Art

Item Description

ARTIST:     Elli Crocker
TITLE:        Listening to the Stars #2
MEDIUM:  Giclee print, edition of 2, 16” x 20”, unframed

This original artwork was created for Art on Science: 26 études an internattional portfolio featuring pictures by artists and words by scientists. This written commentary is by Peter Williams, Astrophysics at the Center for Astrophysics / Harvard & Smithsonian:
 
I am an astronomer. My main scientific interest is in the magnetic fields of other stars and the planets that orbit them. I primarily study these by analyzing observations made with radio telescopes.
 
This artwork includes many elements derived from conversations with artist Elli Crocker. It’s a bit odd seeing my current research projects memorialized in this way, but I like that some associations seem to have emerged serendipitously too! Although the gold ring in the sky reminds me of a “supernova remnant”, which is something that you can indeed observe using radio telescopes, it is not something that we discussed. Although I am not well-versed in art history, Elli’s sky makes me think of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. I really like how it evokes the same impressionistic feeling as the painting, but with a very different underlying technique.

Everyone knows that the arts are creative, but people have a tendency to put art and science in opposition, and this leads them toward the idea that science must not be creative. That’s totally incorrect! The practices of science and art actually have important similarities, I think. In both cases, to achieve a result, you often need to use refined technical skills — be it solving equations, or painting canvas. But in science, just as in art, you have to be creative to envision what result you’re even searching for. The criteria for evaluation in science are more objective; an idea describes nature accurately, or it doesn’t. In practice, the processes by which scientific ideas are created and accepted are all too human and flawed, but I believe that the scientific method genuinely helps us discover objective truths about nature

Item Special Note

Free domestic shipping.

All artworks are 16” x 20”, unframed and will be shipped with a printed copy of the scientist’s text.

For further information about the portfolio, please visit our Art on Science: 26 études website: http://AS26project.com