Building bridges between Art and Science

Studying the sciences, I’ve often heard peers say, “I’m a scientist, I’m not really a creative type.” I’ve also heard this sentiment expressed in the reverse, as people claimed to be artistic, not scientific; creative, not critical; intuitive, not logical. 

More often than not, people classify themselves as either an artist or a scientist. This dichotomy is perpetuated in higher education, where science labs are located across campus from art studios, courses that span both disciplines are rare, and collaboration between faculties is limited.

As a student, I came by my love of the arts and sciences separately. Both disciplines excited me, both piqued my interest in exploration and learning, but I could not see how to connect the two. It was in science communication that I found a natural intersection between my interests, a point where I could use creativity and design to share science in a fun and understandable way. And it was in science communication that I learned we need to build bridges across the divide that exists between the disciplines of art and science. 

This is where the SciArt Exhibition comes in.

Innovation and exploration flourish when we look at ideas from a different point of view, and that is why the LU SciArt Exhibition challenges students, artists, and researchers alike to look at their work from a new perspective. Local students have used sculptures, paintings, or interpretive dance to enhance their understanding of their science curriculum. Researchers and faculty at Laurentian have reimagined their ideas in quilts, sketches, and a variety of artistic media. Community artists have used their chosen medium to visualize challenging scientific concepts in unique and beautiful ways.

For the past 5 years, the LU SciArt Exhibition has featured as a part of Laurentian University’s Research Week. This year, I have had the privilege of working with students, researchers, and community artists to bring the 6^thannual LU SciArt Exhibition to life.

I’ve spoken to artists about the challenges of bringing themes of science into their work, and the many opportunities it brings. I’ve seen the work of artists who use nature to inspire their pieces. I’ve listened to researchers explain how they turn their data into poetry, or quilts, or sculpture, to reshape their understanding and visualize their research.

I’ve sat down with high-school students who felt they didn’t have an artistic bone in their body, and together we’ve dreamed up sketches and sculptures that beautifully illustrate the threats we face from climate change. I’ve worked with a memorable group of Grade 4’s, who taught me a thing or two about coding as they brainstormed their project that intersects sculpture and robotics. 

Through all of this, I’ve learned that the divide between science and art is not so insurmountable as I once thought. When people are challenged to think about these disciplines together, rather than as two separate fields, they naturally begin to amalgamate and new ideas flourish. 

Maybe you’re like me, and you’ve struggled to find a connection between your twin passions for the arts and sciences. Maybe you’re a science enthusiast struggling to visualize your concept of interest, or you’re an artist looking for new themes to represent in your work. I challenge you to rethink the separation of art and science. Consider a new perspective, and explore new angles.

You may just create an innovative piece of SciArt.

- Kyelle Byne, SCOM 2019

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The SciArt Exhibition takes place on Wednesday, March 20^thas a part of Laurentian University’s Research Week 2019, before moving to Science North where it will be on display from March 25^thto April 5^th. There will be a special Gala evening to celebrate science, art, and SciArt poetry at Science North on April 2^ndat 7pm. The exhibition is free to attend, and all are welcome!

Internships

We (Merissa and Sarah) both completed our 8-week internships at Science North. Now that we are finished our internships, we decided to interview each other about the experiences we had!


What did you do during your internship?

Merissa: I worked on the new travelling exhibit, Wildlife Rescue. I was assigned the area of "Emergency Response," where I had to research the way wild animals are treated in emergencies. I interpreted research about wild animal rescue and I wrote content documents for the exhibit. The content documents will be used to write the content on the graphic panels in the exhibit. I also contributed ideas for interactive exhibits in the area.

Sarah: During my internship, I helped re-vamp teacher workshops, which are books of activities that are presented to teachers across Ontario to help them with interactive activities in the classroom. I also developed pre- and post- activities for school programs, developed new content for camp-ins, and even got to deliver a few overnight camp-ins.

What was one of your most positive experiences?

Merissa: My most positive experience was during the second design team meeting. I felt really passionate about one of the interactive exhibits, so I fought to keep the exhibit. I thought it was really important to have something for younger kids.

Sarah: I really enjoyed doing the overnight camp-ins. I got to observe one and deliver two of them. I thought it would be hard to stay up from 7 pm to 7 am, but it was lots of fun and you really realize how much kids enjoy Science North.

What did you learn from your internship?

Merissa: I learned essential skills like team work, creative thinking and flexibility. The content was always changing and I had to learn how to cooperate and come to consensus with other people about ideas.

Sarah: I really learned the importance of getting people’s opinions on things; it’s helpful to get other people’s input to make a good idea even better. Doing jobs like this also happen in a fast-paced and changing environment, so you need to learn how to be flexible.

How was your internship related to Science Communication?

Merissa: I was doing work on an exhibit for a science centre. I was learning how to communicate complicated science to a grade 8 audience across North America. I was really living Science Communication.

Sarah: I was able to take science topics that can be difficult to understand and create hands-on activities that can be used in classrooms. Having a science and teaching background was helpful since I would be more likely to know if certain experiments work or not, and I would be able to expand on explanations that would be easier for teachers who are not specialists and children to understand.

 
During our internship, we were able to share an office space. This made things even more exciting for us. We were able to run ideas past each other and share interesting facts along the way. Here is a list of the top 10 things we learned while we were on our internships:

1. World Turtle Day is May 23rd. Turtles are an important part of our ecosystem and help keep our lakes clean. Did you know that road mortality is a major cause of turtle death in Ontario?
2. Using a Mac computer when you are not used to it is a hard thing.
3. Snack time is at 10:30 a.m., or when we both pull out a banana to eat it at the exact same time.4. If you want to stay awake all night for a camp-in, staying hydrated is the key! Drink lots of water (with your reusable water bottle).5. Meetings can be long, but getting free food is pretty awesome.
6. Magic mud is pretty cool. It can dance on speakers and people can run across pools filled with it. Try it at home (small-scale, of course!) by mixing some corn starch with water!
7. To keep the mood light, having a joke of the day can be helpful. For example, “Why didn’t the brain want to take a bath? Because it didn’t want to get brainwashed!”
8. Oiled birds get their heads cleaned with toothbrushes. And yes, they really use Dawn dish soap (but they have to do other steps before they do this).
9. There are beautiful sunrises over Ramsey Lake at 5 am.
10. Our internships at Science North were awesome!

- Merissa and Sarah

Science exhibit design class

Designing, building, prototyping, testing and evaluating an exhibit is an intense challenge to do in 6 weeks. It is also an apt description of our exhibits course. The course is taught by Alan Nursall who has over 25 years of science programming and exhibit design experience among other things. People familiar with Daily Planet may recognize Alan from the "Alan Nursall Experience" segments.

All of us in the class are now finalizing our projects and getting them ready to be showcased at Science North. We have a small budget and a small amount of time to complete this task. Most of us have been able to scrounge up materials from our own houses or from various areas of the science centre. The guys in our Tech shop are also great. They have built many exhibits over the years and their experience has really helped us figure out what is "doable" and what isn't. We wouldn't be able to do this without the help of all the staff here at Science North - THANKS GUYS!

I'm working on a Shadowgraphing exhibit (Top left picture). You can use shadows to visualize movements in fluids (gases, liquids). Just think about the last time you saw heat waves coming from a barbecue. In my exhibit, a heat source will warm up the water. By shining a light through the aquarium you can project shadows of warm and cold water. Light bends differently when it goes from warm to cold water and vice versa, producing dark and light areas on a whiteboard. What is really interesting to me is that this technique is used to visualize flow around ballistic and aircraft designs. Visitors will be able to place objects in the tank to see this.

Merissa's exhibit involves "brain shortcuts" (right). Think about the last time you reached for coins in your pocket. How do you know which coins are which with your fingers? Well, we've learned it through experience and it helps that each coin is designed to be recognized through touch. For example, dimes are small and thin with ridges and pennies are small with no ridges. From what I understand, the brain makes shortcuts for recognizing the coins. How does this translate though when we try identifying American and British coins? Merissa's exhibit allows people to explore it by putting their hands in boxes of coins.

These pictures are from last week when we were testing the science behind each of our exhibits. Our final exhibits are in the process of being constructed. Stay tuned to be dazzled....

Things have been moving so quickly in this program that we seem to run out of time to write blogs!

Justin updated you a while ago about visiting the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo. This was just one of the great experiences we had while we explored the world of Science Communication in Southern Ontario. We also had the opportunity visit the set of Daily Planet (and we even met Jay Ingram!), the Ontario Science Centre (and Body Worlds), and the Royal Ontario Museum. We also got a special one-on-one with Pat Senson, a Science Journalist. It was a lot to cram into 3 days, but it was worth it!

We had a blast and wanted to thank everyone who accommodated us while we were visiting these various locations, Pat Senson for taking the time out of his busy schedule to come meet us, and Chantal, Dave, and Carey for organizing such a great trip for us!

We were all excited to visit CTV Studios!

And now onto more news! After a busy (and somewhat relaxing) reading week, we’re back at school and we’ve started a new term in the Science Communication program. Things couldn’t be more different for us!

First of all, we’ve had to say goodbye to two of our classmates, Mylene and Iara, who were here on an exchange from France. They are now completing their internships so that they can receive their Masters in Science Communication. Iara is back in France for her internship and Mylene is now in Montreal! We had a little going away party for them before they left to let them know how much we loved having them in our class. We miss you guys already!

The Science Communication students - together for one last time before Mylene and Iara head off for their internships. (Don't ask about James and Kevin's hair...)

Also, now that we’ve begun the practice portion of the program, we are now doing more hands-on work in the areas of our choice! We had the option of choosing from the following list of courses: Live Programming, Exhibits, Mass Media, and Information Technology. Because we all have different Science Communication interests and talents, we have all chosen different variations of these courses! These courses are a great opportunity for us to practice the things that we spent the first half of the year learning.

I decided to experiment with my teaching skills in the Live Programming course and to challenge my creative side in the Exhibits course.

For part of the live programming course, we must observe and deliver two different school programs at Science North. I spent the day on Friday observing different staff members deliver school programs in different areas of Science North. They are all so enthusiastic and good at their jobs. You could really tell that the students who were visiting were having a good time (and learning!). Hopefully when it comes time for me to deliver a school program, I will be as great as the Science North staff were!

In Exhibits, I have been trying to create an exhibit that engages visitors in a chemistry-related topic. This is something that is difficult to do in science centres – it’s hard to take a subject like chemistry, that sometimes requires lots of assistance, and create an exhibit that can be easily manipulated by visitors.

I think we’ve already learned a few important things in this class:

1. There is a lot of work that goes into creating exhibits. If someone can walk up to an exhibit, know what to do right away, and take something away from it, then it was an effective exhibit. Being able to make an exhibit like this is not as easy as it looks!
2. The initial idea won’t be the final idea. I’m two weeks into the course and have already changed my exhibit idea at least 3 times.
3. Getting input from others is extremely helpful when creating an exhibit. An important practice that we have been using is something like a “sharing circle,” where we describe our idea and receive feedback from classmates. We’ve also been working in pairs and noticing that it’s a great idea to bounce ideas off of others.
   

The only downside to me choosing these two awesome courses is that I now spend less time with classmates who have chosen other options! We’ve all become so close throughout the first 6 months of the course that it’s kind of strange not being all together in the boardroom – I guess we will just have to rely on our social lives to keep us all connected before we head off to our internships in April!

- Sarah :)

P.S. This is the first blog that I have written and posted on my own! (Well... I did need a little help from Justin! But still, it's pretty exciting!)