Tag Archives: Science

We talk about artistic inspiration all the time – but scientific inspiration is a thing too

Tom McLeish is Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Department of Physics at the University of York specialising in soft matter, rheology and biological physics. He maintains a broad interdisciplinary research interests, and is a co-investigator in projects on medieval science, philosophy of emergence, social framing of science and technology, and theology of science. His book on the cultural position of science, “Faith and Wisdom in Science”, was published by OUP in 2014.

Teleological behaviourism or what it means to imagine a lion

Howard Rachlin is an American psychologist and the founder of teleological behaviorism. He is Emeritus Research Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. His current research focuses on patterns of choice over time and how those patterns affect self-control (on which he worked with George Ainslie), including cooperation over time. His most recent book is The Escape of the Mind (2014).

Cassini’s Dreams

Sounds of the cosmos have only been explored to a limited degree yet Saturn’s rings have not been deeply explored for its sound. From Cassini’s research, artist China Blue and her team translated the raw data from the dust and ice particles combined with an artistic interpretation of what would be heard from Cassini’s viewpoint as it traveled through and around Saturn’s rings, to create the bases of her exhibition at the Venice Biennale 2019.

The ‘real you’ is a myth – we constantly create false memories to achieve the identity we want

Giuliana Mazzoni is Professor of Psychology, University of Hull. Human memory represents her main research interest, and more specifically the study on how personal memories are remembered in normal people and in those whose ability to remember is exceptional. Her work on memory has been featured in newspapers and magazines in the UK (among many, The Sunday Times) and around the world (among many,The Washington Post).

Contained

Inspired by an aesthetic in which art, science, medicine and ecology intersect, Elaine Whittaker’s art practice considers biology as contemporary art practice. Based principally in installation, sculpture, painting, drawing and digital imagery, her artworks incorporate a range of materials: from the traditional, such as paint, pigment and wax, to the unconventional, such as mosquitoes, salt crystals, cells and live microorganisms. They have been exhibited nationally and internationally, in art and science galleries, and featured in literary, medical and art magazines, including William Myers’ book, Bio Art: Altered Realities (2015). In this article she reflects on Contained, her 2018 exhibition, and the effects of illness on identity as experienced by her mother when she contracted Tuberculosis at an early age.

Drawing Science

Bethann Garramon Merkle, MFA, is a multi-disciplinary science communicator and artist who specializes in sharing science through depictions of the natural world. In particular, her work explores the role stories play in shaping public perspectives of science and ecology topics. She is currently on staff with the Wyoming Migration Initiative, a research and outreach group within the Department of Zoology and Physiology, at the University of Wyoming. There, she directs the University of Wyoming Science Communication Initiative, conducts research on art-science integration and science communication, and helps researchers with outreach initiatives, offers trainings on sharing science, and creates images, text, social media content, and other outreach materials that convey research results.

Interconnected Perceptions

Sarah Sutton is an associate professor of Art at Ithaca College, who is interested in vision science, spatial structures and speculative futures. Although her work is grounded in her painting practice, her collaboration with scientists and philosophers with overlapping interests provides creativity and vitality to her painting and teaching.