Turning Science into Art

This week I've been doing alot of research about the relationship between art and science, and in particular the ways in which the lines between these two apparent polar opposites can very easily become blurred. To most people this seems a little far fetched, but if you take a closer look at the subject you begin to see the ways in which they have inspired one another throughout the centuries. From Renaissance studies of the anatomy to the landscape artists that accompanied Captain Cook on his voyages around the world in the 18th century, artists have been turning scientific imagery into art for years.

Leonardo Da Vinci's detailed drawings of the shoulder muscles, bones and tendons.

A perfect example of this intriguing relationship is the video below, released by NASA earlier this week and created by a team of astronauts currently serving on the International Space Station. The piece is a time-lapse video captured during a fly-over of Earth, and shows some amazing footage of a number of different light shows, both natural and man-made. Keep an eye out for the lightning storms, which are particularly awesome!


Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Art and Fashion

Visual Arts is not just about art, exhibitions and galleries. It’s about the celebration of creativity, design and beauty in all its various forms. Fashion is just one of those many forms; As a piece of design in itself and as another medium through which more ‘traditional’ art works find a new voice.

When one tries to think of an example of how art works find new expression through clothes, one automatically conjures up images of the 60s when Op Art and Pop Art designs exploded into the fashion scene.

Thanks to the availability of sythentic fabrics, mass reproduction and a new culture of consumer goods fashion took a whole new turn.

With the arrival of British mod fashion in America and  The Responsive Eye exhibition in New York which showcased Bridget Reily’s black and white geometrically abstract art works although not wanted by the artist a new explosion of geometrically patterned clothing and accessories became de riguer.

Pop Artists also found a new mouthpiece in commercial fashion with iconic, mass produced artworks by artists such as Andy Warhol  being printed onto clothing.

One must not forget the Yves Saint Lauren’s Mondrian Dress of 1965 which literally turned blurred the lines between clothing and canvas.

For a more contemporary example of how art and fashion are closely interlinked look no further than Amateur Couture, an online blog who’s tagline is ‘I love fashion and fashion loves art.’ Her posts consist of cleverly chosen images of artworks and pieces of fashion that correspond on a certain theme or design. Her artistic eye is impressive and her blog helps to show how fashion and art are inter-relatable and interdependent.

http://www.amateurcouture.com/

You should also check out The Sartorialist. His renowned photographical documentation of fashion, from the people he meets daily to the high-end fashion shows, is inspiring. His fascination with the tiny details of fashion design, such as the turn of a trouser cuff, places fashion in its own artistic arena.

http://www.thesartorialist.com/

Happy Fashion Finding, 

:)

Image Sources:

1) http://www.op-art.co.uk/op-art-fashion/

2)http://www.plastic-society.com/the-velvet-underground-nico-andy-warhol-rare-60s-print-t-shirt-i21.html

3) http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/C.I.69.23

4-6) http://www.amateurcouture.com/

7)http://www.thesartorialist.com/

Art Venture; Berlin

Now that Germany owns Ireland financially, I thought I'd visit some friends in Berlin and see what all the fuss was about. I discovered that apart from Berlin being economically superior to Dublin, the city trumps in the cultural stakes too. Berlin boasts over 3,000 cultural events daily. Ok, so this isn't an officially researched statistic, but some fairly reliable Berliners (not the dohnuts) had me believe. But it is difficult to find fault with, if anything it is falling short of the actual number.


The city is saturated with art and culture as evident from the demographic of our household; a student playwright, a rapper, a burgeoning fashion designer, a photographer-come-skate boarder and a dentist with a love for Greek film. Together they created the artsy household of the 'Happy Veygay'  and were in the middle of organising a photoshoot of the flatmates. The end result to be hung between the skull and bones, the masking tape jelly fish and Wallace and Gromit moon loungers. Art is everywhere.


Escape the house, hit the U-bahn. On the journey get harassed by a German interpretation of 'Hit the Road Jack' en route to the Berlinische Galerie to view German art from 1880 - 1980. From Impressionism through to Dadism , Abstraction and recent artistic practice. The drastic change in artistic discourse as a result of a turbulent social and political history is incredible and it is hard to believe that it was in the space of only 100 years.

Berlinische gallery isn't too big, you won't have gallery feet yet, so beeline straight to the renovated Hamburger Bahnhof. This gallery currently houses early work of Joseph Beuys and later documentation of his visit to Japan. Tomas Saraceno has an impressive installation on in the main hall, he addresses science, nature and the fragile spheres that we live in. Around the corner the Architecktonika exhibit deals with sculpture, spatial constructions and pictorial spaces borrowed from architectural forms. It reflects on practices in building design and the creation of urban spaces. The artists shown include Sol LeWitt, Gordon Matta-Clark, Carl Andre and Bruce Nauman, to name a handful.

If the contemporary art is taking up too much of your head space, grab a kebab, the food source invented in Berlin 40 years ago this year! Historical and delicious. And if you want something older than that visit the beautiful Pergamon (not to be confused with Pokemon) altar. The detail of the sculpture is phenomenal and in stark contrast with the overall size of the altar. It is massive. Each arm embraces you and encourages you to sit, relax and stare. Making you all too aware that the Germans had their thinking caps on when they invested in Classical art and architecture.


It's Sunday. You're likely to be hungover. Most shops are closed and you couldn't handle another museum or kebab even if you wanted to. Bypass 'Who killed bambi?' on Eberswalder Strasse (but miss your flight on Monday and go back for great clothes) and head for Mauerpark. It is a market which provides everything, clothes, food, bicycles, cameras, furniture, bags and violins haggled from €75 down to €45. When you have purchased everything you probably have no need for, sit in your €10 1960's mustard yellow bucket chair and watch the poi, juggling and the outdoor open mike karaoke (apparently invented by an Irish guy, why isn't there one here!?).  

Stroll home, chair in tow, aware that you haven't even scratched the artistic surface of Berlin. Made evermore apparent when you have the art chats with the artsy flat mates. Print off your boarding pass and appreciate that it's with Aer Lingus and not with that dreaded yellow airline.

Sisters are doin' it for themselves!

History of Art is serious business. When the subject is mentioned one imagines bow-tied professors and Roman busts! Enter Sr.Wendy. (Yes that is Sister) A self taught art expert, Sr. Wendy brings life to the subject. She's even here on You Tube! Have a look at this little video, it's eight minutes well spent. See if she doesn't teach you a thing or two!

VisArts 2010-2011

VisArts had a great year in 2010-2011. Here's a taster of some of the events we held

Freshers week 2010

Setting up for the 2nd VisArts Exhibition...

Opening night of our 2nd Exhibition with speeches from our 2010-2011 Chair Ailbhe McNeela, Curator of the TCD Art Collection Ms. Cathrine Giltrap & Irish Times Visual Arts Critic Mr Aiden Dunne. 

Trip to Paris 

 Our 2010-2011 Chair Ailbhe & Treasurer Claire setting up the Swap Shop for TAF 2011 which was sponsored by American Apparel

 Tour of the Provosts House by Dr Christine Casey as part of TAF