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Professor Martin Kemp, an art historian, and Professor Sir Roger Penrose, a mathematician and physicist, discuss how they are bridging the Art versus Science divide.
According to Prof Martin Kemp, who is a partner in the 'Connections in Space' Project, when it comes to handling visual things, there are scientists who tend in one direction or another:
"They are not absolutely separate people in the way that there are the great visualisers. They can do these extraordinary spatial things in their heads - they have some kind of wiring laid down - they can do that."
Prof Sir Roger Penrose believes that there are certain qualities in common between art and science. He explains:
"First of all, the aesthetic qualities in art are very important in science too. In science you have to be able to stand back and see what are the artificial constraints and see if you can find a way outside … a route round them which can be very important in science."
Much can be learnt from how children represent space. They are much more experimental in how they handle space. Prof Kemp says that it is fresh for them as they don’t have absolute preconceptions:
"It tells us an enormous amount about the basic processes of how we look at something and get it down onto a flat surface. It’s a kind of improvisatory quality which when we become very sophisticated, it’s difficult to recapture."
Physicist Prof Penrose accepts that there were a lot of visual influences when he was growing up, primarily from his father who he describes as very artistic:
"My father did draw from nature. But he was also very interested in geometry. I think that was an important influence. I do find that it’s very helpful to represent things graphically."
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Content last updated: 30/06/2006
