- " Oh wow !! IThere is a Laboratory of Art and Science at the CNRS in Paris, Did you know that ??"
- " Of course I did "
- " What ?? But how could it be possible that I never ever heard about that ?? "
And here I am, wondering about relashionship and division about art and science.
"Behind all great human discovery lies an enigmatic phenomenon: creativity" [3]
Generating creative ideas is as important for art than for science. There is their main common factor: without creativity, there is no great breakthrough and no great peace of art. Terefore, the Art and Science Laboratory of the CNRS has decided to bring the two fields together, and it is darn right.
While scientific illustrators still bridge the gap between art and science, their number is declining steadily with the onset of new technologies, including the spread of digital revolution. Pictures are getting not only clearer but also more beautiful (and it matters a lot for scientific communication!!) so human eye seems less essential to correct imaging technique defects [2]. (Designers however are increasingly called upon to collaborate with scientific labs [10]).
Great geniuses, were they putting art and science apart ??
Leonardo da Vinci has always represented an ideal to me : his genius is feeded by a global interest for vastly diverse fields. Leonardo da Vinci is an inventor, an artist, an engineer, an investigator, a philosopher. And even now one still hears about his creations and thoughts. You may find here a description of his numerous notebooks, go ahead it's worth it.
Other and newer historical figures also express their genius in the exercice of artistic and scientific activities: for instance let's mention Einstein, renowned physicist but also violonist.
Researchers demonstrated that artistic practice (especially music) would improve mental performance in other fields practiced. The French Ministry of Education itself mentions the importance of "bringing culture and art to the heart of the educational system"... and this programme is more than 15 years old !! [8] [9].
But what has the Ministry of Education done ?
It is a shame that school programmes still split art and science [5]. In General Seconde Class alone (when you're around 15 years old), (it is named "general" though !), Art has completly vanished from programmes. Howerver soport still remains : benefits of sport have been accepted, but what are we waiting for to do the same with artistic activities? [6] Oh well yes, if you ever wanted to continue art at school, you would better have decided before 15 years old...
Let's dream for a second and imagine... musical instruments in physics to study waves, hatsh-drawings in biology so one can finally restores volums to the so flat "observational drawing" one learns nowadays, or even sculpture in chemistry to understand structural interactions...
For instance, at the Henri Poincaré Institut (Paris), an exhibition was settled thanks to Pierre Berger : mathematician today, he was previously attending to architectural studies. His background combining art and science makes him the perfect contemporary exemple for my article. The aim of his exhibition is to make mathematics visual and audible, by using sounds and images in dimension tree, creating unbelievable optical illustions : go and check his pictures, what you think beeing curves are actually nothing els but straight lines!! [4]
Rather than giving up, let's imagine alternatives
If some scientific teachers think there don't have the artistic skills required to teach them, or if some other artistic teachers don't feel comfortable with teaching scientific consepts, then training courses should be put forward, and partnerships between scientific and artistic schools should be created, so students can attend to advances courses in both fiels. Those collaborations would also encourage the emergence of students with specific profiles, which would help them to come out on top among the hundreds of other graduates from the same school.
These days in France, new pschool programmes care about creating a widder mixing between all the scientific fields, to point their interrelationship out.
But what if the next step was to include artistic practices into science?
Do not hesitate to ract, your opinion matters to me !
I like the idea of moving the world forward through exchange of views and knowledges
Drawing:
Portrait de Marie Curie, 2017, Jeanne Le Peillet
References:
- [1] L'Humanité: https://www.humanite.fr/comment-la-science-dialogue-t-elle-avec-lart-604112
- [2] Emmanuelle Van Noppen: http://www.illustration-animaliere.com/index.php/galeries/dessin-scientifique
- [3] Le journal du CNRS: https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/videos/demain-tous-creatifs
- [4] Le jour al du CNRS: https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/videos/les-noces-de-lart-et-des-mathematiques
- [5] Programme de sciences en écoles élémentaire et primaire en France, 2015, Ministère de l'Education Nationale
- [6] Programme de seconde générale, France, 2016, Ministère de l'Education Nationale
- [7] Descriptif des Carnets de Leonard de Vinci, Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France
- [8] Etude sur l'enseignement artistique, Ministère de l'Education Nationale
- [9] Plan pour les arts et la culture, 2001, Ministère de l'Education Nationale
- [10] L'alchimie du design et de la science, 2015, Le Monde
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