STRAIGHT TALK
with Steve Miller
Booming Demand (2012). 61.5"x107". Pigment dispersion and silk screen on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist.
The notebooks of Rod MacKinnon photographed and silk screen on canvas.
Steve Miller has been exploring the possibilities of science-based art for the past 32 years,
covering topics such as the Amazon rainforest, the folding of proteins, and the movement of
ions across the cellular membrane in mediums including drawing, painting, printmaking, and
photography. He currently has a show at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
SAiA: We’re going to start with the larger
picture here—as someone who’s been working
in the field for some time now, how do you view
science-based art within the context of the art
world and in our culture at large?
SM: Right now, if you view the “larger picture,”
there is an enormous amount of art that could
be considered SciArt. I see this field as wide
and deep. Your question uses “science-based”
and what is the definition of science? While
not very scientific in my approach, I went to
Wikipedia for a quick definition: Science (from
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latin “scientia”, meaning “knowledge”) is a systematic
enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the
form of testable explanations and predictions about
the universe. In an older and closely related meaning,
“science” also refers to a body of knowledge itself, of
the type that can be rationally explained and reliably
applied.
This definition would easily include the engineer bridge-building feats of Chris Burden
or his use of a meteorite as the prime component of a sculpture (both currently on view at
the New Museum in New York) as well as the
SciArt in America December 2013