About Art & Science - Act II

Act II : When both collide

We have introduced?last week?the convoluted relationship between art and science, and how those two universes, seemingly unrelated at first, are in fact inextricably linked when going deeper and further into the subject.

As concrete illustrations of our saying seem necessary to fully grasp the subject, we began with new media art featuring data paintings and its pioneer, Refik Anadol.?This week, we’re exploring two exciting new domains where art and science intimately blend together: bio-art and scientific architecture.

Bio-art, or biological art, is a modern artistic movement involving the use of living organisms – whether they are micro-organisms, plants, animals, or human beings – and scientific processes (especially biotechnology) to produce artworks. In this case, the artist and the scientist can totally be the same person or work extremely close together to get the intended artistic result. At the border of art, science, design, and technology, bio-art aims to expand our way of thinking by starting cultural debates, addressing social, moral, and ethical issues about life sciences, and even (purposely or not) raising controversy. While some artists-scientists definitely blur the societal border between art and science by manipulating the living in a shocking, questionable, and sometimes grotesque manner, others prefer to use inorganic materials to imitate living beings and life processes, thus resorting to a kind of biomimetic art.

This is the case of?Klari Reis, who uses a plastic media – epoxy polymer – to play at the border of technology and organicity. By mimicking the growth of bacteria and molds inside a petri dish with her artificial material, she is able to fully express her artistry and create a world where fake bacterial cultures take on spectacular colors, hues and textures, for the pleasure of our eyes and minds:

Architectural works are also deeply imbued with science. Mainly relying on formal sciences such as mathematics to take shape, buildings and structures are located at many practical, cultural, aesthetical, and social crossroads. Constructions also evolve with time and ages, and the development of new technologies and computational engineering has allowed contemporary artists to display an impressive number of styles and aesthetics within their works.

Some superstructures can even take the form of strange and delicate sculptures rising in the sky, incorporating scientific elements belonging to biology and human anatomy. This is typically the case of?Santiago Calatrava, who explores the human figure and its mechanics to crystallize movements of the body into metal and concrete. The resulting pieces of architectural art offer a breathtaking view of facilities deeply resembling organic structures, where life sciences lie at the core of Calatrava’s artistic research process.

Do you wish to see more projects and areas where art and science connect in a mesmerizing manner? Don’t miss out in 2 weeks the final article of our mini-series “About Art & Science” to discover even more captivating topics that flawlessly mix and match them!

Also interested to see how Zorba is able to narrate and magnify science through an innovative artistic prism, where life sciences perfectly connect with art and creativity? You can follow us on LinkedIn, or directly discover our works by yourself at?https://zorba-group.com/