance person is well suited to our times
when professions are segmented like a factory, subjected to giving out precise
roles to laborers. Nevertheless, there is something to be said about a time when
such fields of science, art, and religion, were so closely linked that one person
could be a ‘jack of all trades’ and when imagination was likened to
the intellect. Perhaps we will be seeing more of that type of artist with the
rise of inter-disciplinarity in academia.
Both science and art, as J. Bronowski puts it, act as turning wheels on the road
to historical transformation. Whether it is science or art that are the front
wheels or the back wheels, they go hand-in-hand. It does not matter whether science
is our century’s art or art is the century’s science when we think
of how they both contribute to society.
The text above is an edited excerpt from a paper being presented by the SCI-ART
writer M-1000 at an International Symposium in Taiwan “From My Fingers:
Living in the Technological Age,” Key Event of the First International Women’s
Art Festival in Taiwan, July 2003, Kaohisung Museum of Fine Arts, Organized by
Woman’s Art Association of Taiwan. M-1000 is the pen name of artist MINALIZA1000
(minaliza1000@aol.com). The SCI-ART article series is made possible with assistance
from Art & Science Collaborations, Inc (ASCI). (www.asci.org) Since April
2003, a secondary publication of the SCI-ART article series has been translated
into Korean and published in the Art Magazine Wolgan Misool, a monthly arts magazine
of Seoul, Korea. (www.wolganmisool.com)
