art and science

Reductionism in Art and Science

gregladen — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 14:30:16 +0000

Reductionism in Art and Science

In the old days, the words "art" and "science" did not mean the same thing they mean today, at least in academia. Today, unfortunately, they have almost come to mean opposites. You can't be doing both at once. Or, at least, that's what people who haven't thought about it much may think.

Art can be used to engage people in science, and science can provide a subject for art, and in various ways, the twain shall meet.

But in Reductionism in Art and Brain Science: Bridging the Two Cultures, Erik Kandel does something both more extreme and more specific than simply joining the two endeavors. Kandel has a long career in the neurosciences, and a long standing interest in art, and he's combined these two lived experiences to make a very interesting book.

Reductionism is the distillation of something complex into something simpler while still maintaining central or key meaning. Grab the nearest art book and find two pictures of the same thing, one with nearly photographic detail and the other using just a few colors and shapes. Like this:

See the difference? Two bulls, not the same picture.

I won't show you a picture of science being reductionist because science is reductionist most of the time.

You can reduce art, and you can reduce science. And, you can artfully reduce science and scientifically reduce art. And, the New York School of abstract art and other abstract traditions (people like Turner, Monet, Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Louis, Turrell, and Flavin, Kandinsky, Schoenberg, and Mondrian) scientifically reduced art, which forms a good part of the focus of Kandel's book. A major contribution of this work is a deep and unique understanding of the origin of what we generally call modern art.

Kandel explains this.

Kandel examines cognition and perception through a radically reduced bottom up approach in a similar way that early 20th century artists did, and examines art in the same way. His book is full of understanding of the evolution of thinking about cognition and of art.

The book includes excellent illustrations, is carefully documented, and comprises a scholarly work accessible by any interested party.

Here's the TOC:

Part I: Two Cultures Meet in the New York School
Introduction
1. The Emergence of an Abstract School of Art in New York
Part II: A Reductionist Approach to Brain Science
2. The Beginning of a Scientific Approach to the Perception of Art
3. The Biology of the Beholder's Share: Visual Perception and Bottom-Up Processing in Art
4. The Biology of Learning and Memory: Top-Down Processing in Art
Part III: A Reductionist Approach to Art
5. Reductionism in the Emergence of Abstract Art
6. Mondrian and the Radical Reduction of the Figurative Image
7. The New York School of Painters
8. How the Brain Processes and Perceives Abstract Images
9. From Figuration to Color Abstraction
10. Color and the Brain
11. A Focus on Light
12. A Reductionist Influence on Figuration
Part IV: The Emerging Dialogue Between Abstract Art and Science
13. Why Is Reductionism Successful in Art?
14. A Return to the Two Cultures

gregladen Fri, 09/16/2016 - 10:30

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Books

Brain and Behavior

Art

art and science

I highly recommend, for anybody who hasn't tuned in, Charlie Rose's Brain Series with Kandel.

I caught a little bit of Kandel talking about this book on NPR. It sounds interesting, and I guess I'll have to buy a copy, though I remain skeptical about the nature of this particular 'bridge'.

I may not have your 150 iq- but you treat people very badly- your arrogance swagger and elitism are why people will vote for Trump- go fuck yourself Greg and use your Ivy league degree for toilet paper.

Which one, Peter? I have two Ivy League degrees.

Oh, look, Mommy, it's a Deplorable !! How cuuuute....

"Stay back, Dear, it might bite... and have a disease."

LOL

Science on Tap -- in Color

jhalper — Thu, 07 May 2015 11:05:33 +0000

Science on Tap -- in Color

Next week is a big week for science in Israel. Tuesday is National Science Day, and Thursday is the annual Science on Tap talks in the bars and restaurants of Tel Aviv. Don't know about National Science Day -- this science writer will just point out that of all the minstries that are being fought over tooth and nail in our new government, the Ministry of Science does not even appear the list.

Science on Tap, however, is gearing up with the splash it deserves. Here is the main drag outside the huge Azrieli complex:

So if you're in or around Tel Aviv next week, check it out. All the talks are in Hebrew. For more, go to our site:

jhalper Thu, 05/07/2015 - 07:05

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The Poetry of Science IV

jhalper — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 07:19:52 +0000

The Poetry of Science IV

Manot Cave cranium

With a skull and Keats, there was little choice but to write about the new online items in rhyme. So with apologies to Shakespeare, Keats and the scientists, as well as the people at SpaceIL, here are today's grab bag of poems. As usual, follow the links.

On a Lone Cranium

Alas poor Yorick – We can only know

Where you lived all those eons ago

Walking, did you take those others in stride;

Human, yet strange, as they strode alongside?

Did your children wander forth,

Searching for a greener North?

Can your skull, a bit of bone,

Tell us where our seeds were sown?

To the Moon

There was a fine crew in Rehovot

That aimed for the Moon with a “space boat”

It’s barely a cart

But they’ve built it quite smart,

For cool science it’s bound to promote

In a Heartbeat

“Two hearts that beat as one,”

Just one beat? Where’s the fun?

Just one cell can beat as twenty

For your heart, love, that is plenty

Oh yes, and we have women PhDs, too. If you're an outstanding female Israeli PhD looking for help with your postdoc, click here.

jhalper Thu, 02/26/2015 - 02:19

Dull paleossiferous twit !
You've popped your poor skull like a zit
Now neither your glia nor seeds of the chia
Can make a great bust out of it

There Once Was A....

jhalper — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 03:31:10 +0000

There Once Was A....

Once again, there are three new pieces online on our website, each wonderful in its own way. But Haiku just didn’t seem to fit this batch. So, with apologies to the scientists, here are three limericks on the newest Institute research. As before, follow the links to get to our website.

(Incidentally, there is some precedent for limerick writing at the Weizmann Institute. The late Prof. Amikam Aharoni, who also wrote some serious stuff on ferromagnetism, was known for his limericks.)

The Quasar

There once was a baby black hole

That went for a short little stroll

It zigged and it zagged

Appetite never lagged

Til it’d swallowed its neighborhood whole

Nanostrings Attached

To make a string out of cubes

Don’t reach for those long nanotubes

To twist like a screw

Only one shape will do

Those nano-self-assembling cubes

The Stem Cell’s Story

What, oh what, will I be tonight?

A red blood cell, or maybe a white?

Though I’m bound for the red

I’ll stop just ahead

And turn into a nice lymphocyte

jhalper Sun, 08/10/2014 - 23:31

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Flow, Beauty and Mystery (and two new haikus)

jhalper — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 11:52:19 +0000

Flow, Beauty and Mystery (and two new haikus)

Today’s new articles involve flow: the flow of positrons through the Universe and the flow of particles around the tiny cilia of corals. They involve beauty and mystery, as well. The particle flow, imaged in brilliant colors, won first place in the photography category of the 2013 Science/National Science Foundation International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.

And positrons – the anti-matter opposites of electrons – have been found in large numbers flowing in near-Earth space. Weizmann Institute research points to an answer to one riddle: Why did a satellite monitoring these positrons find so many of them? But the central mystery of their existence – where do they come from – remains open.

In the spirit of flow, beauty and mystery, here are two new haikus. Follow the links to learn more.

Image: Shapiro, Fernandez, Stocker and Vardi

Winding into waves

Invisible coral flows

Tiny living tides

Anti-electron,

Born of a far cosmic crash

What news do you bring?

jhalper Tue, 03/18/2014 - 07:52

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Science Haiku 2

jhalper — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 03:52:50 +0000

Science Haiku 2

Since the haiku post was well received, and since we have another three pieces online today – each on a different finding and each interesting in its own right – I have decided to return to the haiku format. Among other things, there is something quite satisfying about distilling complex scientific findings down to 17 little syllables – like writing the perfect tweet, but more so.

In any case, follow the links to read more:

A burst of enzymes:

A transcription traffic jam

Watch for gene speed bumps

Genetics can rid

The poison from potatoes

Or add it elsewhere

image: Thinkstock

To raise nanowires,

Plant in furrows; let them reach

Their full potential

Photo: Prof. Ernesto Joselevich

jhalper Tue, 07/30/2013 - 23:52

The Poetry in Science

jhalper — Tue, 07 May 2013 08:05:08 +0000

The Poetry in Science

Poetry is finding its way into our consciousness at the Weizmann Institute: At the recent, fourth annual Science on Tap evening, which the Institute hosts in Tel Aviv, several poets joined in the fun, reading from their work before and after the talks given by scientists in over 60 filled-to-capacity pubs and cafes around the city. And calls have gone out for entries to the Ofer Lider creative writing contest – open to scientists (writing in Hebrew). The contest is named for Prof. Ofer Lider, an Institute scientist who, sadly, died young and who wrote poetry because he believed that scientific thought and creative thinking are synergistic pursuits.

So, in that spirit, I offer three haikus, one for each of the new online articles on our site. Among other things, they are proof that a science writer trained to write with word limits can reduce years of demanding research to seventeen syllables. To learn more, follow the links.

A battle between
Immune systems, host, graft
A veto brings peace

Enemies hiding
In a bacterial throng
Exposed by a touch

Non-coding, antisense
Interfering, short and long
Now in one database

Image from the lab of Dr. Guy Shakhar

jhalper Tue, 05/07/2013 - 04:05

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Does anybody else remember the literary magazine with science-related content? I want to say it was called Ion but I don't think that was it...out of a north Midwest university? I loved the stuff, and still find my mind constantly bridging writing and science.

This content is very descriptive and informative on this subject. The work you put into this really shows. Thank you.

Re question from Lisa: magazine may have been "Isotope", which was published through the English department at Utah State University. A very fine magazine, but it went out of press about two years ago -- not enough sponsors.

Zheng Lab - Bad Project (Lady Gaga parody) - YouTube

pronald — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 19:57:12 +0000

Zheng Lab - Bad Project (Lady Gaga parody) - YouTube

Zheng Lab - Bad Project (Lady Gaga parody) - YouTube.

pronald Sat, 12/15/2012 - 14:57

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art and science

Plant Genetics Weigel Style

pronald — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:43:44 +0000

Plant Genetics Weigel Style

Art and Science: Dancing in the greenhouse singing about DNA

Weigel Style Gangnam Style Parody - YouTube.

pronald Fri, 12/14/2012 - 08:43

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art and science

Science on Tap 2012, Tel Aviv

jhalper — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 06:05:13 +0000

Science on Tap 2012, Tel Aviv

Explain to a pub full of beer drinkers exactly what it is you do in your lab. That's the idea behind Science on Tap, which will be taking place again this year in bars, coffee shops and restaurants in the heart of Tel Aviv's entertainment district at the end of the month.

A Science on Tap billboard like this hangs over the entrance to Tel Aviv - the number has since risen to 55

This one is the biggest event yet: Over 55 Weizmann professors, doctoral students and assorted researchers have volunteered to spend an evening talking about their science to a public out looking for information and entertainment rolled into one. The scientists would probably do it even without the free beer: This is science communication at its most basic, up-close and personal. Most turn out to be surprisingly good at it. And even if some of the explanation gets a bit technical here and there, or drowned out by background noise, the audience generally gets caught up in the passion of the researcher for his or her subject, the awe of hearing about new discoveries and cutting-edge science, and the thrill of learning something really new and different.

Some of the speakers are already regulars. Dr. Yaara Yeshurun, for instance, will be back by popular demand with her demonstration and talk on the connection between smell and memory. Others will be getting their feet wet for the first time. Subjects range from astrophysics to quantum mechanics, from cancer research to the brain, math, chemistry and more. Weizmann Institute President, Prof. Daniel Zajfman, will be leading by example with a discussion entitled "Science, Beauty and Economic Profit," and Vice President Prof. Israel Bar-Joseph will be speaking, as well, on his subject - nanophysics.

All lectures will be in Hebrew. So if you are a Hebrew speaker and science buff in the Tel Aviv area, there is a whole list of speakers and venues to choose from. Just don't forget to make reservations - most places fill up early. Non-Hebrew speakers in the vicinity can still check out the Parallel Worlds exhibit of scientific images that will be hung in a local gallery.

jhalper Sun, 04/15/2012 - 02:05

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popular science lectures