Where Science Meets Art

Julie’s Bicycle in collaboration with the Technology Strategy Board has produced a Special Edition of the Green Futures publication.

‘Where Science Meets Art’ talks to the collaborators and creatives who are leading the way, and asks how we can make it a masterpiece. Gone are the days where it made sense to ask someone if they were more interested in science or the arts. As more of us put our minds to solutions for a sustainable world, the disciplines separated out in classrooms and campuses are merging. Whatever your expertise, we share a calling: create, innovate, experiment, build a vision, tell the story.

It’s an urgent calling. As the planet heads for 3°C, our cities, homes and lifestyles need to be reimagined in truly radical ways. We need perspectives Picasso would baulk at. We need textiles and building blocks that don’t cost the climate. Sculptors have been ‘finding’ form in stone, wood, bronze or ice for millennia. Now, as labs culture new materials, artists are lining up to mould and strain and hammer and stretch their potential.

Art shapes the way we experience our world. It’s not just about the background: the pictures on the wall, the music on the radio. It’s about what we expect and what we accept; how we behave and how we relate to each other; what we value and keep, and what we invest in and create.

This isn’t niche thinking. Big brands are looking to the arts to help them change their culture and operations. Universities are collaborating with artists to take research to a new level. Technologists are finding inspiration in performance arts; audiences are mixing paints and tracks with product designers.