Science and art are often considered to be irreconcilably different ways of looking at the world. Science is generally associated with the objective and impersonal, and art with the subjective and personal. This exhibition upsets typical expectations about art and science and navigates the common ground between them.

Despite many real and perceived differences between art and science, there are fundamental similarities. Scientists and artists are both engaged in creative activity, and they are both driven by a common mission an attempt to make sense of the world as they observe and participate in it. Perhaps the best-known example of the artist-scientist is Leonardo da Vinci, whose works well illustrate his dictum "There is no higher or lower knowledge, but one only, flowing out of experimentation." Throughout history, others too have connected scientific and artistic thought in ways that are mutually illuminating and mutually challenging.

Science and Art Shared Frontiers illustrates many science-art connections as they appear in the scientific, artistic, or scholarly works of Emory faculty, staff, and students. The exhibit serves to inform but also to stimulate and raise questions. While much divides the sciences from the arts, the exhibit shows the wonderfully dynamic and diverse relationships that exist between these two areas of inquiry, and how the quest for knowledge and understanding draws art and science repeatedly and inevitably together.

~ Sidney Perkowitz and Juliette Apkarian, Curators

Industrial Rhythm

Industrial Rhythm
1983
Video Art (VHS) 7 mins., color, 8 mm film transposed and edited in MPEG digital video

Dalia Judovitz, Departmentof French and Italian
and Jason Keehn (a.k.a.Netherlands Studios)

This experimental video is a poetic reflection on technology and its impact on
lived architecture and space. It questions the preeminence of technology today by
exploring images and sounds of industrial decay as disposable ruins of our time.
Shot on super 8 film that was transferred to video, this work deploys techniques
of mechanical reproduction in order to challenge our understanding of the visual
image and conventional modes of seeing.

Opaque Silhouette
February 21, 2001 (12 Noon – 1 PM)

A lecture-performance of Electro-Acoustic compositions by Steven Everett, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music, Emory University. The concert will feature performances and discussion of three works for percussion, electronic instruments, video and spoken text. Featured performer is Peggy Benkeser.

Science and Art: Closer Than You Think
February 28, 2001 (12 Noon – 1 PM)

Lecture by Sidney Perkowitz, Candler Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, Emory University. Dr. Perkowitz has written and lectured extensively on the relationships between science and art, including a recent invitational talk at the Smithsonian.

Background: A Reading
March 7, 2001 (12 Noon – 1 PM)

A staged reading of Emory student Lauren Gunderson’s one-act play about the scientists who developed the Big Bang Theory. "Background" is read by its award winning author and other Emory actors, with a brief introduction by Sidney Perkowitz, Physics Department.

Labanotation: A Universal Language for Dance and Movement Studies
March 21, 2001 (12 Noon – 1 PM)

A lecture and dance demonstration by Sally Radell, Associate Professor and Director, Dance Program/Department of Health, Physical Educationand Dance, Emory University. The session celebrates initiation of coursework in Labanotation at Emory this semester.

Science and Art: A Roundtable with Studio Artists
March 28, 2001 (12 Noon – 1 PM)

A special discussion by award-winning artists on the dynamics between art and science: with Julia Kjelgaard, Teaching Affiliate and Director, Program in Studio Arts; and William Brown, Katherine Mitchell, and Linda Armstrong -- Teaching Affiliates, Program in Studio Arts/Department of Art History, Emory University.

Aelita Queen of Mars
April 4, 2001 (4 - 6 PM)

A film screening with an introduction by Juliette Stapanian Apkarian, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures, Emory University.

Between the Sciences and the Arts: Building A Technological Bridge
April 11, 2001 (12 Noon – 1 PM)

A presentation by Alan Cattier, Manager of Teaching and Research Services, Information Technology Division, Emory University. Call 404/727-6427 for details.

My Twentieth Century(Hungarian with English subtitles)
April 18, 2001 (5 - 7 PM)

A film screening with introduction by David Cook, Director, Film Studies, Emory University.

Support at Emory University is provided by:

Contributors:

The contributors come from the following departments and areas at Emory:

Center for Study of Health, Culture, and Society/ Rollins School of Public Health

Graduate Students, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Special thanks to:

Exhibition Steering Committee:

Curators: