The dialogue between art and science has powerfully shaped both endeavors since antiquity. Artists have been pioneering figures in disciplines from engineering to medicine, while scientists have decisively influenced our visual culture with their discoveries. In an authoritative and accessible text with over 200 diagrams and illustrations, Art and Science explores the fascinating history of this interaction for the first time. Throughout history, science and art have reflected similar values and used parallel tools and methods. Artists and scientist today are intrigued by the advancements in each other's fields. Artists are fascinated by atomic structure, the Big Bang, and DNA, while scientists try to explain theories with images that will embody "the beauty of logic." Art and Science focuses on the most illuminating intersections of art and science - how science has shaped architecture, from Stonehenge to contemporary buildings that reflect research on DNA; how mathematical principles have impacted decorative design; how perceptual discoveries have influenced the development of painting; and how discoveries in the physical disciplines have transformed the performing arts, from music to movies. In a wide-ranging discussion across these and many other disciplines, this clearly written, well-illustrated volume provides an accessible introduction to an enduring dialogue.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
This coffee-table book on creative cross influences in the arts and sciences is just about as general as the title might suggest. Entertaining text for novices provides cursory historical examples from prehistoric art, decorative arts, architecture, physics, botany, astronomy, architecture, computer and molecular science, and other disciplines.
The highlights of the book are the 200-plus diagrams and reproductions, many in color, full of intriguing and unexpected choices. A reproduction of a Stradivarius violin maker's schematic drawing--a musical engineer's study of structure, tone, and timbre--is as inspirational as the most elegant architectural rendering, with lyrical lines and echoing patterns. Juxtaposed photographs of an African granary and a Max Ernst surrealist painting of an elephant prove startlingly identical in form, right down to the smallest eccentric detail (Ernst is said to have taken direct inspiration from the primitive structure). Galileo studies monitoring phases of the moon in ink wash can easily be compared to early-20th-century artists' abstract nature studies.
Author Eliane Strosberg's writing style is simple and declarative, lapsing into peculiar sweeping statements that leave the job of backing it all up with facts to the reader. Sometimes she waxes political for no apparent reason. She speculates that the floating color fields of a Mark Rothko canvas are "patterns to convey his spiritual angst," imagining that "future generations will interpret such paintings as allusions to a post-nuclear void." From a computer-generated film still (Lily's Adventures in Computerland, 1998, Lillian Schwartz) that interlocks Matisse's The Dance with a Modigliani nude, she deduces that maybe someday "computers will assist in calculating, posthumously, paths that creators might have taken." It's cool that an artist can use a computer to blend images from two paintings in an esthetically pleasing way, but to say that a computer could ever model and extrapolate from a particular artist's creative process shows no insight into art or science. Certain topics are more developed: there is a good description of late-1800s advances in the scientific study of optics and oil paint manufacturing, which permitted impressionists to paint outdoors, thus changing the history of painting with their luminous work. There is some useful information, but too often Strosberg goes in for casual musings and wild, almost sci-fi leaps of association. The pictures are what redeem the book. --Victoria Ellison
From Library Journal
Attractive, heavily illustrated, and up-to-date, this gift book provides a quick synopsis of human achievement during the past few millennia. While it falls gracefully into the category of coffee-table book, it is not all fluff. Strosberg, cofounder of Recontres Art et Science, a Parisian organization that works with UNESCO, loads this global survey of invention with details that illustrate the connections between various fields of human creativity. She lists many artists who contributed to science, and vice versa, reaching from Stonehenge to space stations and from glass beads to microchips. Divided topically into the areas of architecture, decoration, painting, graphic design, and the performing arts, the book deftly covers all the expected historical developments without rendering them dull. By the final chapter on symbiosis, it is very clear that innovation in one area often has great impact on the other. This should have broad appeal; for public libraries. Susan Lense, Upper Arlington P.L., OH
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deepen and broaden your tastes,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Art and Science (Hardcover)
This book was delicious: it provided great illustrations and spun a web of many connections between art and science as they developed over centuries. The author admits that she couldn't possibly "tell the complete story," but she does a fine job bringing forward many interesting and stimulating points. Art began primarily as a set of practical techniques, what we might call "technology" today. Science largely grew out of practical arts, as well, through efforts to create practical goods such as pottery, buildings, and communication devices. So the two fields wind around each other through time, with no clear boundary until perhaps modern times. In fact, the recent separating of art from science, primarily as a result of economic rewards accruing to practical knowledge, creates a relatively new rift. It's likely that technology will continue to flow from both sources, as in virtual reality and desktop manufacturing, so it's unlikely that art and science will grow totally apart. Whereas the earlier reviewer, who had great knowledge of the arts, found little of pedagogical value, I have very limited background in the arts and found the treatment informative and enjoyable. I've recommended the book to several friends. If you are looking for a story that ties together a great deal of human history and learning, this is a great read and a delight on the eyes.
5.0 out of 5 stars
a marriage of interests,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Art and Science (Hardcover)
last christmas this made the perfect gift for my science-driven granddaughter and her artist husband. i appreciate this
fine discovery on amazon.
6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
a little too basic,
By A Customer
This review is from: Art and Science (Hardcover)
Strossberg has selected a fascinating topic for her book, however, she fails to provide sufficient information to make her points cohesive and meaningful. I was hoping to use this book as a resource for teachers to integrate art into their science and mathematics lessons, however, I think they would just find it frustrating. Strossberg throws out a lot of quick connections between art and science, but never tells the reader enough to fully understand the concepts. Have fun with the pictures, but don't expect to learn very much.
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