Sci-Art as a driver of the Creative Economy
Between them, my four stories show that Sci-Art projects can provide a powerful tool for convincing corporate R&D departments and other types of funders in the UK and round the world of the demonstrable benefits of supporting interdisciplinary research. I remember some years ago, when I carried out a study to establish the eligibility of five Sci-Art projects for receiving support from NESTA, Jeremy Newton, its first Chief Executive, used the words ‘fragile flowers’ to describe Sci-Art projects. At the time I disagreed but, in retrospect, I think he was right. Sci-Art projects do need a considerable amount of nurturing if they are to grow and prosper. (NESTA, by the way, through the provision of a Pioneer Award, did enable FIXING THE EPHEMERAL to take an important step forward.)
BIOTICA is a case in point. Its child the starfish has achieved success but the main project according to Igor is still there for someone to say: “hey, that’s a great idea – I can use it.” This may or may not happen; Richard states: “BIOTICA is ahead of its time in being concerned with the concept of interconnected parallel processes. Its application is perhaps best suited to complex phenomena such as biological simulations but it could be ‘re-purposed’ into a visualisation tool for predicting stockmarket valuations or molecular forms for new mimetic proteins. Then it would be seen to have great commercial value.”
Igor lays the blame at the feet of entrepreneurs: “From a scientific point of view BIOTICA is fascinating and gives rise to speculations on the nature of new virtual organisms. But to hard- nosed entrepreneurs this does not feed into their thinking. Hard-nosed entrepreneurs feel that they know what triggers they need to advance their business and an even stronger way of being blind to the possibilities of doing things unrelated to their current business. But then the likes of Bill Gates or Tim Berners-Lee do rather well and are thankful that not so many are as visionary as they are!”
If Biotica is still undiscovered, by contrast, FIXING THE EPHEMERAL has literally soared skywards in its unstoppable trajectory of success. As Sid comments:
"The DEFRA, PIMHAI and UMAP projects can be traced back to the new research direction stimulated by working with Heather and Dan with the support of Wellcome and NESTA. New opportunities continue to arise - for example an EU-supported collaboration with colleagues in Scandinavia has just begun and will explore the use of high-resolution imaging and machine learning to monitor contamination of dairy produce and animal carcasses early in the food chain. Here again there are opportunities to develop new Intellectual Property and exploitable technologies.”
At one level my four stories could not be more different – one from another – both in terms of the range of arts involved and the breadth of sciences they embrace. But together they indicate, I think, that over the years a new ‘milieu’ for creativity has been generated by the Sci-Art idea. Not only these projects, but many others, show that a blurring of the edges has occurred between the two great methods of discovery – science and art.
In his book, Grammars of Creation, George Steiner puts forward his prognosis for the future:
“In a world increasingly dominated by the sciences and their technological applications, progress will be informed by a ‘new code of the collective’. Here, the arts and humanities, where traditionally singularity and solitude are of the essence, will join scientific discovery and technological investigation by taking place in a spirit of partnership and sociability.”
This is exactly the process that has been exemplified by Alexa’s pioneering spirit in joining scientists to pursue a path of mutual discovery. But, it can be argued, I think, that all my exemplars have undergone a similar voyage of discovery. They have revealed that a new type of creativity is ignited in participatory environments where scientists and artists have been encouraged to enrich and maximise each others potential.
ENDNOTE
As I mentioned at the outset of this presentation on Sci-Art, it was prepared specifically for a conference concerned in Creative Clusters, which took place in 2007. There is much more that can be said particularly with regard to the fortuitous combination of circumstances that enabled Sci-Art to be launched and then prosper for 10 years (1997 - 2006). There's no doubt in my mind that the Sci-Art initiative engendered, over time, a powerful force for change affecting the processes of science and art practice in UK universities and elsewhere.
For many involved in Sci-Art, the results were life changing and life enhancing, not least for me. Unexpectedly, it was an exhibition 'Look Hear', designed by Trickett Associates for the Wellcome Trust, that was instrumental in kick-starting the idea that led eventually to Wellcome's sponsorship of Sci-Art. All this and much more is now recorded in 'The Making of Sci-Art', a peer-reviewed article prepared at the request of Roger Malina, executive editor of Leonardo Publications at MIT Press, and now available online. Late in the day and before memories of Sci-Art's hard-fought inception fade forever I have felt bound to put the record straight on how it all started and to give an inside account on why it was so successful.
Terry Trickett (September 2021)
Can Sci-Art lead to wealth generation?
