The Arts as a Scientific Tool
This week’s thesis research has involved reading scholarly works from Edward Shanken (New Media Historian), Brigitte Steinheider (Psychologist with a focus on interdisciplinary collaborations), and Robert Root-Bernstein (Physiologist with an interest in art-science interactions). Generally, I’ve been reading about interdisciplinarity. However, these individuals believe that artists are capable not only of anticipating scientific breakthroughs, but contributing to research and development for innovations. I can’t stress enough how important this nexus is.
In a 1997 article, The Arts’ Unsung Role in Supporting Science, Root-Bernstein explains how some scientists utilize the arts as scientific tools. He briefly mentions the influence of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes and Kenneth Snelson’s tensegrity structures. Bucky’s patented domes are made of lightweight but strong and efficient materials advantageous to sustaining maximum volume. Root-Bernstein writes:
Fuller’s geodesic domes can be used to describe not only architectural buildings and soccer balls, but also the structures of viruses and a whole new class of recently discovered chemicals called “buckminsterfullerenes,” commonly known as “buckyballs.”
A microscopic look at Buckminsterfullerene (via).
Tensegrity, a term coined by Fuller, is a structural concept invented by Kenneth Snelson. Snelson describes it as “floating compression” where it balances tension with wires and compression with rods. He was a student of Fuller’s briefly at Black Mountain College during the summer of 1948 where he created sculptures using this design. Fuller then adapted Snelson’s invention. The tensional integrity allows for the structure to bend and move without breaking apart. This concept is also found in cytoskeletons of human cells as discovered by the biologist Donald Ingber. Tensegrity structures are apparently being applied to space exploration now, but aside from some journal articles, I couldn’t find any photographic documentation.
Kenneth Snelson, Needle Tower, 1968. Photo: I. Peterson (via).
The crossover is expansive. I’m excited to explore it further in my thesis to demonstrate the ways art-science collaborations are improving research with creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving. There’s a wealth of information on this kind of work, but it’s often hard to find. So far I have a three-inch wide binder that I’m using to catalog my research and it’s almost full. I’ll keep you posted!
More About Tensegrity: Tensegrity, R. Buckminster Fuller (1961). Kenneth Snelson, website. Cells as Tensegrity Structures, Donald E. Ingber & James D. Jamieson (1985). Tensegrity in a Cell, Children’s Hospital Boston.
…[M]an is coming into an extraordinary new era on earth, in which we are going to be able to deal conceptually with advanced science. Inasmuch as conceptual communication is art, art will become intimate with science; and philosophy will be able to comprehend the significance of developments; and thought may enter upon new speculation and altogether new comprehension.
