Beautiful friendship

The divide between the arts and sciences is a relatively new phenomenon, summed up by CP Snow in his oft-quoted lecture of 1959, ‘The Two Cultures’. Leonardo da Vinci is a great example of a fifteenth century polymath, being a scientist, inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, musician and writer among other fields of interest. There has always been and continues to be a mutual interest and curiosity, and not always a superficial one, between the arts and sciences. Artists have always had a fascination for and desire to explore and question the world around them, much as scientists have. For some it is social or political, while for others it’s about the fundamentals of what makes us, and the world around and beyond us, function.
Fruitful dialogue
Over the past few decades, there have been a growing number of artists working with computer technology as it has become more ubiquitous, and more recently there has been a growth of artists working with scientists in a formalised way to explore and try to understand the amazing discoveries that are coming from the biomedical research fields. From filmmakers working with neurologists to explore epilepsy, through to printmakers working with psychiatrists, artists draw on these specialists to inform and enhance their research and ultimately their work. There is often an opportunity for scientists to gain something from this work and to use the artists’ experimentation to aid their own research, and there is always an opportunity for a scientist to explain their work to a wider audience. The dialogue and debate between the scientists and artists lead to fruitful explorations for both.
Artist Julie Freeman joined Cranfield University’s Microsystem and Nanotechnology Centre on a Wellcome Trust residency. She worked with Professor Jeremy Ramsden, Chair of Nanotechnology, and her time there resulted in not only the planned art works, which took the form of posters and accompanying ‘nano novels’, but also lead to Freeman and Ramsden co-authoring a scientific paper exploring the definition of the nanoscale. A true example of reciprocated collaboration. The Wellcome Trust’s science and art funding scheme, ‘Sciart’, was started in 1996 and ran until 2006. Initially the fund’s purpose was to support visual arts projects that involved collaboration between a scientist and an artist to research, develop and produce a new work, exploring contemporary biological and medical science. This remit was broadened over the years to encompass a wider range of artforms and science activities. Over the 10 years that it ran, Sciart supported 118 projects with nearly £3m of funding. Over the duration of the scheme, perhaps as an influence of the fund, there has been a perceptible cultural shift, most notably in the arts, towards a more interdisciplinary practice.
 

Encouraging collaboration
The Arts Awards schemes were launched in 2007, and they continue to support imaginative and experimental arts projects that investigate biomedical science. The aims of the scheme are “to stimulate interest, excitement and debate about biomedical science through the arts; to examine the social cultural and ethical impact of biomedical science; to support formal and informal learning; to encourage new ways of thinking and to encourage high quality interdisciplinary practice and collaborative partnerships in arts, science and/or education practice”. ‘Me, Myself and MRI’, was a collaborative project between Geodesic Arts and Archbishop Holgate’s School, to examine the science and ethics of neuroimaging through a programme of workshops for young people. Working with the artists and York Neuroimaging Centre, the participants explored the history of medical imaging, how contemporary scanning technologies work and debated the ethics surrounding neuroimaging and the use of biomedical data. The result was a series of portraits of a cross section of people using MRI scanning, video, photography and sound recording. The pupils’ understanding and discussion of ethics, and the integration of those ethics into their lives, had as big an impact on them as did the creative work. The work has been shown at the National Science Learning Centre and the Impressions Gallery in Bradford, and is going on tour.
The science of art
Dance, drama, performance arts, visual arts, music, film, craft, photography, creative writing and digital media are all eligible under the Arts Awards. It has been the Trust’s task to hone its skills in separating the good from the bad and the indifferent. Indifference may come from a temptation to see the award scheme as a source of funding first and an opportunity to explore and investigate something of genuine interest last. Good projects are about producing a new work of art with a rigour of research and implementation, in both the science and the art. The Opera Group is working on research and development for a new work called ‘The Lion’s Face’, that explores the social, emotional and physical impacts of dementia. As part of the research for the creation of the opera, they are working with Professor Simon Lovestone and his team at the Institute of Psychiatry and have held public presentations and discussions about the work at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. With the steady increase in applications, new trends and interests have become evident. 2009 is the two hundredth anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, which is being celebrated with Darwin200. This has been reflected in the large number of applications centring on Darwin’s life and theories of evolution. Projects focusing on environmental issues and the subsequent biomedical consequences are also increasing. Genetics is proving a popular area too, focusing on both its impact on our lives and understanding of our fundamental make-up and inherited traits, and also as a means to influence or create work using the principles of genetic sequencing.
A quick Google search for ‘Art and Science’ in the UK returns over 19 million results. Scientists want to be able to bring to public attention what might otherwise be seen as an impenetrable field of study to the layperson. Artists want to access and explore a knowledge base that provides an added depth and rigour to their work. Art and science collaboration is on the increase as it is proving successful, fruitful and, above all, fascinating for the scientists, artists and the audiences. n

Emma Quinn is Arts Adviser at the Wellcome Trust.
e: e.quinn@wellcome.ac.uk
w: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk