Science as a catalyst for art

Abstract

The artist investigates art within science beneath the threshold of normal visual perception. Writings of former and current theorists in science, mathematics, and art influence the developmental nature of art. Technological innovation exposes new insights for artistic interpretation through imaging processes. Human perception of nature is changed and expanded. Scientific stimuli initiate an intellectual creative process where aesthetics in science are visualised. Experiments using a polarising microscope implement creativity. Crystals evolve into fractal patterns. The methodology consists of observing, analysing, and recording. The analysis follows artistic criteria. Analogous patterns synthesise the holism of nature's branching systems. Data are collected and evaluated in collaboration with scientists, who employ tools such as the electron microscope. The artist takes photomicrographs and varies artistic techniques to record magnifications. The images form unifying threads between art and science. Crossreferencing at art/science exhibitions initiates a learning process which challenges preconceived interpretations of landscapes. The world is mirrored beyond vision – a microcosm of the world we see. Artistic creativity is catalysed as one body of data moves to another. Scientific imagery provides a new rationale and changed concept of reality which delineates and slowly unravels the patterns of chaos.