SciArt Magazine Volume 1
August 2013
Table of Contents

Cover image: SVA's biology lab for artists.
Letter from the Editor

​Why SciArt?

For all of the ways that science and art differ in their practice, methods, products and histories, their foundation has remained the same: an unquenchable thirst for understanding the nature of our existence. It is this curiosity that has led to their overlapping interests throughout time, the study of the human body being the most popular example. Other worldly phenomena have been shared by the two disciplines as well; to name one, when Einstein was formulating his Theory of Special Relativity, Pablo Picasso was painting his Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, each in their own way attempting to describe the relationship between space and time. It has only been for the past two decades or so, however, that some artists have turned directly to science as their sole source of artistic information, inspiration, and conceptualization. Today there is a new breed of art called science-based art, or SciArt for short. Science-based artists are using current scientific findings as their subject matter, and the focus in art on science has become much more directed, exciting, and is overwhelmingly fruitful.

Pushing the known perimeter of science-based art into uncharted territories, SciArt can be made from anything from marble to biological tissue, and I believe we are only at the beginning of seeing the amazing results of art created to illuminate the wonders of scientific discoveries, a subject touched upon in the first article of this issue. Painters of physics, sculptors of neuroscience, photographers of our changing ecosystem, science-based artists are now holding residencies in laboratories, exhibiting art at scientific conferences, and collaborating with scientists directly.

I would like to take this opportunity to recognize other organizations which, like SciArt, have made it their mission to highlight this exciting slice of the art world. For the past 35 years Art & Science Collaborations, Inc (ASCI) has served as a critical network for science-based artists, while Leonardo/ISAST has fostered the cross-fertilization between art, science and technology, along with xSEAD and Genspace. Featured in this issue, the School of Visual Arts’ NATLab is one of the only laboratories made for artists, with another one soon to open at the University of North Texas.

​With science-based art having a strong presence in the U.K. and Berlin, here at SciArt, we want to serve as both a resource and publication for the growing SciArt scene in the United States. Each issue we will feature individual artists, along with SciArt organizations, projects and events, in attempt to weave closer together the SciArt community stretched across the States.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this issue, and the many more to come. Happy reading. 

Sincerely, 
Julia Buntaine | Founder, Editor-in-Chief

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ON TOPIC
Science as the Subject of Art

​||Erik P. Hoel
Why should art concern itself with science? Why not just let science pass by unattended to, unremarked upon, why not let science toil in its own halls under its own mechanistic means? Why attempt to engage the Titan that moves past you in the dark? There is no doubt that culture is becoming more scientific, not in its methodology, but in its daily concerns, topics, metaphors, standards of truth... 

STRAIGHT TALK
Folding proteins with Julian Voss-Andreae

What later became separate interests had been one thing when I grew up. I always had a very deep sense of awe for nature. My mother told me that she would frequently find me sitting in the sandbox staring at small grains of sand for hours on end. One of my favorite toys of my childhood were Lego blocks; there really was no distinction between the engineering solutions and the aesthetics of the pieces I was working on... 

SPACES & PLACES:
A Laboratory for a Studio at SVA

Residing in the School of Visual Arts (New York, New York) is one of America’s only science laboratories created for express use by artists. The NATLab (Nature & Technology Lab) was conceived of and founded by bioartist and chair of the Fine Arts Department at SVA, Suzanne Anker... 

STRAIGHT TALK
Physics & paint with Daniel Hill

I recall as a kid, staying up until the early hours of the morning in the backyard with a telescope scanning the skies. I think something wonderful happens to the way one thinks and sees our world after intense, prolonged periods of studying the night sky. I loved thinking of how my telescope was a functioning time machine revealing the truth of a vast world of which we were a part of, but rarely noticed, thought about, or ever saw... 

STRAIGHT TALK
Embroidering biology with Megan Canning

What is so amazing about being an artist is that you experience the world through a different lens, and it can lead you places you never would have gotten to otherwise. It is still surprising to me - and I think, to most of my family - that I make the art that I do. I have no scientific background (other than the fact that I am the daughter of a nurse), and still get a bit faint at the sight of my own blood... 

STRAIGHT TALK
Visualizing water with Susan Knight

Prior to 2002 I was a realist, figurative oil painter. That year I wanted to participate in a show about rivers, a memorial show for a dear friend. Having just seen "Architectural Origami," an elegant show of paper engineering at New York’s Museum of Art and Design I was inspired to cut a map of the river that divided the town in which I grew up. I thought it was a onetime project. But in the midst of cutting an 80” long paper map of the Grand River a slew of ideas and memories rushed into my brain...

SPOTLIGHT
Music of the Hemispheres

​||Elisa de Prato
Part diagram and part portrait, part love story and part instruction manual, Music of the Hemispheres is a non-fiction/science fiction film investigating the Music of Thought Hypothesis, a theory outlined by philosopher Dan Lloyd. MOTH pairs fMRI brain scans with musical tones, extracting the architecture of mind and converting it to music...
SciArt Magazine, founded in 2013, is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States).
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