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Hello, All:

There are a few points about integrating art and science/technology in
exhibitions that have come to mind over the past several months of
developing exhibitions for our new wing.

1) Beauty is really really good.  Exhibits that are both beautifully
designed and have components with a strong aesthetic impact are
fundamentally valuable.  The affective response of the visitor is
unarguably affected by beauty (though the substance of that impact may
be hard to define), and it helps the science center visitor recognize
that they are in a different kind of space...that the exhibition is
categorically different than their quotidian experience.

2) Artists have historically been deeply influenced by science, and that
influence continues today.  From the study of perspective and anatomy to
contemporary engagement with technology, artists have responded to the
genuine science of their time.  There is a growing cadre of artists who
are extraordinarily technically literate, and who are genuinely engaged
with a broad range of sciences.  For Connections--the Nature of
Networks, an exhibit that opened...well...today...we commissioned work
from a Bay Area artist named Scott Snibbe, who produced two interactive
pieces thoroughly grounded in the science of networks.  They are both
technically very advanced and well-conceived, and grounded in the
content we are trying to convey.  Scott came from a group called
Interval Research, funded by Paul Allen, which brought together
scientists, technologists, and artists.

Artists included in Connections:

You are Hear--Scott Snibbe
Near--Scott Snibbe
Float--Tim Prentice
The Way things Go--Fischli and Weiss
Ropes and Pulleys--Kyle Dries


Eric Siegel
Director of Planning
   & Program Development
Connections Project Director
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Queens, NY 11368
[log in to unmask] 
www.nyscience.org

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Informal Science Education Network 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ted Ansbacher
> Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 10:42 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Integrating Science with Art/Culture
> 
> 
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of 
> Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network 
> of science museums and related institutions.
> **************************************************************
> ***************
> 
> Jeff Courtman is concerned that in some art-science 
> presentations the science 
> becomes only a "subservient tool." I would suggest that science and 
> technology are always subservient tools. Science's purpose is 
> to help us understand our 
> experiences of the world; technology's is to help us make and 
> do useful 
> things. From that point of view, if the science or technology 
> in an exhibit or 
> activity is integral to accomplishing one of those ends, then 
> it is really being 
> presented in its proper context. There is a difference between 
> science/technology being integral to an interesting and 
> enjoyable activity and sugar-coating 
> (or pill-in-peanutbutter).  In the latter, the activity bears 
> no relationship 
> to the science/technology except to make it somehow more 
> palatable. The 
> science/technology is presented in a false context and as an 
> end in itself (which it 
> is not). 
> 
> Ted Ansbacher
> Science Services
> 29 Byron Ave, White Plains, NY 10606
> 914-328-5407     [log in to unmask]     www.scienceservs.com
> 
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