27 February 2018
Students from the MA Art and Science (MAAS) course at Central Saint Martins invited members of the Biochemical Society to their studio to explore common threads between art and science. As part of the MAAS cohort, I planned and coordinated a series of activities for the engagement day, encouraging the group to think critically and creatively about shared connections in their practices.
In small, merged groups, the participants were non-specific questions, such as ‘what shape does your work take?’ and 'would unlimited time and resources enhance your work?’. These were explored from different angles according to the individual's practice, however, similarities between the artistic and scientific processes became clear. Both strive to see the world in a different way, comprehend the vision through research and communicate it in the form of artwork or articles.
A playful literary exercise followed this as each group was asked to write a line of poetry on a particular theme. The paper was folded and passed along to the next team to write the next line, and so on, resulting in some amusing, nonsensical stories.
Each artist was paired with a scientist for the ‘sensory studio’ workshop and took turns with each activity. One person each pair was blindfolded and asked to feel and describe a random object to their partner using descriptions about its texture, shape and size. The respondent then sketched their interpretations of the object onto some paper according to the descriptions. This was repeated with one person in each pair describing an unknown smell and the respondent determining what it could be.
The activities highlighted several touchpoints between art and science throughout the day including creativity, resourcefulness, experimentation and enthusiasm about their work.
