The two
cultures, Art and Science, usually looked upon as
two different entities, are practically one
totality. The close interaction between the
"two cultures" finds also attestation
in the words of Cheng-Dau Lee, Nobel laureate in
physics: "Both, science and art are not
separated from each other. There is even a
similarity between them as they help us observe
nature. With the help of science we can find out
routines of nature. On the other hand, by means
of art we can describe the emotions of
nature." The reason for beginning such a
series on art and science with Leonardo da
Vinci's Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in
the history of Art, and Albert Einstein, the
greatest theoretical physicist of all time, seems
obvious. The combination of the two, as presented
on the back cover, is intended to demonstrate the
idea that Art and Science are one face, one
totality. Since Science and Art and the
interaction between the two are the major
concepts in the future presentations, these
concepts are elaborated in the following
paragraphs.
What is Science?
Science to the layman is usually identified with
something precise, such as mathematics or
physics. Science is much easier to define in
comparison to Art because it is exact, it does
not depend on one's emotions, and has a very
limited, but essential scope to reveal the laws
of nature which govern our life every second. Many
definitions for Science—the Latin for
"knowledge"—are available. For
example, the Oxford Advanced Learner's
Dictionary (1989) and Even-Shoshan's New
Hebrew Dictionary (1975) definitions are
summarized as follows: Science is a
systematic research in a certain subject, such as
in mathematics, physics, botany, and history,
organized and based on facts, observations or
experiments and summarized into laws, rules and
axioms. Thus, a scientist is a scholar occupied
in research of a certain subject. In the Encyclopedia
Britannica (1987), "Science is
the knowledge of the world of nature".
Campbell's (1953) definition is very interesting.
He says that nature means, practically, the part
of the world which humans regard as external to
them. Thus, "Science is that branch of pure
learning which is concerned with the properties
of the external world."
Other
interesting questions are: What is Science for,
and how is Science acting? There are two aspects
of Science. First, there is a practical science,
which is a body of useful and practical
knowledge. Its second aspect, pure science, is a
branch of pure learning which aims at
intellectual satisfaction. Science is not an
individual experience. It is a shared knowledge
based on a common understanding of some aspects
of the physical or social world. Science studies
laws of nature and we seek to discover laws in
order to make nature intelligible to us.
What is Art?
Art, like love, is a word that everyone knows the
meaning of, and most of us will tell you that it
is necessary, that it is also good for the soul
and that we enjoy it, and that it is an activity
which manifests beauty, as well. However, people
will have difficulties in defining Art. The
volume of definitions of art is enormous, and
only a few are spelled out here. The
Encyclopedia Americana (1991) elaborates as
follows: "The word Art comes from Latin Ars,
meaning skill.... In the broadest sense, Art
embraces all the creative
disciplines—literature, poetry, drama,
music, dance and visual arts. However, as
commonly used today, Art means the visual
arts—painting, sculpture and
architecture—those areas of artistic
creativity that seek to communicate primary
through the eye." Carta's Universal
Encyclopedia (1998) and The Concentrated
Hebrew Dictionary (1993) express,
more or less the same: "Art is a human
creation generated of one's own impulse. It is
intended to stimulate an aesthetic experience,
and which is accepted by others as composition of
a high quality. Common subjects of Art are:
painting, sculpturing, music, dance, literature,
theater, cinema and their combinations."
Pablo Picasso expressed once the following idea
about Art: "We all know that Art is not
truth. Art is a lie which teaches us how to
comprehend the truth, or at least that truth we
human beings are capable of comprehending"
("Picasso on Picasso", 1998). Marcel
Duchamp claimed that "a product becomes an
art product if it enters a museum" (Vardi,
1996).
An interesting
question is what does Art do to people? According
to Dissanayake (1995): "Art is said to be
both pleasurable and advantageous because it is
therapeutic; it integrates for us powerful
contradictory and disturbing feelings; it allows
us to escape from tedium or permits temporary
participation in a more desirable alternative
world; it provides encouraging illusions; it
promotes catharsis of disturbing emotions, and so
forth."
My understanding
of what is Art has been crystallized through my
scientific career and my interest in art. Art is
all what affects our senses and emotions
resulting from different stimuli which penetrate
our brains, creating there the work of art
what we eventually see or hear. These
stimuli may come through sight, sound, touch,
feel, smell and others. The means of creating
art, for example, paintbrush, computer, knife,
telecommunication technologies, hammer, internet,
etc., are immaterial.
Now about the
interaction between Art and Science.
Historically, Art did not exist as an independent
genre as it does today. Great masters were
well-versed in both art and science, as
represented by Leonardo da Vinci. This
interaction must be introduced and demonstrated
in universities, and, even earlier at schools,
the initial melting pot of the future generation,
bearing in mind that the gap between Art and
Science which began in the 17th century became
wider in the 20th century.
Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev has demonstrated a
successful way of integrating the two cultures by
establishing a Museum of Art & Science
(www.bgu.ac.il/museum), the first of its kind.
The museum, founded by the author of this page in
1998, displays approximately 200 non-original
works of famous artists and holograms. The museum
is located in the Kreitman–Zlotowski
four-storey classroom building which reminds one
of the famous Guggenheim Museum in New York. The
classroom building is always crowded with
students, faculty, school children of all ages,
teachers and the general public, who are
continuously exposed to famous artwork and who
enjoy the permanent exhibition. The underlying
approach to demonstrating the interaction between
art and science in the museum is based on the
following duality: Art is used as a means to
illustrate Science, and Science serves as an
instrumentality in creating Art. This reminds us
of what Niels Bohr said in 1926: light is not
just a wave, not just a particle; it is a
composite of both, a wave and a particle.
The idea of
presenting this Art & Science page in each
issue of CJChE aims at focusing our
readers' attention on the frequently overlooked
scientific aspects in artwork. The average viewer
is generally not educated in this type of
observation. Another aim is to familiarize people
with art via science. It is also worth noting
that in many cases the artist had no intention of
demonstrating any scientific concepts in his
painting; nevertheless, they are there. On the
other hand, in those instances where the artist
did intend to demonstrate certain scientific
aspects or models, it is interesting to see how
he or she actually achieved it.
Each issue of
the CJChE will contain a page of
exposition describing a relevant picture that
demonstrates a specific scientific concept. There
will be some introductory remarks about the
artist, the essence of the painting style, a few
words about the picture illustrated, as well as a
description of the scientific concepts or
phenomena under discussion. In many cases,
several pictures will be presented to demonstrate
how different artists illustrate an identical
topic.
Scientific
concepts to be demonstrated are, for example,
perspective, mathematical numbers, Newton's laws,
black hole, symmetry, simulation, sound, light,
Big Bang, gravity, zoology and botany,
alternative medicine, thermodynamics' laws and
conceptions such as entropy, internal energy,
availability, work, dead state, enthalpy,
equilibrium and reversible process. Combustion,
closed loop, sublimation, time, Einstein's
universe, fluid flow, archeology, thinking,
seeing, illusion and reality, are additional
examples.
Creation of art
with the aid of scientific principles may be
demonstrated, for example, via space sciences,
weather sciences, geology, chaos model and
fractals, computer art, rheo-art, surface
tension, as well as sonographic art. In addition,
phenomena related to cognition of vision by the
brain such as holusion, optical illusions,
virtual motion, figure-ground, and multi-image as
well as impossible objects and situations, will
be demonstrated.
References
Campbell, N., "What is
Science?", Dover Publications, Inc., New
York, NY (1953).
"Carta's Universal
Encyclopedia", (in Hebrew), 4th ed., Meiri
Publisher, Hollon, Israel (1998).
Dissanayake, E., "What is
Art for?", University of Washington Press,
Seattle, WA (1995).
"The Encyclopedia
Americana International Edition", Vol. 2,
Grolier Inc., Danbury, CT (1991).
Even-Shoshan, A., "The
New Dictionary", Kiryat Sefer Ltd.,
Jerusalem, Israel (1975).
Even-Shoshan, A., "The
Concentrated Hebrew Dictionary", (in
Hebrew), Kiryat Sefer Ltd., Jerusalem, Israel
(1993).
Hornby, A. S., "Oxford
Advanced Learner's Dictionary", Oxford
University Press, Oxford, UK (1989).
"The New Encyclopedia
Britannica", Vol. 1, Encyclopedia
Britannica, Inc., Chicago, IL (1987).
"Picasso about
Picasso", introductory words at exhibition
at Kunsthaus Wien, Vienna, Austria, May 5 to
August 30 (1998).
Vari, I., "Mimesis: The
Psychology of Modern Painting" (in Hebrew),
Miskal Publising, Tel Aviv, Israel (1996), p. 43.
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