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We want to (i) promote the active engagement of scientists in the arts and set up mutually beneficial creative collaborations with artists, (ii) use these collaborations to dissolve artificial barriers between disciplines and borders to engage the whole world’s society, and (iii) promote harmonising changes in the world to promote compassion, help the disadvantaged, facilitate peace and justice, work towards widening the aesthetic and intellectual horizons, and offer new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and communication across the backgrounds.
To this end we want to connect scientist with artists to work on mutually interesting and beneficial projects while making use of the complimentary skills for synthesis of these highly interdisciplinary projects. This would appeal to the global international public and serve the universal compassionate agenda to help break existing boundaries, test new ideas, expand old disciplines in science, create revolutionary ideas and trends, and stimulate cooperation of isolated minds in order to offer new ways of addressing inequality and injustice globally.
Data Sonification
This project started in 2016 as the “Well-Tempered Brain”, and continued and expanded in 2017, working towards “Sonic Homunculus”. The idea is to take biological data from brain and other organs (electric neurons firing, transcriptomics, etc.) and transform them into sounds with the help of musicians and sound engineers. In 2022, the project was extended to the sonification of sociological data
Dolphinet
This project is based on an international internet-based phone for captive marine mammals. It can potentially be expanded to involve primates and other human-like species.
GYA dreams
This project started in 2017 and aims to produce small arty video interviews with interested GYA members where they would discuss their blue-sky ideas that can save the world.
Sketches of Science project
This project aims at exhibiting sketches, drawings and notes documenting the science work in progress on postcards.
Protein Art
This project is a collaboration between Bio2Bio and SAPJ groups aimed at presenting cell biology achievements in the form of a science-art project.
Feeling the Forest
This project is focused on the issue of deforestation and biodiversity loss.
Fashion and Science project for exhibition at the Berlin Science Week (2024 or 2025)
This project on “Microscopic Elegance: Inspiring Fashion Design through the Intricate Patterns and Textures of Microscopic Images” aims to bridge the gap between science and fashion by using microscopic images of natural materials as a source of inspiration for innovative fashion design. By exploring the intricate patterns and textures revealed at the microscopic level, this project seeks to create a unique fusion of scientific beauty and creative expression, resulting in a distinctive and cutting-edge fashion collection.
Science/art curriculum
The group have started to look into a potential collaboration with the Academia Olivares and possibly the US New Voices to create a Science/Arts curriculum.
In June 2024, group co-lead Karen Cloete gave a presentation on “Promoting research integrity and communication using science informed art” at the World Conference on Research Integrity in Athens, Greece.
In May 2024, the group contributed an item on “Poetry of Science” to the GYA Connections magazine, which focusses on the expression of scientific concepts through poetry. You can find the poems here (from page 38ff).
In September 2023, Nina Yasuda and GYA alumnus Akihiro Kishimura from the group finalised their multi-year Seasonal Flower Clock project, which had started just before the GYA Annual General Meeting in June 2022. A time-lapse video which shows the blooming of the clock’s plants and the gradual completion of the clock throughout the year can be viewed here.
Seasonal Flower Clock landscape art installation
The art installation was presented at the 2022 Annual General Meeting in Japan.
Performance on the Authenticity of Biodiversity
The performance “Pray for co-existence” was also part of the 2022 Annual General Meeting of the GYA, and is one of the outcomes of the collaboration between this group and the Bio2Bio working group. It is a collaboration art work between Japanese music unit SeireN and Russian media artist Vlad Kononkov.
Bridging the Intangible in Science and Art
The “Bridging the Intangible in Science and Arts” session was jointly held by the “Science and Art = Peace and Justice” and “Biodiversity for Survival via Biomedicine” working groups in June in online format. It included the presentation of various Activity Groups projects, including “Protein Art” and “Poetry of Science”. Read the full report here.
The group have published a CD compilation for “The Aesthetics of Biodiversity” project. The compilation introduces the artists who are engaged through their sound works with ecological and biodiversity issues. Their unique approaches are inspired by scientific concepts in biology and ecology including research in plant, insect and animal behavior as well as studies about the relationships between living organisms and their environment. The digital version is available on the Bandcamp platform here.
On the occasion of the GYA Annual General Meeting and Conference, which took place online in June/July 2020, the group organised a science & art compilation on “The Aesthetics of Biodiversity“. The compilation brings together the artists who are engaged through their works with ecological issues such as biodiversity loss, climate change, destruction and pollution of natural environments. Their unique approaches, where installations, video and sound works are used as the mediums for exploration and better understanding of the issues mentioned above, complemented well the interdisciplinary and intergenerational dialogue on the conference topic “Heal the Earth: Sustainable Development Goals in a Changing World”. For more details see here, or directly watch the works on the dedicated GYA YouTube channel.
So far, the group has produced a number of documentaries (e.g. ‘Beyond Discipline’, ‘Well-Tempered Brain’, etc.) and soundscapes, with more currently in production. A number of new collaborations have been initiated and interdisciplinary meetings were organised.
The “2084: Futures of Science and Technology” project was a collaboration with the GYA Science Education for Youth group. It started with workshops in Scotland on Synthetic Biology. Workshops with student teams from different countries, using teleconferencing for sharing ideas, involving Scotland, Cambodia, and Qatar were being held in May. See a video here.
