Sci-Art as a driver of the Creative Economy (second page)
Giving encouragement to a ‘new type of creativity’
In applying the lessons learned from Sci-Art, it will become possible
to effectively ‘connect’ disparate methods of discovery and ways of thinking. (Sci-Art Lab will be informed by what George Steiner has described as a ‘new code of the collective’.)
Addressing a higher level of opportunity
Currently, many of our products and services are technologically defined
and the intuitive element, which is capable of creating a radically new definition of need, is forfeited. Sci-Art Lab, in bringing a range of minds together, will generate unexpected and radical modes of inquiry.
Bringing cohesion to the processes of discovery
So far, a degree of serendipity has underscored the work of Sci-Art partnerships. But for the future, with prior knowledge of the advantages to be gained when the disciplines of science and art join hands, Sci-Art Lab will bring a new sense of structure and purpose to the endeavour.
Clearly there is much more to say on this subject. Charles Landry
and I recognise that the setting-up of Sci-Art Lab (virtual or otherwise) must inevitably present a major challenge to those who decide to become involved. But the difficulties of the task are no greater than the ones faced and mastered during the process of launching Sci-Art ten years ago. Charles and I see this Sci-Art Lab initiative as being crucial in turning the hugely successful Sci-Art experiment into a fully fledged driver of the Creative Economy.
Terry Trickett is grateful for the valuable material and observations provided
by the following scientists and artists who, between them, have been responsible
for creating the remarkable Sci-Art projects described in this presentation:
Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, artists
Igor Aleksander, Professor Emeritis in Neural Systems Engineering, Imperial College
Richard Brown, freelance entrepreneur at mimetics.com and Artist in Residence
at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
Alf Linney, Professor of Medical Physics, EAR Institute, UCL
John Tchalenko, Camberwell College of Arts, Reader in Drawing and Cognition,
University of the Arts London
Howard (Sid) Thomas, Leverhulme Emeritis Fellow, Aberystwyth University
Alexa Wright, Assistant Research Fellow, EAR Institute, UCL
These four and projects (120 others) could not have happened without a decade of generous support and sponsorship provided by the Wellcome Trust
CYCLE OF SCI-ART
CREATIVITY WITH
SCI-ART LAB AT ITS HUB
The Sci-Art Lab, as we see it, will become a centre of science/art intelligence. It will scan, monitor and evaluate existing collaborations between artists and scientists world-wide as well as foster new collaborations that have a potential for application. It will nurse projects from initial idea to financing and implementation. We see it as forming
a central hub within an on-going Cycle of Sci-Art Creativity:
The time is now because the powerful new concepts being developed by artists and scientists working together are potentially as ground breaking as those that launched the industrial revolution. This is a bold claim I know but all around us there are challenges that are not being met effectively by traditional canons of creativity. In fact we see these beginning to fail which is why the methods of discovery exemplified by Sci-Art now have such a crucial roll to play. For the future Sci-Art Lab will face up to new challenges on 3 fronts: