About the Project

Exploring the Intersection of Science and Art

A Research Program

Supported by the National Science Foundation

Project Overview

This multifaceted, two-year project will aim to unlock creative possibilities at the intersection of mathematical sciences and the visual arts. It will do so by creating opportunities for collaborations among mathematicians, physicists, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and artists working in diverse media. The program will build on the experience gained in two workshops at the Newton Institute in 2017 and 2020, and bring to fruition ideas generated during these events. The activities will be developed around carefully formulated questions and will be organized utilizing a variety of platforms supportive of cross-disciplinary dialogues. A series of pioneering exhibitions and associated events will be organized in collaboration with art historians and scientists, featuring prominent international artists whose work engages mathematics or physics directly or indirectly.

A preliminary list of specific topics and broader themes:

I. Mathematics, physics and art – history, inspirations, ethos, convergence.

II. Pattern formation, complexity, synchronization; mixing and chemistry.

III. Fluid dynamics of painting, writing, calligraphy; physics of drawing.

IV. Solid mechanics and deformation in sculpture, installations and mobiles.

V. Time in physics, time and motion in static art, temporal vs. spatial aspects.

VI. Mathematics of image recognition and reconstruction of missing fragments.

VII. Constructing the meaning: coding and decoding in art; symbols, language.

VIII. Creativity, originality, breakthrough – cognitive science and neuroscience.

IX. Scaling in the visual arts and music, auditory response and architecture.

X. Algorithmically generated art, AI design, machine-learning vs. ingenuity.

XI. Intentionality and ambiguity in math and art, perspective and use of optics

Exploring the Intersection of Science and Art

Organizers

David Abrahams

FRSE, University of Cambridge

Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

Fellow Corpus Christi College

https://idabrahams.weebly.com/

[email protected]

I am an applied mathematician specialising in the modelling, analysis and application of waves found in a wide range of application areas in physics and engineering. I am a keen supporter of interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange.. i.e. ensuring that mathematical scientists connect with others inside and outside of academia to overcome societal chellenges and to further intellectual understanding.

Andrzej Herczyński

Boston College

Research Professor, Department of Physics

https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/physics/people/faculty-directory/andrzej-herczynski.html

[email protected]

My interest in the connections between physics, mathematics, and the visual arts originated in a collaboration with art historian Claude Cernuschi, a leading expert on Jackson Pollock. In the fall of 2007, we co-organized an exhibition Pollock Matters at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College curated by Ellen Landau. We contributed two essays to the catalogue and wrote two more papers on Pollock later. In 2017, Roberto Zenit and I ran a workshop on Form in Art, Toys, and Games as a part of the research program on Growth, From, and Self-Organization at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI) in Cambridge, UK, for which I served as the principal organizer. The program was accompanied by an art exhibition Form in Art: Art of Form, co-organized with Barry Phipps, Curator of Art at Churchill College. In March 2020, a roundtable discussion on Opportunities at the Intersection of Science and Art was hosted by INI and Churchill College, co-organized with David Abrahams, INI Director, and Barry Phipps, and sponsored by the NSF.

Barry Phipps

Churchill College, Cambridge

Fellow, Tutor, and Director of Studies in the History of Art

https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/fellows/mr-barry-phipps/

[email protected]

Barry Phipps is a Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in the History of Art at Churchill College. He is an Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of the History of Art and Director of Studies in the History of Art at Fitzwilliam College, Hughes Hall and Selwyn College.

Barry specialises in modern and contemporary art in relation to the sciences. He has a further research interest in the relationship between art and diplomacy. His academic background is rooted in Fine Art as an undergraduate and lecturer, with research degrees in Continental Philosophy (Warwick), History of Art (Oxford) and the History and Philosophy of Architecture (Cambridge).

He is Curator of Art and Science at the Isaac Newton Institute of Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Director of Visual Art at the Møller Institute, as well as Curator of Works of Art and Keeper of the Plate at Churchill College.