Art and…
General Editor: Chris Town
The first premise of the Art and… series is that art matters. By this I mean that
art is not a futile game played by a few cognoscenti in a vacuum. Rather our
assumption in selecting titles for the series is that contemporary art is crucial
to our understanding of, and relationship to, the world in which we live. Often
the first response to art, especially in the popular press, is to stress its seeming
frivolity, its surface shock, rather than trying to draw out the deeper issues at
stake within it. Yet art still has the capacity to challenge and to change us.
Without pasting up slogans, artists have important things to say about the
conditions of our times and, directly or indirectly, they have chosen to take
on some of the biggest issues in the world today. In producing this series
we have deliberately aligned ‘art’ and those perennial issues such as death
and sex which trouble generation after generation. And we have deliberately
sought out particular contemporary issues: scientific advances, advertising
and celebrity. Books published in the Art and… series will be accessible, but
intelligent. Serious and often difficult art need not equate to difficult writing
– rather it demands clarity, and this is the second premise of the series. Above
all Art and… aims to connect art back to the world.
Published and forthcoming:
Art and Advertising Joan Gibbons
Art and Death Chris Townsend
Art and Fame Jean Wainwright
Art and Home Nigel Prince
Art and Invention Jaime Stapleton
Art and Laughter Sheri Klein
Art and Obscenity Kerstin Mey
Art and Science Siân Ede
Art and Sex Gray Watson
Art and Surveillance Denna Jones
Art and War Laura Brandon
Published in 2005 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
In the United States of America and in Canada distributed by
Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St Martin’s Press
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © Siân Ede, 2005
The right of Siân Ede to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by
the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 1 85043 583 9 hardback
EAN 978 1 85043 583 9 hardback
ISBN 1 85043 584 7 paperback
EAN 978 1 85043 584 6 paperback
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress catalog card: available
Typeset in Agfa Rotis by Steve Tribe, Andover
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin
Contents
Introduction: Ambiguities and Singularities 1
I. The Problem with Beauty
1. Everything Is Connected in Life: Beautiful Things in Science 13
2. Disconnections and Asymmetries: The Less than Beautiful in Art 29
II. Evolutionary Perspectives
3. From the Future to the Past: The Evolution of the (Artist’s) Mind 46
4. New Mythologies: Reinventing the Past 59
5. Universal Studios: Scientists Measure Art 79
III. Mind and Body, Body and Mind
6. Sculpted by the World:
Art and Some Concepts from Contemporary Consciousness Studies 101
7. New Bodies for Old: The Art and Science of the Body Elective 133
IV. The Fragile Environment and the Future
8. It’s All Over, Johnny: Art and the Fragile Environment 161
9. Reconnections: A Muted Curiosity 179
Notes 197
Select Bibliography 209
Index 212
Acknowledgments
I must warmly thank Mikhael Essayan, Paula Ridley and all my colleagues
at the Gulbenkian Foundation who, in the Foundation’s long tradition of
risk-taking and pioneering, have allowed me to pursue my interests in the
name of work, especially through its grants programme The Arts and Science,
though I should stress that this book reflects my own views and not those
of the Foundation. I am extremely grateful to many scientists and artists
who have patiently explained things and encouraged me further. Some of
these are named where appropriate in the endnotes but significant ones
include Ken Arnold, Frances Ashcroft, Aosaf Afzal, Paul Bonaventura, A S
Byatt, Christine Darby, Richard Deacon, Jayne Anne Eustace, Richard Gregory,
Christine Kenyon Jones, Janna Levin, Felicity Luard, Mark Lythgoe, Richard
Mankiewicz, Mark Miodownik, Steven Rose, Nicola Triscott and Richard
Wentworth. I must particularly thank my editor, Susan Lawson, Steve Tribe
and all those who have read earlier drafts and tactfully pointed out fallacies
and indiscretions. If I have failed to heed their suggestions the fault is my
own. I am especially indebted to my daughters, Kate and Alice Quine, for
putting up with my obsessions on a daily basis.
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