The Art of Science, the Science of Art

Mixing the staggering beauty of pure art with a precision and dedication of great science.
It reads contradictory and conflicted: the art of science/science of art – the mixture of the logical and methodical with the imaginative and emotional.
But science and art – or, if you’d prefer, art and science – have held hands, if not as close friends, for a very long time. Greek and Roman artists followed often strict guidelines considering the correct mathematical proportions of the figures in their frescoes and sculptures, Japanese woodblocks were as much about mechanical precision as they were about the subject being printed, the Renaissance was all about using science to bring a literal new dimension to painting, and then you have the work of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.


Everything you see below is made from glass...

No, you haven’t heard of Leopold or Rudolf Blaschka – but you certainly should have. Unlike the Greeks and the Romans, the Japanese Ukiyo-e artists, Michangelo and Leonardo, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka aren’t well-known outside of either esoteric or scientific circles.

Which is what makes them so remarkable: they mixed the staggering beauty of pure art with a precision and dedication worthy of great scientists.


Recreating Nature in Glass - Looking Through a Glass, Darkly
Leopold and Rudolf were glass artisans – possibly some of the greatest, ever. They weren’t concerned with platters and goblets, lampshades and windows. Nope, Leopold and Rudolf created nature.

Simplified, here’s the story: Harvard Professor George Lincoln Goodale wanted examples to help teach botany, but the problem was plants have a tendency to … well, die. Sure, you could preserve some specimens but lots of species just don’t look the same after being dried – the plant version of stuffed and mounted. Yes, you could try using paintings or even photography but plants are – and here’s a surprise -- three dimensional. So what Professor Goodale did was ask the Blaschkas to create detailed glass plants to help him teach his students about real ones.

What the Blaschkas did, was more than just recreate plants: they created astounding works of not only scientific accuracy but pure, brilliant, art. Even the simplest of their efforts is deceptively unencumbered… a sign of their genius as their reproductions don't resemble the botanical model – they look EXACTLY like them, created by hand, in fickle and fragile glass, and all in the period 1887 to 1936.

What’s even more impressive is how many they created - more than 3,000 models of some 850 species – many of which can be seen on display at Harvard while many others are being painstakingly restored. But the Blaschkas didn’t stop at mere plants. Plants are relatively simple subjects and there are much deeper challenges out there - creatures so rare and fragile that very few men have ever seen them in their delicate flesh (even more frail than the glass the Blaschkas used to recreate them).

When the reproductions below were conjured in the late 19th century only a few marine explorers and a few lucky seaman had seen any of them. Octopi, urchins, sea cucumbers, anemones, jellyfish, cuttlefish – they were too rare, too fragile, to be seen outside of their briny homes. That is until the Blaschkas.

I wish there was some way to request a moment of silence. I wish there was some way to ask you to stop reading this and look at the pictures here and at other places of the web. I wish there was some way for you to have a nice glass of wine, put on some nice music – maybe Bach, who also mixed science and art – and just admire the care, the craft, and the pure art the Blaschkas created.


Other Astonishing Amalgams of Science and Art

The Blaschka brothers left an inspirational legacy. Josiah McElheny – a recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant – is a kindred spirit to the Blaschkas, another mind-blowing artist who works in the whimsical and temperamental medium of glass … and the disciplined domain of science.

McElheny’s works -- like that of the Blaschka brothers -- take inspiration from the universe around us, and there is no better example than the key moment seen below. In many ways this is a perfect place to stop: the Blaschka brothers created perfect artistic reproductions of nature to teach science, and McElheny created a sculptural interpretation of the ultimate act of creation, as discovered by science: the Big Bang.

Dale Chihuly also makes incredible glass sculptures, but these are more surreal than scientifically correct:

Physics Fusion With Art?

When physics get too complicated (or obscure) the whole exercise may start to resemble abstract art patterns:

Fabric Brain Art: This is Your Brain on Wool

Neuroscience and art mix beautifully at "The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art" - click here. Some examples are somewhat unnerving, and others are plainly tongue-in-cheek:

Fabric MRI - slices, slices everywhere:

Street art can be educational too: here is a lesson in anatomy and graffiti skill, seen somewhere in Russia:

The Dark Side of the Moon is Buried in the Wall - and Mystery... for Another 70 Years

Perhaps one the most striking examples of astronomy science visualisation is this humongous model of the Moon from 1908, almost a surreal doorway to another world, a snapshot of bizarre art/science history:

Written By Awais Ali

Car Dashboards as Works of Art

New State-of-the-Art Dashboard Concepts
Original "dashboards" were simply wooden barriers to protect the horse carriage driver from splashes (or "dashes") of dirt thrown up by the horse's hooves. Much has changed since...
Modern dashboards are significantly more than just arrangements of knobs and dials around a steering wheel. At their best, new concept
dashboards feel more like clouds of futuristic worlds, enveloping the driver and lifting him into a stratosphere of high style and impeccable taste.

Granted, some of the recent concept dashboards are so wildly bizarre that it's hard to imagine yourself "easing into" such an environment, much less simply concentrating on driving. Other dashboards seem to be designed only to "buck the trend" and come up with something radical and shocking that rival companies have not tried yet. (Fresh concepts are expected to appear every year at different auto shows, making automotive design a highly dynamic and competitive field). And yet, there are plenty of fantastic dashboards to be found in modern concept cars to inspire and excite the most demanding of drivers.

Renault DeSir's concept car's interior is all about flowing shapes and typical French visual harmony:

The 2007 Mazda Taiki has a beautiful, Art Nouveau inspired dashboard, with pulsating red "veins" of light flowing around a steering wheel like some sort of decadent liquor (is it possible to get intoxicated by just looking at this gorgeous design?):

Another Mazda concept, the 2007 Mazda Ryuga has some sort of futuristic space fighter interior (featuring what is probably the best-looking instrument cluster ever designed for a dashboard) - a much appreciated "breath of fresh air" when it comes to stale mass-produced dashboard layouts:

There are a few too many intersecting planes and angles here for our liking, but the Toyota FT-HS makes up for the resulting visual complexity with an austere, yet highly ergonomic, driver's seat:

The Citroen C-Cactus features some incredible, flowery cut-outs (even on the bottom of the steering wheel column), and can probably compete with the VW hippie van for "flower power" appeal:

The Citroen Revolte concept car sports a futuristic dashboard, which is only slightly marred by the awkward rectangle of the computer display:

Here is a very clean looking 2001 Volvo ACC dashboard with a pretty good integration of a rectangular iPad-sized screen in this case:

A very inviting 2009 Cadillac ELR interior: appropriately edgy and high-tech, and yet luxurious enough... Prestigious design, done right:

Looking back at the Toyota FXS from 2001, we are impressed with a distinct Art Deco feel to the whole layout, enhanced by mysterious blue tones:

Speaking of Art Deco themes, I find this nautically-themed 2008 Buick Riviera's interior inviting (if a little crude on the overall finish and detailing, which is to be expected from a preliminary concept model):

This great Japanese pod, 2007 Nissan Roundbox, is like an impossibly hip living room, art studio and maybe even "cloud-based" workplace all rolled into one:

Well, time to show a few dashboard oddities: here is the Russian 2003 Russo-Baltique Impression supercar, boasting acres of wood (we hope that it is not plastic):

Spyker cars have always been different from the mainstream, a rare thing unto itself (though, as some point out, not necessarily a thing-of-beauty), and this 2001 Spyker C8 Laviolette is no exception, with its incredible orange theme and sophisticated-looking stainless steel pedal assembly:

All curves and bulbous surfaces, like a spaceship escape pod, 2009 Nissan Qazana is "so bizarre it almost looks French" (this quote comes from a car magazine obviously not very content with most of the American cookie-cutter dashboards, so I consider it a compliment to the French):

Minimalism in dashboard design can be a wonderful thing. Here is a very classy dashboard of the Morgan Life Car (read our article why Morgan cars are so different):

Less is certainly more inside 2001 Hispano-Suiza K8:

Descending from the lofty heights of concept car designs we enter the production supercar territory. There are many classic dashboard beauties to mention (enough for its own article), but here are a couple of Lamborghini Diablo interiors, just so that we could peek inside and marvel.... at all this carbon fibre in Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0:

the mystique of the deep blue velvet Lamborghini Diablo SE30 interior; truly an iron fist in a velvet glove:

Dashboards of the Fifties: A Smorgasbord of Touchable Delights

These sculptures of leather and chrome could easily be displayed in future art galleries and fondled, touched, and caressed by our descendants in puzzled appreciation (by this time in the future, all dashboards will probably be replaced by a floating holographic voice-driven interface, so the metal knobs and soft padding of 1950s dashboards would seem quaint enough). Here is one of the best (and wildly strange) dashboards of the period, a red 1956 Buick Centurion wonder:

More tame and very classy 1950s Chrysler Imperial dashboards:

Written By Awais Ali

Killer Viruses and Other Cutting-Edge Glass Art

Killer Viruses and Other Exceptional Glass Art

“Glass is transparent, hard to understand. It is formed from sand, fire and human breath — it is the cheapest material and yet the most magical.”
-- Dale Chihuly, glass sculptor

It is one thing to create something magical and beautiful using a glass medium, and quite another to convey the deadly efficiency and sheer subliminal terror of microscopic killing machines. Luke Jerram makes "viral" glass sculptures (pun intended): scientifically correct, detailed visualization of real viruses (corresponding to the latest in microbiology research at the University of Bristol). He is a masterful installation artist, who has found the perfect artistic form to represent the most unusual of subjects - spiky seismograph records, for example, (including a glass visualization of the 2010 earthquake in Japan), or even the ups and downs of the world stock markets.

Here are the Smallpox, Flu & HIV Virus glass sculptures, side by side, a trio of "beautiful hand grenades" (as one art critic put it) - menacing, delicate and sophisticated all at once:

A closer look at the Smallpox and Swine Flu viruses reveals a deadly intricacy - menacing for any living organism

Deadly viruses rendered in glass are sort of a guilty pleasure: they are safe to observe and cannot infect you. "Know your enemy"... so to speak. Here are Escherichia coli (commonly abbreviated E. coli) and HIV Human immunodeficiency virus. (Luke Jerram is a colour-blind installation artist... but these works do not seem to need colour to sufficiently chill our souls: they are appropriately sculpted as transparent, super-efficient, invisible machines):

On to a different subject: the ups and downs of the New York Stock Exchange and Dow Jones, carved in glass

A couple of interesting light fixtures: "Solar Powered Kinetic Chandelier" and "Science Glass Chandelier: a contemplation and celebration of scientific glassware

Tohoku Japanese Earthquake Sculpture... and the Mexico-Texas border, rotated! -

Why carve the Mexican border, you may ask? The Mexican Border is the most frequently crossed international border in the world, with approximately three hundred and fifty million (350,000,000) crossings per year - certainly worthy of a sculpture to make us think about such incredible migration.

Interestingly, these glass works are not the most extreme or unusual projects by Luke Jerram; the most amazing one is perhaps the The Sky Orchestra: "a series of performances in which hot air balloons fly over a city at dawn and broadcast music designed to turn the dreams of the sleeping public into an artistic experience."


Glass Sculptures to Inspire, to Illuminate, or Shimmer Their Way into Our Subconscious

Perhaps the most intriguing thing to note in the history of glass, is the lost secret of so-called flexible glass:

 "A glassmaker was granted an audience with Emperor Tiberius (reigned 14-37 A.D.), presented him with a phiala (a shallow drinking vessel), asked the emperor to give it back, and then threw it on the floor. It did not break, but was dented, like a bronze vessel. The glassmaker took out a hammer and removed the dent. Tiberius asked him if anyone else knew how to make this kind of glass and, the glassmaker said "No," and the emperor had him beheaded.. Regardless of validity of this tale, glass can certainly be bent and blown into fantastic shapes, thanks to flameworking and torchworking techniques, a blend of natural fire and the artist's fired up creativity:

Robert Mickelsen's flameworked glass art is surreal and perfectly natural at once. The tangled-web complexity of glass strands evokes the microscopic order inside all matter, or maybe underlines "the fearful symmetry" of crystals - in any case, we are awed with the filigree precision of his craft:

Coming from Japan, here is a cool fossil-shaped stained glass piece (left) and another organic glass shape, by Tomai (top right image). On the bottom right is a tear-shaped "Northern Lights" marble piece:

Designed by Yoshiko Miyashita, the Shinjuku Eye was installed at Tokyo's Shinjuku station in 1969, and since then has observed myriads of passengers (the number of entries and exits per day at Shinjuku Station is almost 3.5 million people):

Even T.rex looks delicate and fragile when presented in glass (left). On the right is the "Eye" drinking glass table piece:

Blood carcasses are strangely fascinating in this state of suspended animation: horribly gory and delicately fragile at the same time... This is "Carrona" by Javier Pérez:

The perfect fusion of science and art can be observed in the work of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, whose fantastic work we covered in our article Art of Science

Shawn Ayerst from Calgary, Canada, makes gorgeous glass fauna, delicate plants... and chicken skulls, too (seriously, why not?) -

Strange organic-looking tubes sprout from this unique colored glass dish by British artist Linda Matti:

Stained Glass Masterpieces to Light up your Soul

This complex and staggeringly beautiful stained glass dome (designed by German artist Jakob Schwarzkopf) crowns the Erawan Museum in Thailand:

Speaking of stained glass ceilings and chandeliers, we simply have to mention this splendid piece in Barcelona's Palau de la Mùsica Catalana (organically growing out of the ceiling in accordance with Art Nouveau's minor obsession with mushroom shapes and alien-blob forms):

Here is a magical stained glass grotto in Herrenhaeuser Gardens, Germany, created by Niki de Saint Phalle

Stained Glass will never be the same once you wake up to the liberating possibilities of adding semi-precious stones and polished rocks into the pattern (like this beautiful glass and agate slices combination):

Layers of glass, holding bizarre 3D images inside their prismatic depths... trapping them like iridescent flies in amber

The frozen suspension of these surreal (and often disturbing) images is the work of 3D glass Chinese artist Xia Xiaowan... echoed by Canada based David Spriggs, who also uses multiple layers of clear glass to create rather abstract but no less epic installations:

Written By Awais Ali