Artist seeks Scientist

February-May 2012

Cover image: Chaos and geomagnetic reversals

This image illustrates reversals of the polarity of the Earth’s magnetic field.

The magnetic field of the Earth has reversed its polarity several hundred times during the past

160 million years. Polarity reversals are known to be strongly irregular and chaotic, and the

reversal durations are relatively short (typically a few thousand years) compared with the

constant polarity intervals between reversals.

Taken from Princeton University Art of Science competition: www.princeton.edu/artofscience

Study the science of art and the art

of science’ - Leonardo da Vinci

Hello!

Greetings from your “Artist seeks Scientist “organiser.

Since I took over from Bushra in February, I have had

a lot of fun meeting many of you and hearing about

your work and ideas. I decided to share some of that

with you in the form of a newsletter. I hope that you

enjoy it, and that you feel inspired to contribute to the

next one, or at least to join us in our upcoming events,

or online discussions. We have 266 intelligent, smart

and creative members and I truly hope that “Artist

seeks Scientist” becomes a platform for exchanging

ideas and developing new friendships.

So please don’t hesitate to share, join and suggest

events and activities. And of course, I am happy to

receive feedback, criticism and comments.

See you soon!

Houda

A little bit about us, in numbers…

Where we started and where we are now

The last 100 active members were

Scientists (44)

Both

(15)

Artists

(31)

Neither Artist nor Scientist (10)

Popular reasons for joining the group

What we’ve been up to so far

Some favourites …

Polymath @ GV Art

Polymath: Someone who knows a lot

about a lot…but who also can do a lot;

someone who displays intellectual

polygamy as opposed to intellectual

promiscuity...*

http://www.gvart.co.uk/

Some thoughts on the subject of the Polymath*

“...The world may well be a better place for the specialisation that has

come along... The pity is that progress has to come at a price. Civilisation

has put up fences that people can no longer leap across; a certain type of

mind is worth less. The choices modern life imposes are duller, more

cramped”

“Polymaths possess something that monomaths do not. Time and again,

innovations come from a fresh eye or from another discipline. Most

scientists devote their careers to solving the everyday problems in their

specialism...and it takes ingenuity and perseverance to crack them. But

breakthroughs—the sort of idea that opens up whole sets of new

problems—often come from other fields. The work in the early 20th

century that showed how nerves work and, later, how DNA is structured

originally came from a marriage of physics and biology.”

* http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/edward-carr/last-days-polymath

YayOi Kusama@ The Tate Modern This was a large exhibition that covered quite a lot of the artist’s work.

Yayoi is obsessed with repeated patterns, especially

with dots. I would love to hear a neurologist’s, or a

psychologist’s view on how her art developed from

the early days in post WWII Japan through her

obsession with white, with dots, with white dots,

with coloured dots, and finally to the bright and

clashing colours of her years in a mental institution!

The obsession with dots made me think of a very

common pattern in biology, the positive feedback

loop, which is what happens when two elements

mutually stimulate and amplify each other. This is

how my

nerdy

mind

imagined

what

went on in Yayoi’s head:

p.s. I highly recommend seeing the exhibition

if you missed it, it’s on until June 5th.

Usurp Art Gallery

A big thank you to Poulomi and Mary for having us at Usurp Art Gallery.

We had quite an interesting afternoon there, drinking tea and redefining

the laws of the universe ;) We also got

to know a little bit about Usurp, a not

for profit art collective that creates

opportunities for communities to work

with artists from diverse backgrounds,

and to contribute to the creation of

artworks that challenge conformity,

prejudice and discrimination

The gallery has hosted an impressive number of projects and events. They

have worked with various artists but also with disabled groups in Harrow.

Peeking at their website, I could not

help but be touched by “Behind Closed

Doors”, a photography project led by

Poulomi that depicts Asian women’s

experiences of domestic violence. The

project involved a series of

photography workshops undertaken

by Asian women to help them overcome their experience of domestic

violence. (more on www.usurp.org.uk)

Poulomi has a lot of exciting ideas, and the gallery will soon be converted

into a reading room that will host talks on various topics, including Art

and Science. Stay tuned

www.usurp.org.uk

Ads worth Spreading

When I was little, my parents banned almost every programme on

French TV. Since Algerian TV was pretty boring, my sister and I

resorted to watching adverts. As sad as that sounds, there were some

gems, some very entertaining bursts of creativity, and as a result, I am a

big fan of good Ads.

Ads Worth Spreading is a TED initiative that views Ads as a creative way

to communicate ideas, and that recently set to reward innovative and

intelligent advertising – “the ads that people want to see, and share

with their friends”. Some of you might remember the “Xylophone in the

woods” and the “Chipotle” Adverts that generated quite an interesting

exchange on the discussion board (that was an organiser’s dream, thanks

a million!)

So here is another advert that I thought was worth sharing. This one is

for Kinect, the motion sensing technology used by Microsoft for the Xbox

360 video game. What I love about it is that it is not Microsoft telling

their customers what they should do with it, but the other way around.

The Kinetic Effect

Enjoy!

So what’s next?

Next we are going to the Courtauld Gallery Late on May 10 (that’s

tonight, come join us!), we’ll be checking out the “Mondrian || Nicholson:

In Parallel” exhibition in a 1930s themed evening. There will hopefully be

many of you at the Champagne Bar at Waterstone’s for a bit of a chat

and debate on May 19. I suggest everyone brings something they would

like to share. It can be a book, a picture, a jumper, anything you can tell

us a little story about. We’ll go to the Science Museum Late on May 30th.

The theme of the evening will be science and music, more on that nearer

the time. On June 2, we will go to see Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomy

sketches at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. Please remember

to book you tickets for 1.45 pm. On June 14th, we will go back to the

Royal Society of Chemistry for a talk on GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK)

contribution to the Olympics. What happens after that is up to you!

Shall we stop for the summer? Should we have one last get together, a

picnic if the weather permits, or we could go for a meal? Let me know.

Help!

Here’s a question: How can 266 sophisticated minds help make

this networking group a more vibrant and dynamic group?

I can think of many answers:

1. You could suggest events/places worth visiting.

2. Have you read/seen something interesting lately? Why not share it

with the group? You can use the discussion board or if you are shy

(nooo!), pass it on to me and I will do it.

3. You could share a picture of your art.

4. Do you want to contribute to the next Newsletter? Any help would be

appreciated, especially since I am only a science geek, and I am very

aesthetically challenged!

5. How about giving a short talk about your

work/organisation/aspirations? This comes up at every meetup so I

know some of you are quite keen (some of you know who you are ;)).

Let’s do it! We’ll make it informal and totally relaxed.

6. Are you looking for a collaboration? May be looking for

something/someone very specific? Why don’t you post it on the discussion

board? Or if you prefer, e-mail me and I’ll be happy to help in any way I

can.

7. You have an even better answer and you are dying to tell us all about

it. Go on, just tell us!

And if you made it all the way here, Thank you! I am having

a brilliant time as the organiser for Artist seeks Scientist, you have been

FANTASTIC! and I really hope that you are enjoying it too.

See you soon!

Houda