On Art and Science

Einstein once remarked "After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in aesthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are always artists as well". In this volume, some of the world’s leading thinkers come together to expound on the interrelations between sciences and arts. While one can segregate art and place it outside the scientific realm, it is, nevertheless, inextricably linked to our essential cognitive/emotional/perceptual modalities and abilities, and therefore lies alongside and in close contact with the method of science and philosophy. What inspiration can scientists draw from art and how can scientific spirit foster our understanding and creation of aesthetic works? How are art and science grounded in our cognition? What role does perception play in science and art? Are criteria for beauty in art and science the same? How does evolution shape our understanding of art? How do science, art and scientifico-artistic frameworks shape society as a whole and help us address its pressing issues? The epistemological and ontological aspects haunt artists, philosophers and scientists alike. The essays in this volume address these manifold questions while also elucidating the pragmatic role they play in our daily life. 

  Introduction by Judith Wechsler.- Science as an Artistic Endeavour by James W. McAllister.- Art and Science: Historical Confluences and Modern Dialectics by Nader El-Bizri.- Art, Science, and the Nature of the Meritorious by Mark Daniel Cohen.- Aesthetic Agency: Why Art Might Matter to Philosophy by Charles F. Altieri.- The birth of Modernism: How the science of Aesthetics created one of the most popular periods of art by Barbara Larson.- Panofsky as Epistemologist by Nathalie Heinich.- Art and Science in the Thinking of Rudolf Arnheim by Ian Verstegen.- Interpreting Scientific Images:Aesthetic Considerations at Work by Otávio Bueno.- Complexity and Chaos theory in Art by Jay Kappraff.- The view through glass: Painters’ Science, Mathematicians’ Art, and the Magic of Shadows by Annarita Angelini, Rossella Lupacchini.-  Finally Fresh Air: Towards a Quantum Paradigm for Artists and other Observers by Julian Voss-Andreae and George Weissmann.- Of Barrels and Pipes: Representation-As in Art and Science by Roman Frigg and James Nguyen.- Novel scenarios for art and science encounters by Mónica Bello.- A psychohistorical philosophy for the science of the arts by Nicolas Bullot.- Lines and Boxes: The Geometry of Thought by Barbara Tversky.- Some Ecological Thoughts about Artworks and Perception by William P. Seeley.- Popular Art, Bad Art, and the Data of Philosophical Aesthetics by Jonathan Robson.- Figurines and the Origin of Art by Nancy E. Aiken.- Mathematics and Art Connections Expressed in Artworks by South African Students by Kristóf Fenyvesi, Christopher Brownell, Pamela Burnard, Pallawi Sinha, Werner Olivier, Catherina Steyn, Zsolt Lavicza.- The Sinai Light Show: Using Science to Tune Fractal Aesthetics by B. VanDusen,  B.C. Scannell,  M.E. Sereno, B. Spehar,  R.P. Taylor.-  Art as an Aid to Resolve Tension by Raghunath Ghosh.- Afterword by Sir Martin Rees.