from Field Notebook: Freeze-Thaw Cycles, Jentel Residency, 2011
Is it possible that art inspired by science is redefining art, as well as the concept of aesthetics, too? The popularization of science-inspired art in recent years suggests this is so. It’s a trend that fascinates me. Which is why I agreed to give a talk about this topic for the Malcolm Renfrew Interdisciplinary Colloquium at the University of Idaho, Tuesday, Dec. 3 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm.
As disciplines, art and science are amazingly similar in how individuals seek to know about our world and contribute in some way to the understanding of it. I will briefly discuss my artwork within this milieu, in which the locus of magic for me dwells somewhere between the physical and metaphysical. I will also provide a glimpse of the ways modern science is shaping the expression of other contemporary artists, who are driven by its beauty, complexity and mystery.
The video for this montage was shot during a Jentel Artist Residency late winter-early spring of 2011. It depicts close-up observations of spring ice melting along Piney Creek, which runs through 1,000-acre Wyoming ranch. This artist residency sparked for me a keen interest in using “field studies” to better understand concepts that inspired my recent art installations related to the Ice Age flooding of Glacial Lake Missoula.
More about this kind of stuff on Tuesday!
Gerri Sayler Artist 