[ExI] LA Times: 'Artscience' by David Edwards

[Amara Graps]

Dear PJ, along the line of your post, here is something I wrote
five weeks ago to the Boulder Future Salons' list, that might be
interesting for those who like this subject.

Someone on the Boulder Future Salon said:
[...]
>Leonard Shlain's books talk about how historically, artists proceeded
>science in the progressive development of new ideas.

I guess his thesis is that the arts provide the imaginative spark and
creativity..? But I would say that each side (science and art) needs the
other for a full spawning of a new idea. Look at Leonardo da Vinci's
work for examples of that.

There is a fair amount literature that blends today's common definition
of 'art' and science, for example:

- Barrow's _The Artful Universe_

- the bazillion books about fractal mathematics
(see here: http://www.fractalartcontests.com/2007/winners.php for some recent
renditions)

- every issue of Seed magazine

and from my art-science bookmarks:
------------------------------------

The single most important picture taken by humans: (Hubble Deep Field)
http://deepastronomy.com/hubble-deep-field.html

Milky Way City
http://www.astrophoto.com/Mwaycity.htm

Boing Boing Art Archives
http://www.boingboing.net/art/

Naked Geometry
http://www.nakedgeometry.com/store.html

frameboX - Salad (you will never look at Alien the same say again)
http://www.framebox.de/creations/3d/salad/

Mathematical Imagery
http://www.josleys.com/index.php

Rhizome Art
http://rhizome.org/

ziofil's deviantART gallery
http://ziofil.deviantart.com/gallery/

Discovering and Illustrating Patterns in Data
http://www.neoformix.com/archive.html

Edward Tufte Graphics Arts
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

David Rumsey Map Collection
http://www.davidrumsey.com/

Geostationary Banana Over Texas
http://www.geostationarybananaovertexas.com/en.html

Celestial Mechanics planetarium-based art
http://www.cmlab.com/

Open Source Science Outreach (visualizations)
http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/index.html

A visual exploration on mapping complex networks
http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/index.cfm

Spider Web Construction Gallery
http://www.conservation.unibas.ch/team/zschokke/spidergallery.html

Art of Physics
http://www.cap.ca/cap/art.html

Maps at Strangemaps
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/

BiblioOdyssey
http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/

Pale Blue Dot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47EBLD-ISyc

Theremin (Randy George performing Barkley's 'Crazy')
http://laughingsquid.com/theremin-cover-version-of-gnarls-barkleys-crazy/

Ruben's Tube Music
http://wohba.com/pages/ruben1006.html

Guinness Evolution Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L4MOHpOLWo

Will Wright's Spore Video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8372603330420559198


I don't view art and science as separate fields of endeavor.... and ..
if one adopts Aristotle's definition of 'Art', which is a creation, an
alchemy, the Greeks did not view them separately either.

Aristotle's two possibilities of art (_Physics II_) are to 1) perfect
natural processes and to bring them to a state of completion not found
in nature itself (i.e. improve), and to 2) only imitate nature without
fundamentally altering it, i.e., to imitate various aspects of the
natural world. In the ancient world, this imitation was considered a
little like cheating, counterfeit.

And that opens up ideas that humans have debated for thousands of years:
Was 'art' always limited to the imperfect mimicry of nature or could human
beings genuinely recreate natural products? Did the assertions of the
alchemists infringe on the power of 'God' himself, turning man into the
creator on the same level as the divinity? If alchemists could make
precious metals, where did their powers end? To the replication of life?
Could they improved on the life that the 'creator' formed?

These are very old questions, yet very much in debate in the politics,
academics and philosophical arenas today. I wrote a summary piece on
that aspect reviewing William Newman's book: _Promethean Ambitions_  here:

"Of Transhumanists: Following the trail of the alchemists"
http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/2005-February/013649.html

Ciao,
Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado