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The Art of Science

There’s a widely held perception that the sciences and arts are at opposite poles of human understanding and knowledge. Many people would suggest that science is concerned with objective facts whereas art is concerned with subjective experience. But this simplifies both the nature of science and art – reality is far more complex and nuanced. Indeed, some philosophers of science have claimed that there is no such thing as facts – only hypotheses which have yet to be proven false. And many writers use language and observation as precisely as scientists.
At school pupils may be encouraged to think of themselves as either an ‘arts’ or a ‘science’ person, but I found this pigeonholing unhelpful. My A-Levels were English, History and Biology: some teachers were happy to tell me they found this combination inexplicable! But whilst I was sure I wanted to study literature, I was also fascinated by science: by the way bodies work, but the way plants grow, by the way matter came into existence at all.

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My A-level choices came to fruition when I studied for a PhD which explored the ways contemporary poets respond to science. What amazed me was the number of contemporary writers who are interested in science, but I quickly realised that this has always been the case: in anthologies of poems about science you’ll find work by Chaucer, Shakespeare and John Donne, for example.
Science affects our lives enormously, whether we’re interested in it or not. From medical care, to the internet, from central heating to air travel – science is everywhere. Writers may get facts wrong and be criticised for this, but nonetheless I believe it’s important that they respond to science and technology, since one of the things literature does so well is enable us to reflect on the world and our place in it. Literature is also a good place for asking questions and thinking both critically and curiously.
There are a huge number of novels, short stories and poems that engage with science, including some by writers who are scientists themselves. To get you started, here are a few writers who engage with some aspect of science in their work:
Andrea Barrett – her short stories and novels often focus on the lives of scientists. I love The Voyage of the Narwhal, which is crammed full of nineteenth-century natural history and exploration.
Pippa Goldschmidt’s The Falling Sky details the career of a young female astronomer, and Pippa herself was an astronomer before turning to writing.
Short story writer Tania Hershman is engaged on a book-length project responding to particle physics and you can view her blog at: http://taniahershman.com/wp/
In poetry there are numerous anthologies, not least Faber and Faber’s A Quark for Mister Mark: 101 Poems about Science. For individual poets you could try Michael Symmons Roberts’s collection Corpus which engages with the metaphors and ethics of genetics, and ecologist-turned poet David Morley’s book Scientific Papers, in which he ‘experiments’ with language.
Reversing the flow of ideas, here’s a fascinating online discussion about whether scientists can learn anything from poets: http://iai.tv/video/poetic-theories and an article about a surgeon who’s bringing together scientists and artists to change the way we think about health care:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/05/doctor-change-view-nhs-roger-kneebone
Of course, you don’t need to be a scientist to be interested in science and respond to it in your writing. Whilst I’m not suggesting that you ‘crowbar’ science into a story or poem – such artificialness is unlikely to lead to a satisfying piece of writing – but perhaps there’s an aspect of science that has always interested you? Why not do some research (we live in a great era for well written popular science books) and see if it inspires a new piece of writing?


Posted by author: Vicky MacKenzie

7 thoughts on “The Art of Science

  • Hi Vicky,
    I’m so happy that you posted this – as I’m also very interested in where art and science can learn from each other. Art, Science and Philosophy are all about trying to understand the world – and it feels that in the past 10 years or so there has been a resurgence in the idea that our insights are richer if all three branches of enquiry happen together.
    I’m onto my very final project of my degree now, on a theme of ‘universal consciousness’, and I am finding that my research takes me easily from artist to scientist to philosopher and back again, with a bit of mysticism thrown in. It seems that we have reached an era where particle physicists and eastern spiritualists have much in common (when we peel back the dogma), and the barriers between such different disciplines is breaking down.
    I will take a look at some of the books you mentioned for a bit of holiday reading.
    Vive la Renaissance !

  • Photography combines both science and art!
    In the days of the Bauhaus, the well known art school that migrated from inter-war Germany to the U.S,, mathematics was considered necessary as was knowledge of optics and other mechanical devices. Nowadays, photography has swung the other way and become more art disciplined.
    This maybe because photography is such a widespread medium from casual use of the iPhone to the lab technician who is using computers to design better optics, from the photographer who images nature and makes what some consider to be art to the photographer who is deliberately making art and stretching the limits of the photographic medium.
    In my understanding, art that is largely subjective may not her the art it purports to be; art also needs the quality of objectivity.

  • Michaelangelo was an artist and architect. Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated by engineering and anatomy. I went to a conference on Art and Science last year at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, where Leonardo’s drawings were on show. There were several speakers, including a surgeon who talked about the link between the surgical theatre and the dramatic theatre and a poet who wrote about cancer, going into a lot of scientific detail. It was very interesting. I have never seen a divide between Science and Art. At school, I studied Maths, three Sciences, French and English and later took up Spanish. (The Scottish system allows for a broader base.) I started off studying Medicine, but gave up after a few years to go to Art School. I am still interested in Science (and languages) and found the study of Anatomy very useful for drawing. I’m pretty sure that in the US, students who wish to become doctors have to study a few years of Humanities or Arts first. I think that is a very good idea.

  • The English education system certainly encourages specialisation at an earlier age than the Scottish education system and the American college system, both of which appreciate the value of a broader education. Recent UK governments have had a bee in their bonnets about getting pupils to study STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and Education secretary Nicky Morgan recently suggested that by choosing to study arts subjects, students could limit their career options. Such depressing advice – I fear too many young people will see education only as a means to a career, and forget it can enrich their lives in so many other ways.
    I often find artists very amenable to the idea that arts and sciences have plenty in common, but a scientist recently reminded me of what Paul Dirac, a twentieth-century physicist, said: “The aim of science is to make difficult things understandable in a simpler way; the aim of poetry is to state simple things in an incomprehensible way.” Aaargh! Of course, poetry’s not for everyone, but it seems a shame that such a clever man could be so wrong about one of our oldest art forms. The Scottish Poetry Library recently launched a new anthology of poems aimed at new doctors:
    http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/shop/catalogue/tools-trade-poems-new-doctors
    I’d love to know what the new doctors made of it!
    As I understand it, the idea of a divide between arts and sciences has been developing since the sixteenth century when Francis Bacon formulated ideas about the scientific method, and C.P. Snow made things worse when he gave his 1959 Rede Lecture the title ‘The Two Cultures’ – unfortunately catchy. Although there are plenty of scientists and artists collaborating these days (and still a few polymaths, poet-scientists, musician-doctors etc.), I do worry they’re swimming against the tide. But the arts will survive anyway, whatever Nicky Morgan and her ilk encourage school pupils to do.

  • I had first hand experience of this when I was working on my TAOP assignment 3 on colour. I came across a science lecture on light and the science of colour and I was totally blown away. Not only do art and science intersect, but the various branches of science do as well. The lecture is by Prof. Pete Vukusic. Light Fantastic: the Science of Colour [webcast, online]. Institute of Physics, Exeter University, UK, 2007. 1 hour 05 mins 11 secs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWhGmwUojBE

  • Great post. In the world of natural dyes science and art link intrinsically. When i work with people I ask them whether they enjoy art or science; the workshop remains the same!!!

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