SciArt Magazine Volume 28
Cover image: Detail of "67P" by Ekaterina Smirnova.
Letter from the Editor
Dear readers, How can we repair the multi-directional relationship between science, art, and society? From the ravaging effects of postmodernism on society's relationship to art and art's relationship to science, as well as consistently low science and art literacy and funding rates, there are many aspects of this dysfunctional triad to be discussed, and thus was a question of focus during our recent conference co-hosted with The Helix Center, "Art & Science: The Two Cultures Converging." To answer, some proposed an approach to scientific and artistic practice which involved community input: make science and art about what people care about within specific locations. Others reacted against this idea, and the dangerous consequences that can occur when the focus of science or art is determined by a democratic public. An alternative idea for integration was voiced at the end of the conference - the notion of a "SciArt world computer," where computational power would come from people rather than electronic circuitry. Organized by science-art practitioners, and powered by the public, this connective web would act as a means to disseminate a cross-disciplinary outlook beyond academia, beyond organizations, and beyond experts into the world at large. This idea of a world computer, in which people take the place of microprocessors and circuits, is beautifully illustrated in the science-fiction work The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, which recently won the Hugo Award. In physics, the term "three-body problem" refers to the problem of understanding the nature of the motions of three bodies which have a gravitational relationship with one another - say, the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Aside from a few specific and theoretical scenarios, this "problem" has no general solution, which had led physicists to come up with good-enough solutions, approximations based on measurements more easily attained. Understanding how two bodies interact, for example, is well within our mathematical grasp. While repairing the multi-directional relationship between science, art, and society may seem an enormous task, if we focus on just one aspect of this triad - the relationship between science and art - we may be able to cause a "trickle-down effect" of trust into our relationships with society. Because how can society trust both science and art, if science and art do not trust one another? While much work has been done on the "two-body problem" of science and art by people like the scientists and artists featured in this publication, the need to keep doing this work, and to preach beyond the choir, is more pressing than ever. Institutions and funding bodies are starting to pay attention - now is the time to ramp up cross-disciplinary activity. This problem of art and science can be solved. With roughly 50% of our content now derived from submissions, we rely on you to point us to what you think is the best science-art, the most innovative educational models, and the most important third culture conversations happening out there. Thank you for your continued readership, support, and ideas as we enter our fifth year of publication. I hope you enjoy our final issue of 2017! Sincerely, Julia Buntaine | Founder, Editor-in-Chief |
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SciArt Magazine is a publication of
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