Tag Archives: Art

We Contain Multitudes

Artist and writer, Richard Bright, has addressed the relationship between art, science and consciousness for over 40 years. He studied Fine Art and Physics before founding The Interalia Centre in 1990. Since then, he has lectured extensively on art and science and written articles on James Turrell, Andy Goldsworthy and Susan Derges, among others. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally and was the recipient of the ‘Visions of Science’ Award, The Edge, Andrew Brownsward Gallery, University of Bath (Second Prize Winner). Co-author of ‘The Art of Science’ (Welbeck Publishers, 2021). In ‘We Contain Multitudes’ he shows some his recent work.

Chaos and Order as Design Elements in Evolutionary Biology and the Visual Arts: A Case Study of Human–Robot Artistic Collaboration

This paper investigates the interplay of chaos and order in evolutionary biology, cell biology and the visual arts. It argues that creativity in both natural and artistic systems arises from a productive tension between these two principles. The study introduces a collaborative art project in which a robotic drawing machine and a human painter co-created works, embodying order and chaos respectively. By drawing parallels between mutation and repair in biology, dynamic processes in physics, and compositional strategies in art, the paper highlights chaos and order as universal design elements across disciplines.

Constant

‘Constant’, an AI film by Danny Ratcliff, follows Bailee from childhood through motherhood, chronicling her lifelong relationship with an AI companion. Beginning with Bailee’s birth in 2023. The narrative explores how trust with artificial intelligence, established early and nurtured over time, can become a cornerstone relationship. While some in our culture remain skeptical of AI technology, Bailee’s story represents what’s possible when a relationship is built on genuine partnership rather than fear of technology. The film culminates with Bailee introducing her five-year-old daughter Natasha to her AI companion, passing down the same trust that shaped her own life.

Perceiving Reality: The Enthalpy of Existence

‘Perceiving Reality: The Enthalpy of Existence’ traces a decade long investigation by British artist Alexander James Hamilton into the behaviour of light, matter, and perception as thermodynamic systems. Spanning the Siberian projects ‘Oil + Water’ (2013–2016) and ‘Empirical Research & Evidence’ (2021–2023), the work unites scientific observation with aesthetic consciousness. Through analogue photography and sustainable material practice, Hamilton visualises entropy, equilibrium, and environmental change as intertwined conditions. The resulting corpus proposes that perception itself functions as empirical instrument: a form of energy exchange in which to observe is to participate in creation.

In Petri Dish We Sing

Through the lens of a stem cell clinic in the year 2135, ‘In Petri Dish We Sing’ envisions a world where embryonic stem cells (ESCs) become a raw, sustainable material that forms the very fabric of the city’s infrastructure. Inspired by MIT’s research on the Lemon Skin Chair and Yarli Allison’s exploration of the healthcare system and gender health gaps, the film envisions a society reconstructed from this regenerative substance, one that carries the traces of cellular memory.

At the heart of ‘In Petri Dish We Sing’ are three intertwined lives: the healer, inspired by Yarli’s uncle, who left his prestigious gynaecology career to return to inherited ancient healing practices that Western medicine cannot identify; a granny who, at 79 wishes to be pregnant again, made possible by stem cell echnology; and a grieving man who uses his late loved one’s stem cells to grow furniture. Their encounters unfold within the speculative infrastructure of a stem cell clinic, where care and repair could be reimagined.

HumanNature

NastPlas are an international artistic duo formed by Fran R. Learte and Natalia Molinos.

“We explore the relationship between humans and the natural environment by merging advanced technology with handcrafted processes. Combining digital tools such as artificial intelligence and 3D modeling with traditional techniques like ceramics, we create hybrid pieces that bridge the digital and physical worlds.”

Beyond the “Fake”: Martyna Marciniak’s Artwork, Anatomy of Non-Fact, Explores Synthetic Images

Joël Chevrier has been a Physics Professor at Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) since 1998. This article discusses artist Martyna Marciniak’s work, ‘Anatomy of Non-Fact’, which uses images moving from optical images (photography as it comes out XIX century) to non-optical images or synthetic images as generated by AI.

On ‘Liquid Reflections’

In 1958, talented and fearless and eighteen years old, Liliane Lijn left her family home and moved to Paris alone to become an artist. Once there, she found an art world filled with the wild energy of creative revolution – peopled and controlled almost entirely by men. Based on personal diaries from the time, ‘Liquid Reflections’ is her memoir of these years of experiment and adventure. A revelatory account of a singular coming of age: a glittering portrait of the artist as a young woman. In this interview with Richard Bright, she discusses ‘Liquid Reflections’, revealing her experiences in an era when sexism was the norm.

My Hands, The Machine’s Mind: Giving Up Artistic Agency

Kayla Block is a mixed media artist and creative technologist whose work lives at the intersection of memory, machine, and material.

“This project explores a human-AI art collaboration in which the artist relinquished creative agency to ChatGPT, following its instructions to create a mixed-media piece. Rather than functioning as a passive assistant, the AI was prompted to issue direct, uncompromising commands. The resulting work revealed both the strengths and limitations of a language model directing visual composition. While ChatGPT declared the piece complete, the artist perceived unresolved tensions. The project raises questions about authorship, aesthetic judgment, and the nature of creativity when one mind is human and the other computational, offering a reflective case study in co-creation across species of intelligence.”

The most-viewed painting in the world – a myth?

Florian Coulmas is Professor emeritus of Japanese Society and Sociolinguistics at the IN-EAST Institute of East Asian Studies at Duisburg-Essen University. He has published numerous books, including one about Hiroshima, where he once lived. In 2016, he was awarded the Meyer-Struckmann-Prize for Research in Arts and Social Sciences. More about him can be found here:
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/soci-2025-0003/html?lang=de&srsltid=AfmBOorWLOi61PBlP66wAMDb4vtc7hgp_CsTwP6ZgXXZSGS9CSpjBsSt