Artworks to stimulate the take-up of emerging technology As sciences and arts increasingly specialised during the twentieth century, so they pulled further apart. Now innovators are looking to reunite them in efforts to better communicate outstanding research results. Society © FEAT In 1959 the British novelist and scientist C.P. Snow coined the phrase the ‘two cultures’ to explore the divide between the endeavours of science and the humanities, lamenting the loss of solutions to the world’s problems. Currently, there are renewed efforts to bridge the gap between the two investigative traditions. The EU-funded FEAT project successfully matched five artists to early-stage scientific projects. In part, FEAT was addressing the so-called “European paradox”, whereby European researchers and institutions are perceived to excel at delivering quality research but are unable to translate this into marketable innovations. The project injected creativity into scientific projects and communication efforts with artworks that prompted discussion through exhibitions, workshops, public spaces, offices and laboratories. Getting the sci-art blend right The project’s open call received more than 250 applications from artists around the world, alongside a higher than expected number of submissions from scientific projects. From this cohort, five artists were selected based on the quality of their work and the expected FET (Future and Emerging Technologies) impact. Eighteen projects were invited to a workshop in Amsterdam, and the artists were able to choose their own. As project coordinator Mr Erich Prem recalls, “While we did expect high interest from artists, the strong interest from the scientific community in working with artists was a pleasant surprise.” FEAT had a number of objectives. Firstly, it was set up to stimulate innovation through cross-disciplinary encounters. Secondly, it wanted to study the impact of the artistic collaboration on researchers. Explaining the third aim, Mr Prem says, “Our interest was also to make project results visible to a wider audience than traditionally is the case, including innovators, research managers, and citizens.” The art-science interactions were monitored through regular interviews during internal workshops, as well as public workshops, one-to-one interviews and through articles. The emergent artworks offered an opportunity to communicate the scientific process and results in engaging and emotionally impactful ways, beyond the traditional confines of scientific publications. An example is British artist Anna Dumitriu who explored biomedicine, through the alteration of women’s clothes which had conformed to the British Government’s Second World War austerity regulations. Holes and stains in the old dress were patched with silk that had had E. coli bacteria grown onto it using chromogenic agar. The artist edited the genomes of the bacteria using the CRISPR gene editing technique to remove an antibiotic resistance gene. This was accompanied by homologous recombination to scarlessly repair the edited break, with a fragment of DNA encoding the phrase “Make Do and Mend.” As Mr Prem relates, “Anna reported how the wartime dress created an opportunity for women, particularly elderly women, to almost instantly develop a connection with the artwork. Such connection may lead to discussions and reflections about the underlying conceptual work of the artist and the scientist.” Providing an interface between research projects and the public Given the growing public interest in science, alongside an ever increasing need to better communicate results, it is likely that policy makers, funding bodies, institutions and programme managers will continue to look for novel ways to create research impact, ultimately increasing the take-up of innovations. The FEAT consortium is continuing its efforts to bring artists and scientists together and intends to expand this by offering not only residencies, but also research positions for artists within FET projects. The team also aim to take engagement further by involving citizens and humanists with scientific research projects through activities like co-creation workshops, hackathons and symposiums. In the meantime, as Mr Prem summarises, “Some of the project pairings are still continuing their collaboration even after the project’s run. Špela Petrič and Miha Turšič for example are still working together with the INTERTWINE supercomputing project. Furthermore, the FEAT artworks are still being exhibited all over the world.” Keywords Artwork, research results, exhibition, art, artist, emerging technology, European paradox, art-sci, innovation, impact, cross-disciplinary
