Glendon Mellow – of the Flying Trilobite, and a longstanding reader of B&W – has a wonderful interview with Surly Amy at the Scientific American blog.
He asked her what prompted her to tap into the wide world of science-art.
When I first got involved, I felt like there was an absence of creative people both online and at science and secular events. There was sort of a stigma floating around that rationality didn’t have space for artists since artists often have the reputation of not being critical thinkers. Artists are thought of as ‘hippies’ or ‘dreamers’. Scientists and academics are often stereotyped as uncreative or ‘stiff’ in mindset. I didn’t think either of these were accurate representations. I wanted to simultaneously encourage artists to participate in, and understand science while dispelling these terrible stereotypes that serve to hold back both artists and scientists alike.
What a good project, eh? The two learning from and inspiring each other? Beautiful.
I also think that science is an unending river of inspiration for artists in the same way that art can be inspiring to science. From the micro to the macro, any artist that has yet to tap into the wonder that is nature and knowledge is truly missing out. I hope the the website, madartlab.com can be a tiny portal into the wonders that abound in our forever building body of information in both the arts and sciences.
I love that – an unending river of inspiration.
Hey maybe it would make a Surlyramic.
Read the whole thing.