Have You Ever Seen a Molecule? Art, Science and Visual Communication

This interdisciplinary conference concentrates on the correlation between science and art/design, and the impact of the arts and artistic practices on scientific culture. The scientific focus of the conference is molecular biology, in particular structural biology. As any other micro- and nano-scale science, this research is inherently dependent upon visualising objects and data in the production and communication of scientific knowledge. Visualisation is thus an integral part of the understanding and evolution of new scientific concepts and boundaries.

Despite the fact that structural images of individual projects are made by thousands of researchers in laboratories around the world, there is as yet no general consensus on what makes a good image. Consequently, there is no obvious and necessary correlation between the images made for pragmatic and heuristic purposes in the laboratory, those chosen for posters and conference presentations, the images accompanying article submissions, and finally those that will be selected or further designed for public engagement and communication. Instead, how specific traits should be visualised, which colour schemes should be applied and how to pick the perfect image for specific purposes depend to a large degree upon pragmatic categories and local factors within individual laboratories and research groups, as well as on editorial decisions and a stronger promotional value, at least to some degree independently of scientific preferences and arguments.

Interdisciplinary collaboration in visualising molecular structures lies at the very core of contemporary research processes and products. Bringing art, design and science together is far more than just an interesting experiment in transdisciplinary cross-communication, it is a necessary step in exploring new ways of optimising imagery at the molecular level and thus breaking new ground. We depend upon this in the arts as well as in the sciences in the future university to make things better and to advance our knowledge of life at a molecular level.

 

Exhibition

Colin Rennie's glass sculpture of ATP synthase will be on show during the conference; more info about Rennie's art piece can be found here:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v452/n7184/full/452155a.html
http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2009/02/16/assembling-a-glass-sculpture-of-atp-synthase/
http://www.design4science.org/flash/flash.html

 

 

 

Information for Delegates 

Conference Registration
To register click the 'Online Registration' link on the right. Deadline for registration is 19 March 2010.