domingo, 25 de novembro de 2007

Trabalho de Puzio.


Trabalho de Puzio.


Figura Puzio.


Christopher Puzio - propostas.

Warped Structural Loops

by Christopher Puzio
This sculptural investigation was realized in response to some preliminary studies of "protein folding". It is my aim to form a new structural language within the art-practice of sculpture that acknowledges current thought within the fields of mathematics and bio-mechanics as it pertains to our understanding of form. With this piece, I have developed an assembly that is composed of a family of fifty atomic building units. These units have no specific directional orientation, yet can be assembled by means of a prescriptive sequence into closed loops. Common to all units are the following characteristics: 12" lengths of tube steel are machined and given a 30-degree bend. Tubes are welded together in pairs at 90 degrees. The relative rotation of the rods prior to being welded is left as an open variable within the fabrication process. These modular pieces comprise the family of fifty atomic units which share many dimensional and directional characteristics, yet no two are the same. (Figure 1) By selecting a sequence of six units and connecting them at random, one will be able to make the resulting string connect into a closed loop. Each string of six has a unique geometric composition resulting in only one closed loop, whose geometry is specific to that sequence. If the sequence order is changed for any given six units, the resulting loop will have a uniquely original geometry. Since each loop can only close into a singular geometric loop, all rotation is canceled out by the locked geometry. In other words, while the pin connections that join the units on axis allow for rotation, the geometry of the loop becomes rigid and fixed once the loop is closed. (Figure 2) At the next largest scale, these loops can in turn be connected together into six loops of six units. (Figure 3) Resulting structures are indexed, quantified, and reprogrammed to form alternate structural configurations. (Figure 4) These types of geometric set relationships are more common to the world of biomechanics and chemistry than sculpture or architecture. One of my aims as an artist is to begin to bridge the gap that exists between these worlds of thinking. My compositional approach, borrowed from the world of biomechanics, could be applied to the production of structurally engineered architectural systems through very basic fabrication processes. This would result in a new richly varied structural language.

Novo artista apresentado: Christopher Puzio.

Christopher Puzio
Born in 1971 in Paterson, New Jersey
Contact
5218 La Jolla Hermosa Avenue La Jolla, CA 92037 U.S.A E-mail:
chris@puzio.com Internet: www.puzio.com
Exhibitions (selection)
Design Show, Detroit Artist Market, Detroit, MI, USA, 2003 Dwellings, IDEA-ARTS gallery, Austin, TX, USA, 2003 Critical Mass, Museum of New Art, Detroit, MI, USA, 2002 Daimler Chrysler recent acquisitions, Daimler Chrysler, Southfield, MI, USA, 2002 Graduate Degree Show, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA, 2002 Seats 14: New Functional Seating Design, Detroit Contemporary, Detroit, MI, USA, 2002 Science Fare, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA, 2001 In Process: current and ongoing work by cranbrook 3d design department, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA, 2001 Cranbrook Connection, D'Arcy Advertising Agency Headquarters - Troy, MI, USA, 2001 Recycle / Reuse, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA, 2000
Awards (selections)
Redstone Merit Scholarship, Cranbrook Academy of Art, 2001 Academic Grant, Cranbrook Academy of Art, 2000 Nast Award for design, Boston Architectural Center, 1995.

sábado, 8 de setembro de 2007

"Bible Battery" de Paula Levine.


Outra visão da "Bible Battery" de Paula Levine.


Detalhe de obra de Paula Levine ("Bible Battery")


Paula Levine e sua "Bible Battery" - detalhe.


Obra de Paula Levine.


A proposta de Paula Levine - a sua "Bible Battery".

The Bible Battery

by Paula Levine
Biblical narratives constitute foundations for many cultural, social, and religious beliefs and practices in Judaism. Historically, these narratives have sometimes formed a kind of template through which contemporary historical events were interpreted and understood. While the narratives powerfully bridge time and carry both history and memory, they are, according to Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi in his book Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, neither fictions nor fact in the modern sense. The current, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, particularly in Israel and Palestine, have informed and shaped many of my projects over the past ten years. One of them is a series called "As if the laws are malleable". This series uses bibles as source, subject, and object of investigations and questions of Jewish laws, customs, traditions, conventions, and contemporary politics in Israel. The series can be viewed on line at http://www.as-if-the-laws-were-malleable.net. Part of the series is the installation "Bible Battery", first exhibited at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art in 2001. In this installation, the bible generates a 9 volt current that powers a small LED screen. When a viewer pushes a small button, text on the screen reads: "Move past old narratives." The "Bible Battery" is the result of a number of confluent threads:
thoughts about energy as a force that effects change and can transform from one state to another;
thinking of 'The Word' that has, over time, transformed from one state to another: from an oral tradition to that of a written text;
thinking about 'narrative' as another kind of force; one that converts or transforms experience into knowledge;
my own responses to the continuing Israeli / Palestinian conflicts.
The idea was to consider the bible and its narratives as energy that could then be changed from one form to another. I wanted to emulate the shift from oral to written text, but also to have the new form be intangible and immaterial. Utilizing both older technologies (battery) and newer technologies (LEDs), the piece conveys its message: to move past those narratives that have become dangerously rigid in their interpretations.

Nossa próxima artista: Paula L. Levine.

Paula L. Levine
Nascida em 1948 em New Haven, Connecticut. Visual Artist and Assistant Professor of Art at the San Francisco State University
Contacto
167 Sussex Street San Francisco, CA 94131 U.S.A. E-mail:
plevine@sfsu.edu Internet: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~plevine/
Exposições (seleção)
Women of the Book: Jewish Artists, Jewish Themes, traveled to Purdue University Gallery, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, University of Pennsylvania Special Collections Library, & University of Arizona Museum of Art, 2003 Being and Belonging: Reflections on Jewish Spaces, Gottheff Art Gallery, La Jolla, California, USA, 2003 This is not a book, Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, California, USA, 2000 10th Annual Jewish Film & Video Festival, Jewish Museum of New York, USA, 2000 PlayBlotto!, Mill Valley Film, Video and New Media Festival, Mill Valley, California, USA, 1999 Facing Fear, Arts San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA, 1999 Faces, Dazibao, Center de Photographies Actuelles, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1998 Pleasured Spaces, N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1998. Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in the Bay Area, DeYoung Art Museum, San Francisco, California, USA, 1995 Death & the Family, Presentation House, North Vancouver, BC, Canada, 1998
Prêmios (seleção)
Videomaker Production Award, Bay Area Video Coalition, San Francisco, California, USA, 2002 Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Woodside, California, USA, 2000 Research and Development Grant, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario, Canada, 1996
Bibliographic References (seleção)
Books that are not books by Jack Fischer, San Jose Mercury News, April, 2001 Mortality-Death and the Time-Based Image by Bruce Grenville, in: Death and the Family, catalogue, Presentation House Gallery, 1997

Proposta de Lane E. Last.

Imagining the Aesthetic Metaphor
by Lane E. Last
Every image can embody a way of seeing and relating to the world. It is nearly always necessary for us to "see" or detect a phenomenon before it can be discovered, studied, and understood. This is a fascinating parallel to some visual arts production, and one not lost on early writers on alchemy. In many ways the beauty inherent in some types of art is their ability to cling to the imagination of a viewer despite a lack of knowledge of specific information. Whether it is a combination of formal compositional or visual elements, or pure chance is hard to know. What is important is that the recency and attractive visual qualities of such a work can become an opportunity to educate in an informal manner. As an artist the process of "imagining the aesthetic metaphor" goes far beyond communicating information to a form of persuasion. As the modern world becomes more dependent on the products and processes of the chemical sciences, it is imperative to address the pursuit itself in an interesting and positive framework. "Believing is seeing" is a quite telling notion. This means, however, that the productions of images to support the sciences must be sophisticated, appealing, and not far from mythologizing. It is not said that they should be imaginary. Rather they should challenge the imagination to lead to further knowledge-based inquiry.

Outro trabalho de Lane E. Last.


Outra obra de Lane E. Last


Obra de Lane E. Last.


Lane E. Last: próxima artista da exposição virtual da HYLE.

Lane E. Last
Nascida em 1964. Professora Assistante de Arte, University of Tennessee em Martin. Editora da New Media Art (
www.nmediac.net )
Contacto
621 Exchange Street Union City, TN 38261 U.S.A E-mail:
lanelast@utm.edu Internet: www.lanelast.com
Exposições Recentes:
Information Visualisation 2003 DART, Brunei Gallery, University of London, England, 2003 Spaces for Experimentation, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Jose, Costa Rica, 2003 [d]vision – Festival For Digital Culture, Werkstätten and Kulturhaus, Vienna, Austria, 2003 Icon/X Animation, Remote Lounge, New York, USA, 2003 CyberArts 2002, Prix Ars Electronica, Austrian Broadcasting Corp., Linz, Austria, 2002 5th International Conference on Generative Art, Politecnico di Milano University, Milan, Italy, 2002 International Digital Film Fest, Media Co-op, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 2002 Deus Ex Machina, On-Line Photography Exhibit 2002, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, USA, 2002 Image and Meaning, Envisioning and Communicating Science and Technology, M.I.T., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 2001 Media Art Festival Friesland, St. Jacobparochie, Netherlands, 2001
Prêmios (seleção)
Professional Artist Support Grant, Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 2003 Faculty Development Grant, University of Tennessee, Martin, Tennessee, USA, 2002 Wisconsin Arts Board, Direct Purchase Project, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, 1998

sexta-feira, 7 de setembro de 2007

Brigitte Hitschler: mesmo campo, à noite.


Brigitte Hitschler: Campo de diodos no entardecer, emitindo luz gerada pelas reações dos restos (poluentes) de minérios.


Campo de diodos (400 hastes) na área de mineração abandonada, obra de Brigitte Hitschler.


Projeto de unidade da instalação de Brigitte Hitschler.


Proposta de Brigitte Hitschler

Energy Field
by Brigitte Hitschler

Four hundred light emitting diodes are glowing red in a marked out field on a potash slagheap in Hannover-Empelde, Germany. Tiny mysterious dots on sixteen poetic square meters. Glimmering lights invoke the slumbering, hidden forces of the hill. The energy, still inside and documented by permanent chemical processes in the material, flown into it as work energy, will be reactivated as "recovery energy" after completed recultivation. They symbolize the past and future energy potential of the place. Each light emitting diode is placed at the top of two 40 cm long and 2 mm thin brass tubes, which are connected with pieces of magnesium and plates of copper and zinc. The energy for the shining of the diodes is provided by two galvanic cells connected in series which absorb the power generated by the chemical reactions of the salt of the potash mining debris, the metal, and the humidity directly from the hill. Thus, a 4x4 m large surface strewn with tiny light spots is created without supplementary power. The slagheap of the potash mine in Hannover, which was closed in 1972, is being recultivated. A coating of the entire mountain with rubble and soil is to stop the washing out of the potash and therefore the release of salt into the surrounding rivers. After afforestation a forest biotope will be put up on a long-term basis. In 1999, an exhibition project offered artists the opportunity to create works of art between the slagheap and recultivated green area. In context of this project the presented work was created.

Brigitte Hitschler, nossa próxima artista.

Na exposição virtual da HYLE, Brigitte Hitschler é nossa próxima artista.
Nascida em 1954, Bochum, Alemanha.
Contacto:
Urbanusstraße 13 44892 Bochum Germany E-mail:
brighitschler@t-online.de
Exposições (seleção)
Lüntec, painting, Technology Center Lünen, Germany, 2001 Energy Field, land art, Hannover, Germany, 1999 Video-installation, Harenberg City-Center, Dortmund/Germany, 1998 Dayflies, text collage, Theatre of Hannover, Hannover, Germany, 1998 Objects, painting & video, Torhaus Rombergpark, Dortmund, Germany, 1998 Grottenolm, video, Marsberger Musiktage, Marsberg, Germany, 1998 The way it begins, video installation, art society, Villa Streccius, Landau, Germany, 1998 not quite the right blue ..., video installation, University of Iowa City, Iowa, USA, 1998 Wir zweifeln jetzt anders, work in public space, text installation (stainless steel), University of Dortmund, Germany, 1997/98

Obra de Erich Fuellbrabe.


Obra de Erich Fuellgrabe.


Mais uma obra de Erich Fuellgrabe.


Outra obra de Erich Fuellgrabe.


Proposta de Erich Fuellgrabe.

Measuring and Comparison
by Erich Füllgrabe

The Latin periodic system of typographic elements is part of my general approach in which I try out new definitions of understanding both in art and science by drawing relations between their languages. In so doing, it is not my intention to illustrate scientific knowledge or to replace well-known theories with private explanations, but to understand understanding.
Chemistry is the science of elements and material transmutations. By mixing, assembling, analyzing, and synthesizing, chemists investigate the structures of matter and enlarge both our understanding and the ability to create something new. Provided that art is a way of creating and understanding too - and that artists similarly proceed by mixing, assembling, analyzing, and synthesizing - we may ask similar questions about visibility and existence in both fields.
In art, individual experience has to be related to general experience and to be transmuted into visual "images". If art and chemistry are domains of transmutation and of dealing with raw materials, we may address those questions by similar approaches in both fields. The analogy between chemistry and art does of course not eliminate their differences. However, it might be useful to analyze similarities between the two approaches to understanding. Both chemists and artists must translate their individual experiences and experiments into visual presentations of results that considerably differ from their starting points. Both need to consider that visualizations are never faithful copies of their experiences but at best adequate summaries. In addition, if understanding should reach beyond the individual scientist or artist, both must present their results in a way comprehensible for others and thus place them into a social context.
Finally, in both domains visualization is not only a means of illustration but also a creative part of the act of understanding. Such as experiments can test the validity of theories, creating visualization can be used to test the degree of understanding of the corresponding results. I am convinced that connecting methods from science with procedures from non-scientific domains generates mutually beneficial impulses - not only to find new visualizations but also to reflect on visualization and the relation between knowledge, images, and reality.

Obra de Erich Fuellgrabe.


Próximo artista da exposição virtual da HYLE: Erich Füllgrabe

O próximo artista que apresentaremos, que participa da exposição virtual da HYLE é Erich Füllgrabe.
Nascido em 1962 in Herne, Alemanha. Artista e graphic designer, organiza e ensino arte e projetos para jovens.
Contacto: Goethestr. 57 44623 Herne Germany E-mail: null@gmdf.de
Internet: www.laboartorium.de www.gmdf.de
Exposições (seleção)
Theorien über Nix, Bochum, Germany, 2002 YOU + ME - market (together with Takako Saito and other artists), Düsseldorf, Germany, 2001 2+2, KUBUS, Städtische Galerie Hannover, Germany, 2001 Bewegliche Lettern, Städtische Galerie Remscheid, Germany, 2000 BLACK OUT, Flottmann-Hallen, Herne, Germany, 1999 Collagelaboratorium, Kunst-Wirk-Raum, Gerhard Reinert, Recklinghausen, Germany, 1998 Junger Westen (together with Lotte Füllgrabe-Pütz), Recklinghausen, Germany, 1997 bänder, Galerie Sint Marten, Arnhem, Netherlands, 1997 german contemporary art, Wakefield, England, 1996 grand art exhibition NRW, Düsseldorf, Germany, 1989.

Prêmios (seleção)
Special award of the Zimolong-(art)society, Gladbeck, Germany, 1992 Copy-Art-Museum, Mühlheim, Germany, 1988 Art-Award for young artists, Herne, Germany, 1987
Bibliographic References (selections)
Theorien über Nix (Theories about nothing), together with students of the Maria-Sybille-Merian-Gesamtschule, Bochum, 2002 Übergangologie (an introduction to the theory of transition), in: Übergänge (Transitions), Recklinghausen, 1999

quarta-feira, 5 de setembro de 2007

Mais David Clark


Detalhe de obra de David Clark


Obra de David Clark


Projeto de Obra de David Clark


Proposta de David Clark

Chemical Vision: The science museum of metachemistry

by David Clark

If I am allowed to misunderstand Mendeleev's remarks, it is possible to imagine that he is suggesting such a thing as chemical vision. What a wonderful idea to think we could touch the world with our eyes, to know the world unencumbered by signs and representations, to know what the world really is; what substance it has, what things really are. Mendeleev's great discovery, the periodic table, is a pinnacle of modernism. It sustains the atomist's hope that signs can be ascribed to all things; and those things, suspended in the proper order of differences and similarities, can be used as the building blocks of our picture of the world.

Chemical atomism is perhaps the most pronounced of all the tendencies towards atomism that characterize modernism. But we live in a time after the atom has been split, when our sensorium is being ripped apart by the domination of physical senses and the suppression of the chemical senses. Logic is just another language game; the visual has become the virtual. We are rapidly losing our grasp of the real that has heretofore grounded our existence and knowledge of the world.

Chemical Vision is a large-scale, walk-through interactive installation that has resonances of a science museum. Architecturally, it is derived from the shape of the periodic table, or more specifically the Meyer table that has become synonymous with periodic law – an image which has become a meta-sign of the discipline of chemistry itself. In the installation, the viewer encounters enigmatic displays that reflect on vision, language, and the physical sciences: a Braille visual acuity chart constructed out of the chemical element's abbreviations, a giant, motorized computer mouse on an Ouija board, also inscribed with the chemical elements. This museum doesn't explain but shows us the difficulties for art and science in the transition from the modernist world to our own. The mouse is a particular figure here; both the mouse that has lent itself to psychology experiments and the computer mouse that evokes an entire virtual world that is devoid of the chemical senses. What will be the progression of knowledge in this chemical-less dream world? What will become of mice and men? Chemical Vision was first shown in an exhibition entitled Scienced Fictions curated by Peter Dykhuis at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, in Halifax, Canada in 2000. It will be exhibited again in an exhibition entitled Chemical Vision at Museum London in London, Ontario in November of 2003.

Novo artista da exposição virtual da HYLE

O próximo artista é David Clark. Nascido em 1963 (Calgary, Alberta, Canadá)
Associate Professor in Film at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
Contacto:
Media Arts Division Nova Scotia College of Art and Design Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3J6 Canada E-mail:
dclark@nscad.ns.ca Internet: www.aisforapple.net
Exposições (seleção)
SIGGRAPH 2003, Web Graphics Expo, San Diego, USA, 2003 43rd Cracow Film Festival, Krakow, Poland, 2003 European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück, Germany, 2003 DigitalMedia Gallery, American Museum for the Moving Image, New York, USA, 2003 SXSW 2003 Interactive Web Awards, Austin, Texas, USA, 2003 Transmediale03, Berlin, Germany, 2003 Sundance On-line Film Festival, Park City, Utah, USA, 2003 16th Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany, 2003 Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media, Montreal, Canada, 2002 FILE2002 Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2002
Prêmios (seleção)
Best in Show, SXSW Interactive Festival, Austin, Texas, USA, 2003 First Prize, FILE2002 Electronic Language International Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2002 MTT New Media Prize, Nova Scotia Arts Council, Canada, 2001
Bibliographic References (selections)
Core Concepts by Curt Cloniger, Rhizome.org (netartnews), August 6, 2002. La pomme porte ses fruits by Marie Lechner, Liberation.fr (web magazine), July 12, 2002

Outra obra de Blair G. Bradshaw


Outra obra de Blair G. Bradshaw


Obra de Blair G. Bradshaw


O primeiro artista que iremos discutir é Blair G. Bradshaw

Nascido em 1967
Contacto
315 Bleecker St. #191 New York, NY 10014 U.S.A. E-mail:
bgb@onebox.com Internet: www.blairbradshaw.com
Exposições (seleção)
Geraldine Banier, Paris, France, 2003 Tercera, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2003 Zonal, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2002 City Hall, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2002 Temple, Palo Alto, CA, USA, 2002 Globe, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2001 Hang, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2001 Hang, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2000 Zonal, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2000 Montserrat, New York, NY, USA, 2000
A proposta desse artista para a exposição virtual

Uma interpretação dos elementos
por Blair G. Bradshaw

Quando eu comecei a trabalhar com a iconografia dos símbolos químicos e modelos, eu me atraí inicialmente por sua estética simples. Eu usava livros textos introdutórios como referência. Eu comecei minha pesquisa das formas antigas da tabela periódica indo até os símbolos gráficos dos elementos de John Dalton; eu me referia a esses ícones em minhas pinturas. À medida que eu aprendia mais sobre a Química e os homens e mulheres por trás da ciência, o meu interesse foi ficando mais profundo, indo para além da simples representação gráfica. A habilidade da tabela periódica em representar idéias tão complexas em uma forma tão simples logo me chamou a atenção. Não há um vocabulário mais simples para uma linguagem tão rica. Eu continuei tentando explorar a complexidade e profundidade de representações gráficas tão simples ao alterá-las e distorcendo-as artisticamente, dando-as uma vida mais orgânica do que letras e números pretos.
O texto a seguir foi extraído do periódico HYLE, do exemplar referido acima.

Chemistry in Art
Introduction to the Virtual Art Exhibition

by Tami I. Spector and Joachim Schummer

We are pleased and excited to present the virtual exhibition "Chemistry in Art" which continues and expands HYLE's aspiration to promote a dialogue among the disciplines by now including the work of practicing visual artists. With this exhibition HYLE's special issue on "Aesthetics and Visualization in Chemistry" (Nos. 9.1 & 9.2 ) transcends the usual boundaries of scholarly journals and provides an alternate mode for reflecting on the aesthetics of chemistry that might otherwise be neglected by academicians. It is our hope that the inclusion of artistic works will not only appeal to, and satisfy, the aesthetic impulses of those of us who are already involved in the study of chemistry, but also broaden the conversation to include others who might feel marginalized by scholarly discourse. Toward this end, we present fourteen contemporary visual artists who each reflect on chemistry with a distinct artistic and conceptual perspective. Since 1986, when the entire Biennale di Venezia was devoted to "Arte e Scienza", the relationship between science and art has been the focus of the art world. Even if one excludes the various popularizations of science and electronic media art projects, which are often also classified under the heading 'art and science', the topic has been the recipient of extraordinary attention from curators, gallery directors, and cultural critics. There are museums, societies, journals, magazines, foundations, and annual awards, and there have been countless conferences, symposia, and exhibitions devoted to the exploration of the relationship between art and science. Examples of recent art exhibitions are Laboratorium, a participatory exhibition that took place throughout the city of Antwerpen, Belgium, in the summer of 1999 and which explored the convergence / divergence of art in science within the framework of the literal and conceptual laboratory (Obrist & Vanderlinden 2001); Weird Science (1999), an exhibition at the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan of four artists' work that adopt "the practices of science" in order to critique "the influence, authority, and effects of the scientific field" (Apel 1999, p. 11); Unnatural Science where artists presented quasi-science at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (2000-2001); and, perhaps, most infamously the exhibition Gene(sis) that is currently touring the US (Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, 2002, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, 2003, Frederick Weisman Museum of Art, Minneapolis, 2004), and which created a media sensation with Eduardo Kac's Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) bunny, Alba. Internet sites that focus on the relationship of art and science, such as Art and Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI) , Rhizome , and Leonardo , also provide access to information on many other exhibitions. Although these exhibitions are intriguing in their own right, what is most apparent is their overt exclusion of works related to chemistry – save the occasional allusion to alchemy or to what people believe alchemy was (e.g. Schwarz 1986). Indeed, a perusal of current and past exhibitions and texts on art and science makes it apparent that chemistry has been, at best, scantily considered. The neglect of chemistry by artists, curators, and art critics is quite surprising, because artists, like chemists, have always been personally engaged in combining, transforming, and experimenting with materials. The relation of art to chemistry is, in fact, the most overt among all the scientific disciplines. Indeed, since the late nineteenth century the industrial production of paints and other classical artistic materials has encouraged modern artists to experiment with evermore new and unusual materials. (For an encyclopedic survey see Wagner et al. 2002.) Moreover, as new, process-orientated art genres were established in the second half of the twentieth century, chemical transformations became a central part of modern art. For instance, artists, like Yves Klein and Janis Kounellis, employed fire (the oxidation of combustible materials) either as artistic performances or as means for artistic production. Crossing the boundary between painting and photography, Sigmar Polke and Achim Duchow mixed their own photo emulsions to perform photochemical reactions on canvas and other media. Sometimes, as in César's Expansions of polyurethane, chemical reactions with polymers have been used to control the generation of sculptural forms. Chemical reactions (the qualitative transformation of materials) have been the subject of artistic and philosophical fascination ever since the early days of alchemy – so much that they have become an allegory of radical change and the dynamical essence of nature. Examples of this are the Arte Povera artist Gilberto Zorios, who staged chemical reactions in crucibles to elicit the flavor of the (al)chemical laboratory and evoke obvious allusions to hermetic philosophy; and artists like Joseph Beuys and Dieter Roth, who have deliberately used biochemical processes in their works, like the rotting of edible materials, to illustrate degeneration and decay. In other work related to chemical transformation, electrochemical reactions (the generation of electricity from chemical reactions in galvanic cells or batteries) have become a prominent artistic symbol for the dynamic nature of matter and for energetics in general. In addition, because the chemistry laboratory has been symbolically associated with the image of the scientific laboratory, artists frequently depict fractions of chemical laboratory equipment to allude to science in general or to the miraculous world of radical change. From sixteenth-century depictions of alchemists (Principe & DeWitt 2002) to the Laboratory Still Lives of Tony Cragg, who incidentally started as a laboratory technician, the chemical laboratory is a recurrent topic in European iconography. Unlike chemical phenomenology, and as for other physical sciences, chemical theory and models are less present in contemporary art. Examples from chemistry include Kenneth Snelson's Portrait of an Atom and Murray Robertson's Visual Representation of the Table of Elements. More recently, David Goodsell and others have created a highly specialized art form using computer-generated images of actual or invented molecules. Given the ubiquity of chemistry in art, one may wonder why this aspect of chemistry has been neglected. We assume that the marginalization of chemistry in curatorial art projects follows a broadly established trend in the humanities that favors the cultural examination of physics and biology over chemistry – despite the fact that the societal impact of chemistry arguably surpasses that of any other science. The neglect of chemistry can, in part, be accounted for by a certain culturally rooted 'chemophobia'. Thus, unlike mathematical physics, which has long been aestheticized in a Pythagorean fashion, or biology, with its inherent link to the aesthetics of the human body and 'nature', everyday associations to chemistry frequently do not reach beyond ideas of toxicity and modern industrialization. Despite, or perhaps because of the exclusion of chemistry by the art world, there have been numerous efforts by individual chemists and the chemical industry to relate chemistry to art. These include the organization of general art exhibitions by chemical companies, including those at the annual chemical engineering fair ACHEMA in Frankfurt, Germany; educational projects on the chemistry of pigments and other artistic materials, such as the one at the ETH Zürich (Switzerland); lectures on how chemistry helps to analyze and conserve artworks, as found in "Chemie der Kunst" (Berlin, Germany, 2003) as well as the public lectures that chemistry professors advertise as 'art performances'; publications on how the history of chemistry or historical chemists were artistically represented, such as Beretta 2001, Greenberg 2002, Beyer & Behrends 2003; and most notably, collaborations between individual chemists and artists, such as Hoffmann & Torrence 1993. In contrast to these previous efforts which try to establish indirect or specific links from chemistry to art, "Chemistry in Art" has provided a space for contemporary artist to broadly speak to and reflect on chemistry. Given this, and the neglect of chemistry in previous curatorial projects on art and science, "Chemistry in Art" is the first public exhibition ever to present a variety of artistic perspectives on chemistry. Through this project, we hope to alter and expand the perception of both chemistry and art and inspire a community of artists to include chemistry as a legitimate and important subject of their inquiry. We believe such an exhibition will also begin to break down traditional barriers to the cultural and artistic examination of chemistry and ensure that this influential science is included in future exhibitions on the relationship between art and science. With "Chemistry in Art" we have also explored new forms of selecting and presenting art. The way we have selected the artistic contributions combines 'double blind peer review', as known from the sciences, with the curatorial and jury models common in the arts. Similar and parallel to our 'Call for Papers', a broadly posted international 'Call for Artworks' invited artists to submit projects related to the general topic of "Aesthetics and Visualization in Chemistry". The many interesting projects we received far exceeded our expectations – expanding and altering our own perceptions of what constitutes art related to chemistry. From among the large pool of submissions, an international jury of artists and scholars from chemistry and art theory made a selection, based solely on criteria of quality and relevance. As in the sciences, our jurors did not know the names or any other details about the artists, nor did they know the choices of their fellow-jurors. Yet, despite their different backgrounds, their selections were surprisingly consistent. And since the jurors, almost in unison, ranked one project extraordinarily highly, we decided to give a special award to the artist, David Clark, from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Canada. In addition to the juried selection, "Chemistry in Art" also includes a curatorial project jointly directed by art critic David Spalding and Tami Spector. This curatorial project highlights chemistry-related artworks by renowned artists Susan Robb, Shirley Tse, Cai Guo Qiang, Kim Abeles, and Fred Tomaselli. The images for this portion of the exhibition are accompanied by a dialogue between the curators , which engages larger issues related to the intersections of art and chemistry. We believe that viewing these images in the context of chemistry and in dialogue with each other provides a new critical framework for understanding the work of these exceptional artists. The artworks presented in the juried part of "Chemistry in Art" provide a variety of perspectives on chemistry. Since we asked the artists to speak for themselves by including a brief text in their art projects, we have confined this introduction to general remarks and relations between the different projects. In general, as we can conclude from the large amount of submissions we received, artists deal with chemistry from at least six different perspectives. (1) They deliberately use synthetic / chemical materials which they frequently oppose with 'natural' materials and, thus, work on the aesthetic difference between natural and synthetic. They employ chemical transformations either (2) in an experimental manner to generate novel phenomena, or (3) as part of artistic performances or dynamical artworks that highlight processuality and change. (4) They put symbolically laden parts of chemical laboratory apparatus into new contexts and thereby create and analyze symbolic meaning. (5) By representing either the actors of chemistry or prominent products of chemistry in certain contexts, they reflect the public image and the cultural place of chemists and chemistry in society. (6) Finally, they examine the aesthetic dimension of chemical models and theories and their scientific representations, by means of re-emphasis, re-configuration, re-contextualization, or analogy. Surprisingly, in the juried part of "Chemistry in Art", three of the artists use the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements as an inspiration for their work to quite different ends. New York artist BLAIR G. BRADSHAW isolates specific elements in his paintings, creating his works out of building blocks of small canvases that mirror the way in which atoms themselves serve as building blocks for our material world – yielding visible and recognizable structures from discreet and indeterminate particles. DAVID CLARK, from Canada, wittily subverts the image of the Periodic Table by using its familiar form, and the atomic symbols that make up the table, to reinvest other visually encoded systems in western culture with new meaning. With craftsman-like artistry, Clark's Chemical Vision literally translates the imagery of the periodic table into eye-charts and Ouija boards. In contrast to Bradshaw's and Clark's more formal use of the atomic symbols and Periodic Table, the installation of German artist ERICH FÜLLGRABE, the Latin Periodic System, seeks a psychological perspective on the Table's symbolic meaning and explores the analogy between chemistry and linguistics. With works such as Reconstruction of a Representation of a Model of a Description of a Workplace of the Latin Periodic System of the Typographical Elements Füllgrabe not only creates a range of pseudo-scientific labels, instruments, and environments to investigate and deconstruct the relationship between visual systems and conceptual understanding, but also communicates his vision of a formal analogy between scientific and artistic investigation. Electrochemistry underlies the work of both PAULA L LEVINE from California and BRIGITTE HITSCHLER from Germany. With Bible Battery, Levine uses transparent interconnected jars to expose the inner workings of her battery and, metaphorically, the bible. In this piece, sections of the bible submerged in the electrolytic solution literally and symbolically drive its narrative intent. In contrast, Hitschler's Energy Fields uses electrochemistry to expose the toxicity under the surface of a soon to be recultivated potash waste site in Hannover, Germany. Like environmental beacons, Hitschler's field of 400 light emitting diodes poking their heads out of the earth like extra-terrestrial gophers provide an alarmingly beautiful signal for the hidden dangers created as by-products of chemical industry. Both CHERYL SAFREN from New York and TAMAR SCHORI from Israel create works that expose the aesthetic potential of chemicals as artistic materials. With Chemistry as Art Safren uses chemical reactions on metal surfaces to create dynamic abstract images. With these works Safren brings to the fore the chemical materiality of painting and the intimacy of individual artist with their materials. Safren's 'paintings' interact with their viewers through the refractive and reflective nature of the chemicals applied to their surfaces, while Schori's e.mia.me documents the beautiful forms created in response to multi-human interaction with a tank full of slick black-brown ferromagnetic liquid (ferrifluid). Besides revealing the aesthetic nature of the ferrifluid, Schori uses e.mia.me to focus on the act of creating participatory and collectively generated art. In this way her work also mirrors and comments on the collaborative (and, at times, playful) nature of research in the chemical sciences. Finally, CHRISTOPHER PUZIO from California and LANE E. LAST from Tennessee each present works that explore some of the concepts and constructs that underlie modern day chemistry. With Unit Construction Puzio has created fifty 'atomic building units' out of steel tubes (which, incidentally, have a remarkable visual similarity to the Dreiding models used by chemists) that he uses as building blocks for his sculptures. Conceptually, Puzio's atomic units are analogues to amino acids, which at the most basic level are molecular units created from the same atomic units (N-terminus, C-terminus, R group). Depending on the order in which they are linked together, amino acids yield an astonishing variety of proteins. In this same way, Puzio's atomic units, which like amino acids are all variations on the same basic form, can lead to an almost infinity of tertiary forms. The vibrantly colored computer graphics of Last's Imagining the Aesthetic Metaphor also employ imagery based on the models that chemists use to communicate chemical concepts. Using pseudo-atomic forms these graphical works imitate the style and stretch the limits of the chemist's cartoon-like visualizations. Delving deep into the imagined interior world of atoms, Lane's images make atomic and molecular concepts like electronegativity and valency come alive. To us what is most remarkable about "Chemistry in Art" is not that the artists use chemistry in clever and engaging ways, but how their work reveals the ways chemistry has seeped into the world outside the laboratory and classroom. Using the icons and materials of chemistry, these artists generate and reflect many of the larger cultural concerns related to this often misunderstood science, whether environmental or metaphysical. Thus, from the perspective of "Chemistry in Art" the Periodic Table is at once a symbolic system with specific scientific meaning; an almost instantly recognizable cultural icon that encodes the idea of chemistry even to those who have no real understanding of its content; and a template for examining the nature of visual representation. Similarly, the dynamic, interactive nature of ferromagnetic material becomes a means for understanding scientific collaboration. With these and the other works in "Chemistry in Art", the artists in this exhibition have transcended the literal by pushing and prodding chemistry's symbols, materials, and processes to reveal its transformative core.
References
Apel, D. (ed.): 1999, Weird Science: A Conflation of Art and Science, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Beretta, M.: 2001, Imaging a Career in Science: The Iconography of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Science History Publications, Canton, MA. Beyer, L.; Behrends, R.: 2003, De artes chemiae, Passage-Verlag, Leipzig. Greenberg, A.: 2002, The Art of Chemistry, Hoboken, NJ, Wiley. Hoffmann, R. & Torrence V.: 1993, Chemistry Imagined, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington. Obrist H.U. & Vanderlinden, B. (eds.): 2001, Laboratorium, DuMont, Köln. Principe, L.M. & DeWitt, L.: 2002, Transmutations: Alchemy in Art, Chemical Heritage Foundations, Philadelphia. Schwarz, A.: 1986, 'Arte e Alchimia', in: XLII Esposizione Internationale d'Arte. La Biennale di Venezia. Catalogo Generale, Venezia, pp. 77-82. Wagner, M.; Rübel, D. & Hackenschmidt S. (eds.): 2002, Lexikon des künstlerischen Materials. Werkstoffe der modernen Kunst von Abfall bis Zinn, C.H. Beck, München.
Internet References
(last visited 22 July 2003) Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI)
http://www.asci.org/ Chemie und Kunst: Pigmente, EducETH http://www.educeth.ch/chemie/diverses/pigmente/ Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics http://www.gene-sis.net/ HYLE – International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, special issue on "Aesthetics and Visualization in Chemistry", Parts I and II http://www.hyle.org/journal/issues/9-1/ http://www.hyle.org/journal/issues/9-2/ Leonardo On-Line: the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/ Molecular Art Molecular Science, by David S. Goodsell http://www.scripps.edu/pub/goodsell/ Rhizome.org: The new media art resource http://www.rhizome.org/ Unnatural Science, Major New Exhibition, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Press Release, February 14, 2000 http://www.massmoca.org/press_releases/02_2000/2_14_2000.html Vortragsreihe – Chemie der Kunst, by Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung http://www.bam.de/chemie-der-kunst.htm
Esse blog foi criado com o objetivo de discutir as relações entre Arte e Ciência. Será que são opostos que não se relacionam? Não é o que muitos autores consideram. Para começarmos o debate, serão postadas referências a um número especial do periódico on line HYLE (INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PHILOSOPHY OF CHEMISTRY
ISSN 1433-5158) - www.hyle.org -


Esse número do HYLE trata das relações da Estética, Artes Visuais e Química em artigos de cunho filosófico, e o que é mais interessante, apresenta uma exposição virtual de arte com fotos de trabalhos selecionados por curadores. Os artistas que participam mostram projetos de artes plásticas relacionados à Química, como vocês poderão conferir pelas próximas postagens.

http://www.hyle.org/art/cia/files/index.htm