“The task of art is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man’s memory.” Jorge Luis Borges
The steady march of scientific and technological progress exposes previously unobservable realms, transforming the way in which we perceive and evaluate our environment and situation. Part of the role played by artists, musicians and designers has always been to creatively represent the abstract and esoteric nature of such advances.
This project seeks to re-blur the boundaries between the arts, academia, science and technology and reveal phenomena and to produce a piece of work illuminating a phenomenon that is imperceptible to human senses, perhaps because of scale or time.
It is important that your work remains contextual. If you’re using climate change data and your outcome has no thematic relationship to climate change then the data effectively remains abstract.
The aim of the project is to invoke awe and understanding. You needn’t necessarily focus on cutting edge science or dry formulae – illuminating a more humble subject could be just as effective. Your means of illumination should shine a metaphoric light on your subject and creatively reveal the imperceptible.
One way to approach this is through visualisation, sonification and projection, spanning more than one medium.
Where do we go from here?
What you will learn on this project:
- Knowledge from disparate fields
- An understanding of the role played by the arts in the cultural contextualisation of scientific and technological advances
- How esoteric phenomena can be clarified and enriched using a range of creative media
Suggested submission forms and formats:
- Multimedia installation
- VR experience
- Data sonification and/or visualisation
Suggested reading, resources and examples:
- Scale-Structure-Synthesis, by Mark Fell and Jonathan Howse
Audio installation and graphic design derived from the Brownian motion of molecules
https://cdm.link/2012/09/nanomusic-mark-fell-turns-to-neuroscience-and-high-power-microscopes-for-particle-music/ - Cymatics – Short TED talk on visualising sound waves
ted.com/talks/evan_grant_cymatics.html - The Diatomist, by Matthew Killip
Short film about the Victorian art of arranging microscopic algae in kaleidoscopic patterns
https://aeon.co/videos/amazing-hidden-worlds-become-visible-through-a-forgotten-victorian-art-form
