The Art of Science

You could easily be forgiven for thinking that art and science have little to do with each other. Even at university, we generally refer to each other as either ‘arts’ or ‘science’ students, ignoring the overlap between the two. However, throughout history, art and science have been very much intertwined, and now the arts and science communities are collaborating once more to bring that connection back.

The renewed interest in Leonardo Da Vinci on the exhibition scene over the last 12 months, may have lay down the foundation for this. The year 2012 welcomed in the second half of the notorious National Gallery exhibition ‘Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan,’ and ten drawings by the artist from the Royal Collection toured the UK, arriving at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in January where it stayed until March.

Leonardo Da Vinci is widely regarded as one of the best artists of his time, as well as a brilliant scientist. He paved the way for many modern inventions, such as the contact lens, the helicopter and the machine gun. He wasn’t just an inventor either. Da Vinci was also an avid mathematician and anatomist. His drawing of The Vitruvian Man bridges the gap between science and art, depicting the ideal proportions of a human man. His technical drawings of his many inventions were both scientifically brilliant as well as being wonderful pieces of art. That he was able to come up with ideas for ‘flying machines’ in the 1400’s leads one to understand that he had a great mind for both creation and engineering.

Many great scientists have been involved in the arts in one way or another from the traditional paintings of Galileo to Richard Feynman’s less conventional love of the bongo drums. On the other side of the coin, there are numerous artists such as Michelangelo and Filippo Brunelleschi who have been involved in the sciences. Theories such as wave harmonics have a place in both science and art. Quantum mechanics and music would both be lost without it. Why then, do so many people today see art and science as such vastly different areas?

The popular reason given for this is that understanding how something works takes away the beauty and the mystery. Einstein is quoted as saying, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science” Art and science may both draw their subjects of scrutiny from mystery, but does this mean that things we understand can no longer be considered art?

While this may once have been the case, scientific observation methods have become so advanced that we can see the true beauty behind things that were once shrouded in mystery. We are able to observe particle collisions that bring forth waves of new atomic constituents. We are able to stare into the heart of nebulae and see new stars being born. We are able to map the brain and see the intricate connections between neurons. The wonderful images that we are able to see thanks to our deep understanding of science opens up a whole new world of artistic possibilities, extending it rather than hampering it.

With events such as ‘Wonder: Art and Science on the Brain’ and the ‘Festival of Art, Science and Technology’ taking place more and more frequently, it seems that the world at large is beginning to rekindle the longstanding relationship between art and science.