Massachusetts College of Art

Spring 2004

SIM 38X: Nature, Science and Art

Nita Sturiale nsturiale@massart.edu East 306 Available by appt. after Spring Break

Margot Kelley mkelley@virtualagora.com East 306 Available by appt.

In the United States, especially, people tend to think of art and science as opposite. But many scientists describe their moments of discovery in the same terms as artists use to talk about their breakthroughs, and many artists grapple with the same questions about the nature of reality that scientists do. But because artists often don't know a lot about science, and scientists often don't know about art, the deep connections are frequently missed. Plus, it's hard to make art about scientific matters and to do it well. We will spend some time this semester overcoming those hurdles.

To do so, we will do four things:

• First, every week, Nita and Margot will lead a conversation about the topic specified on the syllabus, using the questions we've included here as a jumping off point.
• Second, every week, after we develop a common language and get started on a shared body of ideas, we will have a lengthy conversation, figuring out more about that topic and also what our individual interests in it are (and how they might be expressed in an artwork).
• Third, you will each make and present at least one new artwork that engages questions about nature and science that matter to you individually.
• Fourth, you will each conduct an experiment. During the first week, we'll talk about the scientific method and the ways scientists conduct experiments. Then, you will conduct experiments from your vantage as artists.

From time to time, we will provide short readings or viewings that we think will be helpful. And each week, you'll need to be responsible for asking at least one interesting, relevant question. We want this course to address your curiosities and passions, so we need you to let us know what those are! And we want to know how YOU think it's all going, so we need you to do two self-evaluations, one at mid-term and one at the end of the semester. As you know, this is a pass/fail class. But in order to pass, you need to do all the things listed above.

We've noted some interesting talks that are coming up soon and have attached a list of books; as you get a sense of which topics interest you most, these lectures and books can take you a few more steps. If you hear about forthcoming events that you think will interest others, or know of books that other folks might value, please let us know and we will make sure to announce them in class each week.

And now for the good stuff - what we're going to do!

Jan 23: Introductions; the scientific method—defining an experiment.

The opening reception of eVolution: the Art of Living Systems - starts at 6 over at Art Interactive, on Bishop Allen Dr. in Cambridge (by Central Square T Station).

Here's the description:

Curated by Christiane Paul, eVolution takes a captivating look at artificial life and autonomous, behavior-driven systems. The concepts explored by the five acclaimed artists featured in the show challenge our notions of life forms, intelligence, and consciousness. The exhibition allows us to examine our relationships with increasingly independent machines. Science frequently weighs in on questions of artificial life forms and intelligence, but Art Interactive presents a slice of the topic from an artistic and cultural point of view.

If you can't make it to this opening, please plan on going over sometime before March 5.

FYI: Wednesday, January 28, 6:30-8 pm, a dialogue entitled M++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City, about the ways in which digital technologies are transforming our interactions with the world(s), will occur at the ICA (Boylston St., Hynes/ICA T stop). The two discussants are William J. Mitchell, head of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, and George Fifield, media arts curator at the DeCordova Museum. $5 admission for students. Reservations recommended.

Jan 30: Space ( What is space? Where is it? Does it end? How is it related to gravity?) [Sign up for experiment groups and for presentation dates for both art projects and experiments discussions.]

FYI: Tuesday, Feb 3 at 10:30 am and again on Thurs., Feb 5 at 7:00 pm, Margaret Livingstone will be speaking at the MFA about "The Biology of Seeing: Vision and Art"

Feb 06: Time ( What time is it? Is time divisible? How are space and time related to one another?)

FYI: Tuesday, Feb 10 and again on Thurs., Feb. 12, Eric Heller will be speaking at the MFA about art created by scientists and asking "can it ever measure up?"

FYI: Wednesday, Feb 11. Author Brian Greene will be talking about his new book The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality at the Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, at 6 pm.

Feb 13: yeah, Friday the 13^th. Luckily, in this scientific context, we can all ignore superstition while we talk about Sound. (how are sounds generated? How does sound travel? And, of course, the real answer to “If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there, does it make a sound?”)

Feb 20: NO CLASS - This Friday is a Monday. You know how it goes... (Maybe we can talk about this later, during the consciousness conversation, as a curious version of mutually constructing an alternative, consensual reality)

Feb 27: Light ( What is light? How is light produced? How does it travel? Why do light and sound each get a week and taste and smell don't?)

FYI: Saturday, Feb 28. A Curator's Talk with Christiane Paul about eVolution. It's $5for non-members, free for members. At Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Rd., Cambridge. (Central Square)

Mar 05: Life and Death (what's alive? What's not alive? Is anything immortal?)

MID-TERM SELF EVALUATION DUE >>

Mar 12: NO CLASS - Spring Break

Mar 19: Sex and Reproduction ( What's so great about sex? How does reproduction occur? How is sex related to death?)

FYI: On Thursday, March 25, a Panel Discussion with Jeff Huang and Martin C. Martin, two of the artists whose work is represented in eVolution. Moderated by Christiane Paul. At Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Rd., Cambridge. (Central Square)

Mar 26: Evolution and Change ( What changes? What evolves? How does evolution occur?)

Apr 02: Language and Syntax ( What counts as a language? What, exactly, is syntax? Which species have language? How does it affect consciousness?)

Apr 09: Memory and Consciousness (So, really, how does language affect consciousness? What is consciousness? Are all living things conscious? What kinds of memory are there? How do they work?)

Apr 16: Sleep and Dreams (How long can you go without sleep before you die? Was Freud right about the nature of dreams? If not, what is the nature of dreams?)

Apr 23: Society and Culture ( What is a society, and how is it maintained? What is a culture? How do societies and cultures change? How do subcultures get formed? And why?)

Apr 30: Knowledge and Information ( How are they different from each other? What does it mean to be knowledgable?)

May 07: Art and Science ( how they can be integrated, and other ultimate answers to ultimate questions)

FINAL SELF EVALUATION DUE >>

Some good books

On the Macrocosmos

Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, Bantam Books, 1988

Eames/Morrison, Powers of Ten, Scientific American Library, 1982

Guy Murchie, Music of the Spheres (2 Vols.), Houghton Mifflin, 1968

D'Arcy Thompson, On Growth and Form, Dover, 1942

On the Senses

Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses, Vintage Books, 1990

Jared Diamond, Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality, BasicBooks, 1997

On the Brain

Charles J. Lumsden, E. O. Wilson, Promethean Fire: Reflections on the Origin of Mind, Harvard U. Press 1983

Daniel Dennett, Kinds of Minds: Toward an Understanding of Consciousness, BasicBooks, 1996

J. Allan Hobson, The Chemistry of Conscious States, Little Brown, 1994

Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994

Patricia Churchland, Neurophilosophy, MIT Press, 1986

Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language, HarperCollins, 1994

Steven Mithen, The Prehistory Of The Mind, Thames and Hudson, 1996

On Evolution and Human Origins

Edward O. Wilson, On Human Nature, Harvard U. Press, 1978

Edward O. Wilson, Consilience, Knopf, 1998

Edward O. Wilson, In Search of Nature, Island Press, 1996

Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (New Edition), Offord U. Press, 1989

Stephen J. Gould, The Flamingo's Smile, W. W. Norton, 1985

Richard Leakey, The Origin of Humankind, BasicBooks, 1994

Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, Princeton U. Press, 1871

Lynn Margulis, Karlene V. Swartz, Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth,W. H. Freeman, 1988

Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan, Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution, U. of California Press, 1986

On Astronomy

Allan Savage, The Hubble Atlas of Galaxies (2 Vols), Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1994

Timothy Ferris, The Whole Shebang, Simon and Schuster, 1997

On Chemistry

P. W. Atkins, The Periodic Kingdom, BasicBooks, 1995

Martin Olomucki, The Chemistry of Life, McGraw-Hill, 1991

On Time, Sound and Waves

Willard Bascom, Waves and Beaches,1980, Doubleday

Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us, Oxford U. Press, 1950

John Holland, Time (2nd Ed.), American Sound Press, 1995

John Holland, Sound Waves And their Properties in the Surrounding Media, American Sound Press, 1987

Some useful journals

Discover, Nature, Science News, and Scientific American

N. Sturiale and M. Kelley

2004