subject. “And when the stakes aren’t that high,
there can still be complicated, expensive, and
cumbersome technical requirements that could
perhaps overwhelm curators at non-SciArt
venues.”
VI. Areas of Overlap
The place where art and science overlap the
most is the university, where a whole range of
disciplines coexist in a single institution. In reality, university departments may be somewhat
segregated even within one school, but in theory, a university seems ripe for SciArt because
it already has the Venn diagram’s two components. Columbia University just began hosting
a series of public talks about the intersection of
art and science this fall, called CUriosity3, which
brings artists, scientists, and science-based artists together to discuss topics such as “The Cell
in Art and Science,” “Epidemics,” “Movement,”
and “the Brain.” Rebecca Jones, who organizes
the series, commented:
nar on art and neuroscience this coming spring
at The New School for Social Research. Additionally, the initiative STEM to STEAM, from
RISD, pushes for the inclusion of Art & Design
(in addition to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) in the U.S. education agenda.
Another advantage for science-based artists to
being in academia is that it provides an alternative to the art market, said Shanken..“Many
professionals in the New Media art world and
art-science art world have academic affiliations,
so they don’t need to earn a living selling art.
They are in a professional situation where they
are actually at greater liberty to experiment.”
The Pratt Institute, with its five schools including architecture, art and design, and liberal
arts and science is an interdisciplinary institution like a university. Accordingly, Pratt Manhattan Gallery seeks to represent all of these disciplines in its exhibitions, says gallery director
Nick Battis: “One of our ambitions for the gallery is to look at our exhibitions from a cross“I think university culture and the academic
disciplinary standpoint, and up till now, that
community is set up to accept and develop
included those [disciplines] that are studied at
new philosophies and ideas (such as the SciArt
Pratt: architecture, design and art… Sometimes
movement), as this is what keeps the institua design exhibition will include artists, and
tions alive and innovative. This also makes them sometimes an art exhibition will have designers
more likely to support interdisciplinary study, as who are producing art. We’ve taken it one step
the dialogue it creates nourishes the academics further in opening it up to science.” The gallery
and students who study there.”
just had a SciArt exhibit, “SPLICE,” a collection of artworks related to themes of medicine
Both science and art have their own sets of
and the human body, which included a sculpspecialized equipment, be it a PCR machine, a
ture in which brains sit atop high heels, a video
pottery wheel, or a copy of Final Cut Pro, and
based on an MRI of an artist’s brain, medical
the expense of equipment could discourage
people from branching out too far. That barrier illustrations, and a room in which a viewer lies
down on a bench and experiences a set of vibrais thinner at universities, says Jones. “Universitions. Pratt Manhattan is planning an in-depth
ties have an advantage as they already have lab
spaces/tech support at hand, as well as a vibrant exhibit about art and neuroscience, “Sleuthing
the Mind,” curated by Levy, in the fall.
community of academics in both the Arts and
Sciences to develop collaborations with external
While Pratt Manhattan remains only one of a
partners.” Many universities now host artistsfew galleries with an explicit interest in holding
in-residence, like Nene Humprey’s residency at science-based art shows, that is not to say that
NYU and Joyce Cutler-Shaw’s at UCSD. Some
there is no SciArt in galleries at all. “The fact
universities offer courses that combine art and
is, there’s plenty of SciArt in mainstream conscience. Suzanne Anker, in fact, is responsible
temporary art; it just isn’t called that,” Shanken
for the new laboratory for artists housed with
said, mentioning as examples the work of James
the School of Visual Arts, New York, offering
Turrell, whose light-based work appeared at the
classes that teach art students how to engage
Guggenheim this summer, and Alexis Rockman,
with the scientific method. Ed Kerns, professor whose paintings depict the way humans interact
of Art at Lafayette College, teaches art classes
with plants and animals and who is represented
to interdisciplinary students, often from the
by Salomon Contemporary, in Chelsea.
sciences. Ellen Levy will be conducting a semi-
SciArt in America December 2013
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