SciArt is a contemporary phenomenon that has it’s origins in the 1960s. Electrical engineer Billy Klüver began collaborating with artists and exploring how new technologies could be incorporated into works of art (Kenrinaldo, 2006). The first work of this kind was Homage to New York (1960), a machine that self-constructed and then self-destroyed in the sculpture garden of MOMA, made in collaboration with kinetic-sculptor Jean Tinguely.
The piece, given the title, could signify the building-up and tearing-down of urban spaces. Tinguely has commented on the piece being an attempt to liberate himself from materials, and even the smoke from the fire (as the sculpture burned) becoming part of the material of the event (Tingley, 1962, quotes in Landy, 2009). However, in the spirit of Dada, the meaning behind works is deliberately obscure (Tzara, 1918) and the piece could instead stand for the abolition of logic.
“It wasn’t the idea of a machine committing suicide that fascinated me primarily; it was the freedom that belonged to its ephemeral aspect – ephemeral like life, you understand. It was the opposite of the cathedrals, the opposite of the skyscrapers around us, the opposite of the museum idea, the opposite of the petrification in a fixed work of art” (ibid)
Billy Klüver went on to be one of the organisers of 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering, alongside Fred Waldhauer and artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman (Kenrinaldo, 2006). This was a series of events and performances that took place in 1966 which brought together 10 artists and 30 engineers to develop the relationship between contemporary art and new technologies, and it is recognised as one of the founding moment of what is now known as SciArt. The group also founded in the same year a not-for-profit organisation called Experiments in Art and Technology, who have provided artists with technical information and assistance to produce artworks, environments and events around the world.
But what exactly is SciArt? In my recent considerations around the subject, I have arrived at this definition:
The post-disciplinary practice merging elements typically associated with The Arts and The Sciences which leads to an exploration in those areas (Atkinson, 2016)
You may find this definition is vague. I feel it intentionally has to be so. We cannot answer ‘what is art?’ conclusively (and I assume scientists would struggle to answer ‘what is science?’) so it should be equally impossible to define SciArt!
SciArt may help us to explore, understand, or express something about the natural world, human psychology, outer-space or more. It may lead to new development in either the field of arts or sciences (or both). It may use creative tools to make science more understandable to the public, or scientific tools to make contemporary art more relatable. It doesn’t necessarily need to lead to break-through discoveries or Eureka! moments.
‘The Arts’ here is intended to include: visual art, performance art, theatre, music, poetry, film, digital art, and more. ‘The Sciences’ is intended to include: biology, physics, chemistry, the social sciences, psychology, geology, human geography, and more.
For me, the idea of SciArt being ‘post-disciplinary’ is important. I could use the term cross/inter/trans-disciplinary or something similar, but this reinforces the idea of boundaries between disciplines, which are actually human-made concepts. I feel the world is fluid, homogeneous, interdependent, and disciplines choose certain parts to study in isolation and apply their own language to it. ‘Post-disciplinary’ suggests moving beyond these distinctions towards a holistic study of phenomenon, the self, and its/our contexts.
References:
- Kenrinaldo (2006) Billy Klüver, in Wikipedia .[Online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Kl%C3%BCver [Accessed: 28 October 2016]
- Landy, M. (2009) Homage to destruction. [Online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/homage-destruction [Accessed: 29 October 2016].
- Tzara, T. (1918) Dada Manifesto. [Online] Available at: http://www.391.org/manifestos/1918-dada-manifesto-tristan-tzara.html#.WCYZS9yKRsZ [Accessed: 28 October 2016].
Photographs of paper and light experiments I made during a residency at Yorkshire Art Space, Persistence Works Studios, Sheffield, July 2013, as part of the Artist’s Summer School project from The Poly-Technic.