Consilience of Art and Science

What a series!

You won't want to miss the Consilience of Art and Science speaker series that gets under way Nov. 12 and continues through April 9 at the University of California, Davis.

The lectures are free and open to the public.

UC Davis entomologist Diane Ullman, associate dean of Undergraduate Academic Programs, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and professor of entomology, helped  initiate this series.

Ullman and artist Donna Billick, co-directors of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program,  are devoted to the fusion of art and science. They anticipate that the centennial colloquium will stimulate interaction and discussion as the distinguished scholars focus on the “interlocking principles that bind art and science.”

The first speaker is Corey Keller, associate curator of photography for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  She'll deliver her presentation on "Sight Unseen: Picturing the Invisible, 1840 to 1900" from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 12 in the Activities and Recreation Center, Ballrooms A and B.

Keller will discuss what the early photomicrographs, astrophotographs, motion studies, and x-rays meant to science and how these pictures of the invisible touched people.

Keller will show some of the first astrophotographs, “which resulted from emulsion coated plates that could collect and accumulate light through the telescope over many hours, thus revealing stars and galaxies that were not visible when looking through the telescope with the human eye--which can’t accumulate light to create images,” Ullman said.

 “They were quite popular and published in popular science magazines of the time, like La Nature,” Ullman said.

Van Gogh was reportedly so awed by the astrophotographs that they influenced his famous painting, Starry Night.

Later, the series will delve into art and insects.  Catherine Chalmers, a professional artist and author of Food Chain who explores the connections between humans and insects, will speak Jan. 7. 

For more information, see  Consilience of Art and Science.