Musical Creatures and Aesthetic Science

Welcome to arts, ink! My name is Abigail, and beginning this coming week, I will be posting every Thursday.

After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are always artists as well. ~Albert Einstein

I love this quote by Einstein. He had such a clear view of the value of imagination and creativity, even, or perhaps especially, in the sciences. With art programs disappearing from school budgets and the all too common “what do you plan to do with that degree?” question being thrown at many arts and humanities majors, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that we live in a world that undervalues the importance of the arts.

Recently, I have run across two different projects/groups that address this particular issue: The Undivided Mind and Seaquence. These two projects approach the idea of art in science in entirely different ways, and I encourage you to explore both.

The Undivided Mind is an art installation that combines the aesthetics of art and science in an effort to transcend traditional ways of thinking.  The exhibit first appeared in San Francisco in 2010 and can be accessed virtually; click The Undivided Mind image at the beginning of this post if you would like to see the installation. The virtual exhibit is highly interactive; clicking on images and information bubbles throughout the installation, yields videos, music and explanations of scientific equations related to the exhibit’s content.

Seaquence is an experiment in imaginary musical biology. At http://seaquence.org/, visitors to the site create small “musical lifeforms” that interact in a water-like environment.  Each creature has its own sound patterns that the visitor creates using several different controls available on the site. The goal is to create an ecosystem of “musical lifeforms” that interact and coexist harmoniously, creating an experimental musical composition.

The Undivided Mind and Seaquence are brilliant examples of the effectiveness of combining art and science.  They work to remind us that creativity is one of mankind’s most valuable assets in all facets of life.