SCIENCE, ART, SOCIETAL SUPPORT DEBATED
BY UH PHYSICS PROFESSORS
Local Art Gallery Examines Interplay Between Science and Art in
Lecture Series
Three University of Houston physicists will examine the relationship
between science and art during a panel discussion held noon to 1
p.m., Friday, Oct. 15, at the Negative Space Art Gallery.
“Art Meets Science” is a series of events at the gallery,
which displays the work of emerging contemporary artists, such as
Lillian Warren and Pamela Reaves, who draw their inspiration from
images generated by scientific research. The next gathering –
“Art, Science and Society” – is free to the public,
with no registration required.
This discussion on the intersection of the sciences and the arts
and the debate on how and if the arts and science should be supported
by society will feature a panel of three UH physics professors.
Gemunu Gunaratne, professor and associate chairman of UH’s
physics department, will be joined by fellow physics colleagues
Simon Moss, professor and M.D. Anderson Chair of Physics, and George
Reiter, professor of physics. All three are faculty in the College
of Natural Science and Mathematics at UH.
“My expertise within physics is in the study of chaotic motions
and pattern formation,” Gunaratne said. “I am currently
attempting to use ideas from this field to study bone strength and
to develop new diagnostic tools for osteoporosis. As a panelist,
the kinds of issues I would like to raise and discuss include whether
or not the development of ideas in science can be thought of as
art and government’s support of the arts and sciences.”
Reiter is a theoretical condensed matter physicist and is currently
developing techniques to extract information about atomic structure
of molecules from scattering data, as well as using ideas from physics
through complexity theory to develop models of economic systems
and obtain new information about these systems. Moss’ research
is on scattering and amorphous materials, also known as disordered
materials. His research in this area involves characterizing the
structure of these solids by using light scattering, and he will
discuss waves, particles and art.
“I plan to discuss how both science and art were transformed
in the early 1900s, in both cases with a revolution in our understanding
of the nature of light,” Moss said. “The quantum theory
and pointillism are good examples. Even today, the subject of quantum
theory continues to confound people, but I promise to keep it simple.”
This ‘scattering’ concept in physics seems to be reflected
in the works of the artists spearheading the “Art Meets Science”
lecture series. While Warren’s current paintings draw upon
imagery from the worlds of computer science and bioscience, as well
as the world of art, exploring different kinds of order and the
different faces of reality, Reaves modifies images from scientific
research in a complex, diversified process.
“I am fascinated by the interwoven complexity of our search
to understand the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of
things,” Warren said. “Of the many different paths for
exploring our internal and external universe, science and technology
seduce me, as do painting, poetry and meditation. These are all
linked in a way I cannot define but that I experience.”
WHO: |
UH Physicists Collaborating with Contemporary
Artists |
WHAT: |
“Art, Science and Society” Debate |
WHEN: |
Noon to 1 p.m., Friday, Oct. 15 |
WHERE: |
Negative Space Art Gallery
68 Yale (at Washington)
Call 713-869-1603 for directions. |
For more information about UH visit the universitys Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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