Speaker
Description
For the past decade or so, I have been experimenting with the boundary between art and science. I have repurposed my scientific images of pattern formation experiments and pattern-forming natural phenomena by presenting them as art. I have exhibiting images and videos in art galleries and juried art shows. I have brought artists into my research lab for several hands-on workshops. I was the co-organizer of the "ArtSci Salon", an evening meet-up group at the Fields Institute of Mathematical Science in Toronto. I have released a trove of icicle shape data for free use under the Creative Commons. I have collaborated with sound artists and composers to use pattern formation images and videos as input to their creative processes. All these activities can be viewed equally as art-making or as scientific outreach. I call my stuff "scientific folk art". I claim that aesthetics is a valid motivation for scientific studies in pattern formation, and that exhibiting and talking about pattern formation as art is a valid form of scientific outreach. This approach generates wide-ranging conversations across traditionally separate disciplines. The art world offers a new and relatively untapped venue for science outreach activities, as well as being a lot of fun to explore.
| Keyword-1 | outreach |
|---|---|
| Keyword-2 | pattern formation |
| Keyword-3 | art |
