SciArt Magazine Volume 32
August 2018
Table of Contents

Cover image: "Green Room" installation by Julie Wolfe. Image courtesy of the artist.
Letter from the Editor

Dear readers,

Five years ago I founded SciArt Magazine (then, SciArt in America) with the mission to build a platform for science-based artists to have their work shown and shared, connect the cross-disciplinary community worldwide, and to recognize SciArt as cultural movement to be taken seriously. Like any widespread movement (across geographies and sectors), there are a lot of players, a multitude of aims, a spectrum of outcomes, and an open door of possibility for what comes next. What SciArt exactly is, and what it's going to be, is an open question with a growing list of evolving answers. It has been my biggest honor, and pleasure, to investigate this question by featuring the artists, scientists, scholars, makers, and doers of the science-art world these past 32 issues. Here's to five more years (and five more, after five more, and five after that...and so on...)!

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

P.S. Looking to explain SciArt to a lay audience? Check out this feature on us which appeared in Forbes, "The SciArt Movement: Why Facebook, MIT and Autodesk Use Art to Drive Innovation."

P.P.S. We are still accepting contribution pitches for our special topics October issue: What does science gain from interaction and engagement with the arts? Learn more HERE.

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COLLABORATION
Communicating through Method:
​An Art and Science Discussion

Earlier in 2018, Broto: Art, Science & Collaboration hosted its inaugural conference of experts in art, science, sustainability and collaboration – in part to begin a dialogue about how art and science might better, or more meaningfully, collaborate on aspects of climate change... 

STRAIGHT TALK
Cynthia Pannucci's ASCI

For most of the 20th century, art and science were thought of as two fields that did not share common areas of inquiry and creativity. However, the physical nature of reality and that of human perception were never meant to be divided... 

ON SCREEN from Labocine
Quimtai

​Historic artifacts help shape our understanding of cultures and build an aesthetic language for previous eras. Objects skillfully created by the craftspeople of the past are often valued for their artistic worth. However, these artifacts hold integral clues into the belief systems of ancient and indigenous civilizations, including the scientific beliefs held by such cultures...

STRAIGHT TALK
Making ideas with Byron Rich

It is kind of hard to pinpoint the moment at which I began down this path of artistic inquiry. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say it started when I began building mobile gardens that could be reconfigured or easily transported through urban spaces... 

IN THE LAB
with Genspace member Lori Solondz

Slime mold and I co-direct; we collaborate. I create the environment and invite the slime to participate and interact, to move  within this structure, drawing and pulsating with its body... 

ON VIEW | INTERVIEW
Rooted in Philadelphia: Free Library & Esther Klein Gallery

​This fall, two Philadelphia exhibitions visualize the study of nature, illuminating an evolving discourse of human ecological impact in a unique way. Whether displaying rare, historical drawings or incorporating innovative, cellular imagery, each of the ambitious curatorial projects invites a deeper look into the complex (and often unnoticed) inner life of trees...

SPOTLIGHT
Ice Alive

The Greenland Ice Sheet is a continent-sized mass of ice, up to 3km thick, with the power to carve out entire landscapes. It holds enough water to raise global sea levels by about 7 meters and is large and cold enough to push weather systems around the planet. However, at the same time, it is vulnerable...

STRAIGHT TALK
The Architecture of Flowers with Macoto Murayama

My works fuse botanical art with technical drawings – essentially, botanical art and technical art depict different objects. But they have similarities, such as having the function of illustrating or a being a precise expression, and I have a strong interest in them. I find them exciting to look at because there is a comprehensible visual pleasure within them...

SPACES & PLACES
NewKnowledge in New York City

Based in Lower Manhattan, New Knowledge Organization Ltd. (NewKnowledge) is an interdisciplinary non-profit think tank with a mission of addressing the world’s most challenging issues through research and evaluation. ​

SPACES & PLACES
Biodesign Challenge

​This past June, 29 biologists, designers, artists, architects, technologists, and cross-disciplinary scholars and doers gathered at New York City's MoMA...

STEAM
BioArt as a Canvas for Discovery

Inside a biology laboratory, the Scottish sun illuminates the youthful hands of a scientist. The young man dabbles material from a pigmented bacterial colony onto a fresh agar dish. Another stroke. More dabbles. The living image he creates, not visible until days later, is of a woman feeding a baby... 

QUICK VIEW
Systems of Color with Julie Wolfe

Big data is a rapidly growing scientific research field that applies high-power computers to the understanding of complex natural phenomena. It enables scientists to study new areas in biology, the environment, and even social culture. D.C.-based artist Julie Wolfe tries to make sense of these large systems...

QUICK VIEW
Natural geometries with Rachael Wren

​Rachael Wren creates large-scale landscape paintings using a precise and technical method that incorporates geometry and stylistic pointillism. The dense, luminous atmosphere of these paintings is inspired by natural phenomena...
Founder, Editor in Chief: Julia Buntaine
Contributing & Guest Writers: Ian Edwards, Joerg Dressler, Mark Borrelli, Gayil Nalls, Allison Palenske, Julia Buntaine, Marnie Benney, Danielle McCloskey, Cindy Stockton Moore,  Kathryn Nock, Sarah Adkins & Jeffrey Morris, Michal Gavish, and Sarah Allen Eagen

Partners Announcement

Picture
Sometimes when artists and scientists collaborate, it seems like we are speaking different languages. Nancy Lowe, director of Art + Science In the Field: AS IF Center, has begun developing an art-science glossary to help artists and scientists feel less like we are in a foreign country when we walk into a lab or studio. 

SciArt Magazine & Center partner AS IF Center is a hybrid of a biological field station and an artists community. Because the work at AS IF leans toward organismal biology and landscape ecology, the science terms on the glossary page reflect that bias. There are also a few terms related to academia, publishing, and statistics that are pertinent to a scientist's life.
​
Nancy is treating the art-science glossary page as a Wiki and invites you to send your input. Pick a word (or several), using words that are already on the page or adding some of your own. Write a short definition (using an art lens and/or a science lens), then email Nancy at sciencecandance@gmail.com, with "AS IF Glossary" in the subject line. Feel free to offer criticism or edits on the words already published on the page. Words that have different meanings in art and science (like "media" or "design") are especially welcome.

Have fun with it, and thanks for your contribution!   ​

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