Contents
Editorial
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Art and Atoms: A Chemical ParadoxTami I. Spector
Artists’ Articles
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The Semiotics of the Moon as Fantasy and DestinationMichael Betancourt
This essay surveys a 20-year period of the author’s studio-based research into “spatial montage” and windowing, elaborating on his use of space imagery in a symbolic system describing the critique of fantasy::reality through symbols that are still used in the contemporary world—how the mythic dimensions of interpreting the “heavens” collide and contradict contemporary scientific interpretations. “Visionary” art is the dynamic focus, with the Moon as the central icon, providing a direct means for the author to consider ambiguities and complexities of symbolic transformation: earlier descriptions of heavens and Earth provide a visionary subtext to scientific exploration. The author considers himself a “revisionary” artist whose work engages the implicit semiotics of visionary film/visual music to problematize the pseudoscientific theories found there.
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Model Metaphor: A Case Study of a New Methodology for Art/Science ResidenciesNola Farman, Matt Barr, Angela Philp, Miranda Lawry, Warwick Belcher, Paul Dastoor
Traditional artist-in-science-residency schemes have tended to focus on artists using scientific tools and technology as a medium for their art. What kind and quality of work might occur, however, between scientists working on cutting-edge solar energy research and a visual artist (a sculptor) when they are integrated in a truly collaborative environment? Is it good for the art? Is it good for the science? The authors describe a new methodology for art-science interactions whereby they have integrated arts practice within a scientific environment. A critical aspect of the methodology for the residency was the development of an interaction framework that ensured that both artist and scientist had equal voice in discussions involving the art and science of the project within an environment of mutual respect. The integration led to the development of outcomes that would not have occurred otherwise.
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Egocentric Perspective: Depicting the Body from Its Own Point of View
We are almost always visible to ourselves. Depending on how you are seated, reclining or standing, you will see parts of your nose, legs, hands, arms, shoulders or trunk from your own point of view. Yet these everyday features of our visual world are rarely depicted—and hardly ever in a way that accords with our perceptual experience. This paper will consider why we tend to ignore this “egocentric perspective” and how it can be represented.
Artist’s Note
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Microbioenergy TheatersMick Lorusso
The author describes two recent sculptural projects with bacteria that produce electricity while decomposing organic matter, in a technology known as a microbial fuel cell. These works encourage a ludic relationship to microbes, allowing us to acknowledge their aptitude for building ordered societies that sustain many life systems in the environment and within us. Relationships between humans, technology and microbes emerge in these theatrical scenarios.
General Articles
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Drawing in Mathematics: From Inverse Vision to the Liberation of FormGemma Anderson, Dorothy Buck, Tom Coates, Alessio Corti
The literature on art and mathematics has focused largely on how geometric forms have influenced artists and on the use of computer visualization in mathematics. The authors consider a fundamental but undiscussed connection between mathematics and art: the role of drawing in mathematical research, both as a channel for creativity and intuition and as a language for communicating with other scientists. The authors argue that drawing, as a shared way of knowing, allows communication between mathematicians, artists and the wider public. They describe a collaboration based on drawing and “inverse vision” in which the differing logics of the artist and the mathematician are treated on equal terms.
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Creative Craft-Based Textile Activity in the Age of Digital Systems and PracticesGail Kenning, T.J. Cohen
Domestic craft-based textile activities, such as knitting, crochet, hand weaving and lace making, are often viewed as being of limited creative potential. The perceived lack of creativity arises, in part, out of the extent to which these activities copy, reproduce and re-create existing pattern forms and use preexisting templates. This paper reports on the findings of an experimental research project that explored the creative potential of crochet lace making using digital media, technologies and practices. It provides critical analysis of how new technologies, practices and theoretical frameworks have implications for ongoing domestic craft-based textile activities.
Historical Perspective
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Lost in Edition: Did Leonardo da Vinci Slip Up?Dirk Huylebrouck
Leonardo da Vinci committed mistakes in geometry, analytical mechanics and arithmetic. The publication of his work was not always done carefully. These revelations have opened up the mystery surrounding the genius artist-scientist’s alleged errors. In this paper, the author explores these errors and their possible sources and potential implications.
Special Section: Highlights from the IEEE VIS 2013 Arts Program (VISAP’13): Part 1
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Highlights from the IEEE VIS 2013 Arts Program (VISAP’13), IntroductionAngus G. Forbes
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DataRemix: Designing the DatamadeRuth West, Roger Malina, John Lewis, Scot Gresham-Lancaster, Alejandro Borsani, Brian Merlo, Lifan Wang
ArtScience is emerging as one approach for creating novel ways of seeing and new ways of knowing. The authors propose a role for ArtScience research and creative work in contributing to the necessary shifts to go beyond the current crisis of representation. DataRemix, a recombination and reappropriation practice intended to trigger novel subjective experiences and associations, is described.
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Thermal ImageBarry Moon, Hilary Harp
Thermal Image is a networked electromechanical sculpture which seeks to draw attention to the idea of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) index, an alternative to the Gross National Product, by presenting a physicalization of data scanned from Twitter feeds from 20 cities around the globe.
Special Section: The Art/Science Curriculum in the Classroom and in the Cloud
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The Art/Science Curriculum in the Classroom and in the CloudAdrienne Klein
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Using Creative Process to Guide Integrated Art and Engineering CoursesJill Fantauzza
This paper describes the design of two university courses that integrated practices and processes from the visual arts and engineering. In both cases, patterns of creative process were used as a means of integration. Researchers found that by focusing on process as a way to structure the integration of these two disciplines, students were able to create emergent, hybrid artifacts along the spectrum between art and engineering, beyond the range of their previous work. Creative process became the backbone that allowed students to integrate knowledge, materials, techniques, and culture across the art and engineering disciplines.
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Art Curriculum in Partnership with Canadian Physics LabIngrid Koenig, Annmarie Chandler
When art students at Emily Carr University take a hybrid humanities/studio class with a scientific theme, they are challenged to materially transform abstract concepts. Students interact with physicists and make work on site at TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics. Strategies for art and science partnership models are tested in a curricular Transformation Art Lab as well as the RAW DATA project, where students view studio faculty struggling with similar challenges.
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The Transdisciplinary Cloud Curriculum
In this paper, the author looks at the evidence from the international Leonardo Education and Arts Forum on art/science cloud curriculum workshops he instigated in Copenhagen and Prague in 2012. These workshops discussed the aims of affecting a shift in perception toward a foundational understanding of new paradigms for research and learning that challenge and transcend disciplinary boundaries. The curriculum privileged a metacognitive interrogation of content and (re)visioning of traditional disciplinary research methodologies using a syncretic integration of heuristic and practice-based inquiry.
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Physical Aesthetics: An Introductory Physics Course Through MetaphorSteven Zides, David Burraston
At liberal arts institutions, physics faculty struggle with the daunting task of creating a Bachelor of Arts physics offering (often referred to as Physics for Poets) that is both engaging and approachable. Over the past several years, the author has worked toward a new educational paradigm that presents introductory physics as a set of physical metaphors rather than an incomplete collage of problem-solving equations. By engaging the physical metaphors from both traditional physics and art historical viewpoints, students are forced to integrate two seemingly disparate sets of information into a cohesive knowledge base.
Special Section: Leonardo Abstract Services: Top-Ranked LABS Abstracts 2014
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Top-Rated LABS Abstracts 2014-IntroSheila Pinkel
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The Aesthetics of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): Setting MRI in Motion from the Scientific Laboratory to an Art ExhibitionSilvia Casini
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Three-Dimensional Poetic NaturesJayne Fenton-Keane
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Mediating Poles: Media Art and Critical Experiments of the Polish Site, 2004–2009Aleksandra Kaminska
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Noisy Fields: Interference and Equivocality in the Sonic Legacies of Information TheoryNicholas A. Knouf
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Languages of Russian and Chinese Narrative Video ArtVictoria Marchenkova
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From Networked Art to Programmed Drifts: “Art as Experience” Today
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Sonified Freaks and Sounding Prostheses: Sonic Representation of Bodies in Performance ArtDanií‚l Ploeger
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The Optics of Anatomy and Light: A Studio-based Investigation of the Construction of Anatomical Images
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Axial; A Sound Art Work of an Oceanographic Expedition
Transactions
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Transactions IntroErnest Edmonds
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Animating Fermi—A Collaboration between Art Students and AstronomersLaurence Arcadias, Robin corbet@umbc.edu
Undergraduate animation students at the Maryland Institute College of Art teamed up with scientists from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to produce a set of animations on several astronomy topics. Here, the authors describe the process and discuss the results, educational benefits and the cross-cultural experience. These animations are available for free online.
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Visualizing Biological Complexity in Cephalopod Skin: A Synergy of Art and Science TechnologiesElizabeth Kripke, Stephen Senft, Dmitry Mozzherin, Roger Hanlon, Joanna Griffin
A cross-disciplinary team of artists and scientists is working to illuminate the detailed properties of dynamic coloration in squid, cuttlefish and octopus. They have synergistically fused the 3D animation software Blender with scientific bio-imaging techniques to better visualize the organization of cephalopod skin and its intricate web of nerve connections. This paper presents the practical benefits of the collaboration: how scientific detail has enriched artistic appreciation of these exquisite marine species and how artistic visualization has enriched scientific understanding of how cephalopods dynamically manipulate color.
Leonardo Reviews
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Susan Goethel Campbell: Field GuideGiovanna L. Costantini
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To Tell the Truth: Working for Change: Documenting Hard Times (1929–1941)Amy Ione, David Marlett
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Leonardo da Vinci: AnatomistAmy Ione, David Marlett
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Resisting Abstraction: Robert Delaunay and Vision in the Face of ModernismMichael Punt, Eunjung Han
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Modernism and Its Merchandise: The Spanish Avant-Garde and Material Culture, 1920–1930Jan Baetens
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The Conscious MindCecilia Wong
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The Practice of Light: A Genealogy of Visual Technologies from Prints to PixelsRobert Maddox-Harle
Reviews
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Making Mind: Moral Sense and Consciousness in Philosophy, Science, and LiteratureKathryn Francis
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This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the ClimateGeorge Gessert
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Idolatry and Infinity: Of Art, Math, and GodPhil Dyke
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Science and Art: The Painted SurfaceBrian Reffin Smith
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June 2015
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May 2015
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April 2015
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March 2015
Leonardo Network News
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Leonardo Network NewsMaryam Shamlou