Art

Item Description

ARTIST:               Jean-Louis Hess
TITLE:                 Aurelia
MEDIUM:            Stereo photography (for 3-D glasses), 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 Michel Grosmann, Professor, Chairholder at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique:
 
In the depths of caves, scattered all over the world, have been discovered (relatively recently in relation to their age) representations in relief and in colors of so-called “prehistoric” scenes. Science has dated them from tens of thousands of years ago.

In various places and over long periods of time, these images or “representations” were systematically destroyed as contrary to the law or trend of the time, considered as too old. Recently, on the contrary, they arouse a keen interest. With imagination, and a little science, we can now envision the world as it once was.

For some thousands of years, the invention of scriptures has better described the world and the civilization of an era, informing both contemporaries and subsequent generations. This evolution took place in stages: drawings, paintings, statues and other monuments gradually improved the quality of the representations. The successive inventions of printing, perspective, the International System of Measurements, photography, stereophotography, the computer and the internet allow us today to build and to transmit more accurate and precise representations than before.

And these representations can show not only objects or real beings observable by our senses... But also objects or “virtual” beings produced only by our imagination (helped by some devices and instruments). Our instruments on the one hand, and our reasonings on the other hand, allow us to represent a universe of huge macroscopic dimensions with tiny microscopic objects all from a scale of 10 power 51 to 10 power -51 (whether in meters or kilometers does not change much). To represent this immense Universe, we must invent new measurement systems. This is the object of the reform of the International System of Measures, which now comprises 7 Fundamental Units and no longer 3. It is also why we need to represent things in more than two dimensions: Stereoscopy, holography, cosmoholography have developed for this purpose. However, they require new instruments (LASERs, supercomputers and Artificial Intelligence Systems) in perpetual evolution. A step in this great adventure is presented here: between the twin vertigo of the macroscopic and the microscopic, on our scale, a young tango dancer of the XXI Century, as we can see it with our binocular vision thanks to stereophotography. NOTE: this photograph is enhanced by 3-D glasses.

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