Starting Some Hares

I had originally intended to circulate a discussion paper a week before the meeting but already a number of participants wish to start the debate though an exchange of emails. For this reason I'm starting the ball rolling by jotting down some notes and, in the process, starting off a few hares that you may like to follow. Over the next weeks please feel free to outline your thoughts and suggestions for the meeting.

This meeting is designed to allow artists and scientists to sit together and talk about their ideas, work, interests and reflections on art and science. Over the years I have had exciting and creative exchanges with most of you so I'm interested to see what happens when we all get together. Certainly there are a number of themes and questions I have in mind but we have no brief to put art and science together, nor a mandate to produce conclusions. The best I can hope for is that something interesting, and even unexpected, may occur.

Long before C.P. Snow's essay on the Two Cultures, people had been pointing out the dangers of over-specialization and seeking the integration of the arts and sciences along with a corresponding end to fragmentation. Recently this has become a highly fashionable topic with a number Art and Science conferences and exhibitions being held, as well as funding being offered for individual collaborations. Is this evidence of a new spirit? A second Renaissance? Or is it merely the latest fashion? Is art and science involved in a true marriage, or simply a fleeting series of illicit relationships? Indeed, should such a marriage be arranged, encouraged and fostered, or is it more creative when individuals simply find each other and collaborate in idiosyncratic ways?

It is certainly true that some artists work directly with scientific ideas and use scientific technologies in their work. Others are more generally interested in scientific concepts, and the kick they get from curious new ideas. But is all this in any way...