Panel 1: Art/science collaborations
Monday July 4th, 9am - 1pm
Convenor James Leach
The ‘creative industries’ have a higher profile, and perceived worth,
than ever before. Research Councils, Universities, and Government are all
in the way of promoting novel interdisciplinary activity with the explicit
goal of fostering creativity and nurturing new social and institutional
forms to generate innovation. In this environment, what descriptions do we
have available of creativity itself? How do different actors in these
processes learn from one another, and what kinds of descriptions make
knowledge of another practice or world available for use? How do
translations of knowledge or approach retain value across domains?
Collaboration: the quintessence of description as enabler?
Gron Tudor Jones
Complementary descriptions in 20th Century physics
Abstract:
A discussion of what was recently voted 'the most beautiful experiment
in physics' - the interference of single electrons in a Young's double
slit - will be used to introduce one of the deepest (and most disturbing)
realizations of 20th century physics: (Bohr's) wave-particle
complementarity. It will be seen that this has forced physicists to
change their ideas about causality and reality.
Bio:
Goronwy
Tudor Jones, DSc FInstP, is a Reader in High Energy Physics at
the University of Birmingham. He established the Neutrino Physics
Group which for about 20 years was involved in deep inelastic experiments
at CERN in Geneva and Fermilab in Chicago, probing the quark-gluon
substructure of neutrons and protons. More recently he has been a
member of the Heavy-Ion Physics group which hopes to study the properties
of the Quark-Gluon Plasma at the Large Haldron Collider at CERN in 2007.
He is the 'collaborating scientist' with the novelist Alan Wall in an
ACE/AHRB Arts and Science Research Fellowship entitled 'Extremities of
Perception: Imagery, Beauty and Understanding in Cosmo-Quark Physics'.
Alan Wall
Extremities of perception
Abstract:
This paper will look at how how radical pattern recognition and
metaphor are at the root of much intellectual inventiveness. Thomas
Young’s double-slit experiment will be the starting point. This will then
be linked to verbal and visual metaphor, and the economies of thought
(both scientific and artistic) with which we decode the world about us.
Bio:
Alan Wall is a novelist and short
story writer. His books include Bless the Thief, The Lightning Cage,
The School of Night, China and Richard Dadd in Bedlam. His
volume of poetry Jacob was shortlisted for the Hawthornden Prize.
He has taught at various universities and was for two years a Royal
Literary Fund Fellow in Writing at Warwick and Liverpool John Moores. In
2003 he was awarded an AHRB/Arts Council Fellowship to research and write
Extremities of Perception with the particle physicist Gron Tudor
Jones. This book examines the sources of creativity in both science and
art.
Alan Wall is Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at
University College Chester.
Alejandro Viñao
Asbtract: see below
Bio:
Born 4/9/1951, Buenos Aires,
Argentina. British citizen since 1994.
Alejandro Viñao studied composition
with the Russian composer Jacobo Ficher in Buenos Aires. In 1975 he moved
to Britain where he continued his studies at the Royal College of Music
and later at the City University in London where in 1988 he was awarded a
Ph.D. in composition.
Viñao has received a number of
international prizes and awards including the 'Golden Nica' Prix Ars
Electronica (1992), 1st Prize at The International Rostrum at the Unesco
World Music Council (1984) and many others.
Viñao's music has been played and
broadcast throughout Europe and the U.S.A and has been featured in
international festivals such as the Tanglewood Festival, the Warsaw Autumn
Festival and the London PROMS.
He has received commissions from
various performing groups and institutions around the world such as
I.R.C.A.M, in France, MIT in the USA, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the
Kronos quartet.
During the 80’s Viñao worked at Ircam
at regular intervals and 1987 he was composer in residence at M.I.T. in
the U.S.A.
In 1994 Alejandro Viñao was awarded
the Guggenheim fellowship in composition. His piece Apocryphal Dances was
premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London in 1997. The same year
Viñao was invited to Japan to present his music in a Portrait Concert.
Later that year, his chamber opera Rashomon was premiered in Germany. This
work was commissioned by ZKM for the opening of their new building in
Karlsruhe. Since then Rashomon has been produced in Paris, London and
Gothenburg.
Following the success of his choral
work Epitafios, Viñao was commissioned a new piece ‘La Trama’ for mixed
choir and computer by the German Sudwestrundfunk. This latest work was
premiered in February 2003 by the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart.
Alejandro Viñao's music is
characterised by the use of pulsed rhythmic structures to create large
scale form, and by a melodic writing which -as in the case of much
non-European music- develops through rhythm rather than harmony.
In addition to instrumental and
Electroacoustic compositions he has also been involved with the creation
of multimedia works, has composed music for some 20 films and produced
several radio programmes for the BBC.
During 2004 Viñao was Research Fellow
at the Music Faculty of Cambridge University.
See www.vinao.com
Ian Cross
Abstract: see below Bio:
Initially a classical guitarist, since 1986 Ian Cross has taught and
conducted research in music and science at the University of Cambridge
where he is now Reader in Music & Science and a Fellow of Wolfson College.
He has published widely, principally in the field of music cognition. At
present, his main research focus is on the exploration of music as a
biocultural phenomenon, involving collaboration with archaeologists,
psychologists and engineers. Cross and Viñao paper
CHANT D’AILLEURS: the unforeseeable adventure of Art and Science
This paper discusses the music composition Chant D’Ailleurs for soprano
and computer by Alejandro Viñao which will be heard in the conference’s
concert. Two central aspects of the piece are presented:
a) The way in which the scientific concept and technological
procedure of interpolation (sound morphing) inform the creative process,
more specifically, the development of a new type of melodic discourse
which forms the basis of the piece.
b) The invention of an imaginary culture by the artist as a way
of providing a coherent context for new ideas and techniques in music
composition. For example, the imaginary language used in the 1st and 2nd
movements of the piece will be presented as invention out of necessity:
existing languages are not flexible enough to articulate the new melodic
approach of the piece described in a).
Form this perspective, Chant d’Ailleurs illustrates how a scientific
process coupled to a specific aesthetic speculation may produce an
unforeseeable results such as the invention of an imaginary vocal
tradition.
The paper will also consider some broad implications for relationships
between art and science of AV's use of sound interpolation. It will
suggest that in making use of a technologically enabled scientific
description of physical world as a tool for artistic creation, AV poses
problems for a set of sciences that are distinct from the science,
acoustics, that underpins the technologies that he's using. Those sciences
are the human sciences, and the problems that are posed concern the
scientific description of the nature of human experience. It will be
proposed that the relationship between art and science is inevitably
cyclical and is better thought of in terms of relationships between arts
and sciences, sciences which are mutually irreducible one to the other but
are bound together through their mutual commensurability. The notion that
the sciences are mutually irreducible may help to guarantee the
irreducibility of art to science and offer a context for fruitful
interaction between artists and scientists.
Tea/coffee break
Robert Whittle
Abstract: see below
Bio:
Research Reader at the University of Sussex, is a geneticist whose
research over 30 years has concentrated upon cellular and molecular
mechanisms underlying animal and human development, during the emergence
of spatial patterns. More recently, he has become curious about possible
reciprocal benefits from collaborations between artists and scientists, in
particular to see whether the science base benefits from such exploratory
practice. In 2003 he held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to pursue
depictions of developmental genetics in art and in the public
understanding of science, and in 2003/4 was a participating scientist and
manager of a Fellowship awarded by the AHRB/ACE to Heather Barnett for a
project entitled Metamorphosis and Design. In 2000, he was a participating
scientist in Invisible Body at the Atrium Gallery, London, after being a
runner-up in the Wellcome Trust Sci-art competition in 1998. With support
from the Wellcome Trust, he staged a science-art exhibition in 2002 for
the British Society for Developmental Biology at their annual conference.
In 2004 with a local poet, he conducted open-access creative writing
workshops, funded by the city and the local NHS Trust in Brighton, on
themes from the ‘new genetics’. This latter activity reflects his interest
in the use of metaphor in portraying insights from science by scientists
as well as by writers more generally.
Links: www.meta-art.info and
http://www.zenadsl5348.zen.co.uk/
Heather Barnett
Abstract: see below
Bio:
Heather is a visual artist and researcher whose work explores the
territories of art, science and technology, often in collaboration with
science professionals and processes. Heather’s work is concerned with
issues of society, technology and identity – with particular reference to
medical science, interior space, and the limits of representation and
recognition. Research projects include exploring issues of design within
biological systems, the personal impact of surgical loss, physical
intimacy and the doctor/patient relationship, and molecular identity
through microbial and cellular portraiture. Heather has exhibited widely
in the UK and abroad, and last year was commissioned by the Victoria &
Albert Museum, London, for The Other Flower Show. Cultured Colonies (a
photographic installation piece made in 2000) will be shown in Germany and
Portugal later this year. She has been Artist in Residence in various
settings including: Poole Hospital Pathology Department (2000), The
National Botanic Garden of Wales (2001) and Infoterra: satellite imaging
company (2002). Last year she was Research Fellow in Arts and Science
(ACE/AHRB funded) at the University of Sussex exploring issues of
Metamorphosis & Design with 4 research groups in Life Sciences. In
addition to her art practice Heather also has considerable curatorial
experience, and in 2000 brought contemporary art and medical science to a
vast public audience by presenting Invisible Body at the Atrium Gallery,
Whiteleys Shopping Centre in West London. She is also a regular Visiting
Lecturer at universities across the country and has organised and
facilitated numerous arts and film projects in gallery and community
settings.
Links: www.heatherbarnett.co.uk
www.meta-art.info
Whittle and Barnett abstract
Robert Whittle (fruit fly geneticist) and Heather Barnett (artist)
recently collaborated on an AHRB/ACE funded science/art fellowship
entitled Metamorphosis & Design. The project explored aspects of design
and transformation in biological systems across four research groups that
had different interest, within The School of Life Sciences at the
University of Sussex. Notions of creativity, visualisation and description
were of key interest to the project, both during the process of engagement
with the scientists and in the final outcomes produced. In this
presentation, Robert and Heather will share some observations of ‘creative
acts’ from the perspectives of both science and art, through visual
illustration, verbal description and live visual interpretation. The
presentation itself will therefore be an experiment in ‘description and
creativity’ across disciplines. Palle Dahlstedt
DEFINING SPACES OF POTENTIAL ART
The significance of representation in computer-aided creativity
Abstract:
One way of looking at the creative process is as a search in a space
of possible answers. One way of simulating such a process is through
evolutionary algorithms, i.e., simulated evolution by random variation and
selection. The search space is defined by the chosen genetic
representation, a kind of formal description, and the ways of navigating
the space are defined by the choice of genetic operators (e.g.,
mutations). In creative systems, such as computer-aided music composition
tools, these choices determine the efficiency of the system, in terms of
the diversity of the results, the degree of novelty and the coherence
within the material. Based on various implementations developed during
five years of research, and experiences from real-life artistic
applications, I will explain and discuss these mechanisms, from a
perspective of the creative artist.
Bio:
Palle Dahlstedt is a composer, performing artist and researcher,
currently living in Göteborg, Sweden. He holds degrees in music
composition from the Lund University and Göteborg University, and a PhD in
computer-aided creativity from Chalmers University of Technology. His
music ranges from piano improvisations to orchestral works, from
electroacoustic music to interative computer works and electronica. He has
won several international prizes and his music has been performed all over
the world. Dahlstedt's current research interest is the application of
evolutionary algorithms to the creative process. He is also a co-founding
lecturer at the Art & Technology program at the Faculty of Applied
Information technology, Chalmers University of Technology / Göteborg
University. In 2003-2004 he was an Art & Science Research Fellow at the
University of Liverpool, Dep. of Computer Science.
Home page: www.id.gu.se/palle
Discussants: Daniel Glaser and Roy Ascott
Bios:
Daniel Glaser is an imaging neuroscientist and Senior Research Fellow
at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London. He
uses fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to examine human brain
function. This involves putting people into a powerful magnet to see which
bits of the brain are active when they perform various tasks. He is
particularly interested in top-down influences on low-level visual
processing. This is how experience, prejudice and expectation alter the
way we see the world. He's involved in a collaborative project with dance
experts examining the connection between seeing and doing. How does being
an expert in ballet change how you see ballet? He comes from an unusual
academic background having studied maths and then English literature at
Cambridge, doing a masters in cognitive science at Sussex University, and
graduate work in neurobiology. In 2002 he was appointed 'Scientist in
Residence' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. This was
the first appointment of its kind at an arts institution. During his
residency he collaborated with the ICA curators to put on talks, panel
discussions, dance workshops and psychological experiments. He has made
numerous appearances on national and local radio and has featured in
articles in daily newspapers and on the Internet. Café Scientifique at the
Photographers' Gallery which is the London branch of a national series
providing a new way for scientists to interact with a general public. He
was a judge on last year's Aventis Prize and is a NESTA cultural
leadership awardee. He is the author and presenter of two one-hour
documentaries for BBC4 & BBC2 on the daily practice of science currently
in production.
Roy Ascott is Director of the Planetary Collegium <http://www.planetary-collegium.net>,
Professor of Technoetics, University of Plymouth, and Adjunct Professor in
Design|Media Arts at the University of California Los Angeles. Previous
appointments include: Vice-President and Dean of the San Francisco Art
Institute, California; Professor of Communications Theory, University of
Applied Arts, Vienna; Chair of Fine Art, Minneapolis College of Art &
Design; and President of the Ontario College of Art.
A pioneer of telematic art, Roy Ascott has shown at the Venice
Biennale, Electra Paris, Ars Electronica Linz, V2 Holland, Milan Triennale,
Biennale do Mercosul, Brazil, European Media Festival, and gr2000az, Graz,
Austria. Originally a painter, he studied under Victor Pasmore and Richard
Hamilton. His research is in art and the technology of consciousness. He
is Editor of Technoetic Arts: a journal of speculative research , and
serves on the editorial boards of Leonardo, Convergence, and Digital
Creativity, He has advised new media centres and festivals in the UK, the
US and Canada, Brazil, Europe and the Far East, as well as the CEC and
UNESCO, and convenes the annual international Consciousness Reframed
conferences.
His publications, translated into many languages, include: Telematic
Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art Technology and Consciousness,
University of California Press (2003); Technoetic Arts (Korean trans. Won-Kon
Yi), Yonsei University Press, (2002); Reframing Consciousness, Intellect
Books (1999); Art & Telematics: toward the Construction of New Aesthetics
(Japanese trans. E. Fujihara), Tokyo: NTT Publishing (1998). Engineering
Nature will be published by Intellect late 2005. |
