Most Successful Intersections of Art and Science (Post 1)
This week, I have come to learn that the line between science and art gets more and more blurred as we investigate the history of both disciplines. While it seemed to me at first that art was based on science and mathematics, reading the Greek history of the disciplines has proved otherwise-- for instance, the mathematical term "ratio" coming from the Latin word that translated to "proportion". This implies that the Greeks were basing their mathematics off of what they had been learning through art all along!
Over time, the gap between art and science seems to wax and wane. While it was incredibly popular in ancient times, I had not been aware of a predominant intersection contemporarily. The relatively recent accessibility to technology has revolutionized the art practice and has therefore opened the door for artists to utilize science and math through previously inaccessible avenues.
My first artist of reference is Vik Muniz who collaborated with scientist Marcelo Cohelo on Sand Castles-- a project in which the creators use electron microscopes and ion beans to etch tiny sandcastles on individual grains of sand. The results are incredibly intricate and would have been undeniably impossible without technological advancement and scientific collaboration. Muniz is a Brazilian artist and was able to work on the collaborative project with grad student Cohelo through MIT’s CAST program (Center for Art, Science, and Technology). The result was the 2013 Sandcastle series which took over 4 years to complete through meticulous trial and error. Vik summarizes the success of the partnership between artists and scientists by explaining: “We’re all looking for the same thing; we’re trying to understand the world around us” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV2_da-Km0s). This project was shown as a series of larger than life photographs, prompting the viewer to question the size and familiarity of what was displayed in the images. The juxtaposition of a sprawling castle on a tiny grain of sand sparks thoughts on scale and the advancement of technology over time (from when castles were first being built to when they were being engraved on the tiniest grains of sand).
Through scientific advancements such as electron microscopes are relatively new in the scope of art history, artists and scientists have been one and the same since the beginning of time. Maria Sibylla Merian was the daughter of an artist and grew up invested in painting and drawing. While she initially only used flowers, fruit and animals as visual references, at age 13 Merian began collecting and raising insects (considered strange and “devilish” at the time). While she drew the insects with incredible detail and accuracy, she was simultaneously documenting their life cycles and habits-- successfully pioneering entomology. She published her first book in 1679 which included drawings and observations of the life cycle of butterflies/caterpillars. At this time, it was unusual to investigate the life of bugs but even MORE unusual to do so as a woman. Merian divorced her husband and took her daughters to live more freely in the pursuit of knowledge. She spent a great portion of her life traveling to relatively unexplored places to investigate and document the insects. She was also the first artist/ entomologist to ever portray insects and plant life in the same images. Merian was able to create the essence of an interconnected ecosystem in her publishings. While she began with artistic roots, those roots ultimately led her to pursue scientific inquiry through her preferred medium of drawing and painting. Merian’s findings are undoubtedly crucial to modern-day entomology and botany, as well as being prime examples of detail for artists to reference. It was ultimately her attention to detail and pursuit of accuracy that made her successful in both fields.
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Below are images of Marie Sibylla Merian's illustrations and Vik Muniz's Sandcastles (including Muniz standing in front of a gallery print for scale).
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