artist seeks scientist newsletter may 2012
DESCRIPTION
Our first newsletter, what we've been up to over the last 3 months and what comes next.TRANSCRIPT
Artist seeks Scientist
February-May 2012
Cover image: Chaos and geomagnetic reversals
This image illustrates reversals of the polarity of the Earth’s magnetic field.
The magnetic field of the Earth has reversed its polarity several hundred times during the past
160 million years. Polarity reversals are known to be strongly irregular and chaotic, and the
reversal durations are relatively short (typically a few thousand years) compared with the
constant polarity intervals between reversals.
Taken from Princeton University Art of Science competition: www.princeton.edu/artofscience
Study the science of art and the art
of science’ - Leonardo da Vinci
Hello!
Greetings from your “Artist seeks Scientist “organiser.
Since I took over from Bushra in February, I have had
a lot of fun meeting many of you and hearing about
your work and ideas. I decided to share some of that
with you in the form of a newsletter. I hope that you
enjoy it, and that you feel inspired to contribute to the
next one, or at least to join us in our upcoming events,
or online discussions. We have 266 intelligent, smart
and creative members and I truly hope that “Artist
seeks Scientist” becomes a platform for exchanging
ideas and developing new friendships.
So please don’t hesitate to share, join and suggest
events and activities. And of course, I am happy to
receive feedback, criticism and comments.
See you soon!
Houda
A little bit about us, in numbers…
Where we started and where we are now
The last 100 active members were
Scientists (44)
Both
(15)
Artists
(31)
Neither Artist nor Scientist (10)
Popular reasons for joining the group
What we’ve been up to so far
Some favourites …
Polymath @ GV Art
Polymath: Someone who knows a lot
about a lot…but who also can do a lot;
someone who displays intellectual
polygamy as opposed to intellectual
promiscuity...*
http://www.gvart.co.uk/
Some thoughts on the subject of the Polymath*
“...The world may well be a better place for the specialisation that has
come along... The pity is that progress has to come at a price. Civilisation
has put up fences that people can no longer leap across; a certain type of
mind is worth less. The choices modern life imposes are duller, more
cramped”
“Polymaths possess something that monomaths do not. Time and again,
innovations come from a fresh eye or from another discipline. Most
scientists devote their careers to solving the everyday problems in their
specialism...and it takes ingenuity and perseverance to crack them. But
breakthroughs—the sort of idea that opens up whole sets of new
problems—often come from other fields. The work in the early 20th
century that showed how nerves work and, later, how DNA is structured
originally came from a marriage of physics and biology.”
* http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/edward-carr/last-days-polymath
YayOi Kusama@ The Tate Modern This was a large exhibition that covered quite a lot of the artist’s work.
Yayoi is obsessed with repeated patterns, especially
with dots. I would love to hear a neurologist’s, or a
psychologist’s view on how her art developed from
the early days in post WWII Japan through her
obsession with white, with dots, with white dots,
with coloured dots, and finally to the bright and
clashing colours of her years in a mental institution!
The obsession with dots made me think of a very
common pattern in biology, the positive feedback
loop, which is what happens when two elements
mutually stimulate and amplify each other. This is
how my
nerdy
mind
imagined
what
went on in Yayoi’s head:
p.s. I highly recommend seeing the exhibition
if you missed it, it’s on until June 5th.
Usurp Art Gallery
A big thank you to Poulomi and Mary for having us at Usurp Art Gallery.
We had quite an interesting afternoon there, drinking tea and redefining
the laws of the universe ;) We also got
to know a little bit about Usurp, a not
for profit art collective that creates
opportunities for communities to work
with artists from diverse backgrounds,
and to contribute to the creation of
artworks that challenge conformity,
prejudice and discrimination
The gallery has hosted an impressive number of projects and events. They
have worked with various artists but also with disabled groups in Harrow.
Peeking at their website, I could not
help but be touched by “Behind Closed
Doors”, a photography project led by
Poulomi that depicts Asian women’s
experiences of domestic violence. The
project involved a series of
photography workshops undertaken
by Asian women to help them overcome their experience of domestic
violence. (more on www.usurp.org.uk)
Poulomi has a lot of exciting ideas, and the gallery will soon be converted
into a reading room that will host talks on various topics, including Art
and Science. Stay tuned
www.usurp.org.uk
Ads worth Spreading
When I was little, my parents banned almost every programme on
French TV. Since Algerian TV was pretty boring, my sister and I
resorted to watching adverts. As sad as that sounds, there were some
gems, some very entertaining bursts of creativity, and as a result, I am a
big fan of good Ads.
Ads Worth Spreading is a TED initiative that views Ads as a creative way
to communicate ideas, and that recently set to reward innovative and
intelligent advertising – “the ads that people want to see, and share
with their friends”. Some of you might remember the “Xylophone in the
woods” and the “Chipotle” Adverts that generated quite an interesting
exchange on the discussion board (that was an organiser’s dream, thanks
a million!)
So here is another advert that I thought was worth sharing. This one is
for Kinect, the motion sensing technology used by Microsoft for the Xbox
360 video game. What I love about it is that it is not Microsoft telling
their customers what they should do with it, but the other way around.
The Kinetic Effect
Enjoy!
So what’s next?
Next we are going to the Courtauld Gallery Late on May 10 (that’s
tonight, come join us!), we’ll be checking out the “Mondrian || Nicholson:
In Parallel” exhibition in a 1930s themed evening. There will hopefully be
many of you at the Champagne Bar at Waterstone’s for a bit of a chat
and debate on May 19. I suggest everyone brings something they would
like to share. It can be a book, a picture, a jumper, anything you can tell
us a little story about. We’ll go to the Science Museum Late on May 30th.
The theme of the evening will be science and music, more on that nearer
the time. On June 2, we will go to see Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomy
sketches at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. Please remember
to book you tickets for 1.45 pm. On June 14th, we will go back to the
Royal Society of Chemistry for a talk on GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK)
contribution to the Olympics. What happens after that is up to you!
Shall we stop for the summer? Should we have one last get together, a
picnic if the weather permits, or we could go for a meal? Let me know.
Help!
Here’s a question: How can 266 sophisticated minds help make
this networking group a more vibrant and dynamic group?
I can think of many answers:
1. You could suggest events/places worth visiting.
2. Have you read/seen something interesting lately? Why not share it
with the group? You can use the discussion board or if you are shy
(nooo!), pass it on to me and I will do it.
3. You could share a picture of your art.
4. Do you want to contribute to the next Newsletter? Any help would be
appreciated, especially since I am only a science geek, and I am very
aesthetically challenged!
5. How about giving a short talk about your
work/organisation/aspirations? This comes up at every meetup so I
know some of you are quite keen (some of you know who you are ;)).
Let’s do it! We’ll make it informal and totally relaxed.
6. Are you looking for a collaboration? May be looking for
something/someone very specific? Why don’t you post it on the discussion
board? Or if you prefer, e-mail me and I’ll be happy to help in any way I
can.
7. You have an even better answer and you are dying to tell us all about
it. Go on, just tell us!
And if you made it all the way here, Thank you! I am having
a brilliant time as the organiser for Artist seeks Scientist, you have been
FANTASTIC! and I really hope that you are enjoying it too.
See you soon!
Houda