Are you passionate about science and do you find beauty in it? Can you be inspired to look at your research from an artistic point of view? Then keep on reading to find out how you can be part of this exciting new project on the intersection between art and science!
Theme of the 2nd edition of I Art My Science
Have you been exploring and messing around in science? Can you discover patterns in the progression of your research?
If you said yes to any of the questions above, that is great news! Researchers at Northwestern University found a pattern in common between the career of successful artists, film directors, and scientists (1). An analysis of this pattern using AI shows the following: it starts with a period of exploration and ‘messing around’, trying different styles and topics to find out what you can do/make. The second period is exploitation, focusing on a narrow area that works. The period of exploration followed by exploitation sets artists and scientists up for a ‘hot streak’: a burst of high impact works made in close succession.
Although exploration is considered a risk because it might not lead anywhere,
it increases the likelihood of stumbling upon a great idea.
- Dashun Wang, Professor, Northwestern University
With this open call, we want to artistically capture exploration and patterns. What does exploring and ‘messing around’ look like in your research? What pattern(s) do you see as you evolve in science?
The project
I Art my Science is a project which aims to capture the identity of the Graduate School of Life Sciences (GSLS) of Utrecht University and to showcase its diversity through visual art.
With its 17 Master’s programmes and 15 PhD programmes, the GSLS has over 3,000 members who are involved in research projects within the faculties of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Science. Innovation, inclusion and interdisciplinarity are the core values that drive the school in its mission to build bridges, improve life and address big issues that are relevant to society as a whole.
Art and science have more in common than you might initially think. Science is not only precise and systematic. Like art, it is also about creativity, courage and being prepared for the long haul. They rely on asking and examining questions about the world around us from a unique point of view. Insisting and persevering are crucial qualities for the progression of both. We want to use this common ground to build a bridge between art and science in order to look at our research from a fresh perspective. To highlight the diversity in themes, orders of magnitude and our approaches towards them. Most importantly, we want people from different faculties and disciplines to come together, surprise and inspire each other. To make you feel appreciated and connected.
The common foundation of science and art is human creativity, and their goals are all to pursue the universalism of the truth.
- Tsung-Dao Lee
Download our poster by clicking here (pdf).