Looking at the relation of art and science for my previous research and focusing on how art generally can be used to educate society I also looked into different art forms used for Installations, Exhibitions, Documentaries and so on.
While my main research questions at the start of this research phase centred more around the explicit use of photography to educate society on climate change and answering some of questions like:
- Is the personal opinion of an artist strong enough to change an audiences opinion on a subject?
- How are climate change and other related subjects generally displayed in the Arts?
- To what extend does a visual artistic representation of a larger scientific problem help society to understand the greater importance of a problem?
- What combination of Arts and Science is most effective to educate society?
- Examining the concept of a changing climate and its representation through the creative industries how much does an audience rely on the artist to form their opinion?
I noted that I had missed an important aspect to be discussed when looking at the connection of art and science. The use or misuse of different art forms for different purposes. While it is interesting to look at the artists and audiences exchange, this does rely a great deal on the art form the artist picks for his work.
This realisation inspired me to rephrase some of my research questions and not just look at the how art is connected to science but also how this can be used to the greatest benefit for artists and audiences to create the greatest possible learning experience.
Looking back in history, art and science are some of the oldest forms used to communicate ideas a lot of the times they represent different approaches to a subject. While arts can be intuitive, spontaneous and unpredictive, Science generally is based on facts, statistics and needs years of theories and research to form conclusions. Now looking at it in more detail though, art is often based on science found in natural forms like the golden ratio or uses scientific processes like light exposure in photography.
At the same time science uses creative approaches to formulate results. Creating graphs, charts and diagrams to visually display findings and make them more understandable.
Leonardo DaVinci understood and used the connection of science and art throughout his life and practice.
Is creative work was based on his scientific findings and his science in return inspired by images he created in his head.
“…what drives our work? In the end it is our creative desire for artistic expressivity that results in an interplay between actions and ideas. [...] The feedback loop between reflection and action, between speculation and experimentation, is fundamental to research in many disciplines…"(Smith, Dean, 2009, p. 164)
Moving on with my research I will change my research questions in accordance with my realisations up to this point.
Investigating how art can be used to educate but also why it should be used in a certain way.
To what extend is photography used as a form to transport science to a visual audience in comparison to other art forms?
Examining the concept of art education through photographic imagery and in comparison to other creative media how did the work of Richard Mosses explore the concept of beauty and tragedy in his installation artwork 'The Enclave'?
How effectively can photography contribute to a shift in consciousness regarding climate change ? And could other art forms be more beneficial?
While questions 1 and 3 look at the subject matter from a broader point of view, the 2nd identified theme could form an interesting approach to compare research and theories to general creative practice and to also draw comparisons to Mosses work, which is approaching subjects from a documentative fine art perspective.
Bibliography:
Smith, H. and Dean, R.T. (editors), (2009) Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts Edinburgh: University Press [Accessed on 1 April 2019]
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