Art and science

Einstein thought, "If an equation doesn't look beautiful, there must be something wrong with this theory." "Real science and real music need the same thinking."

French writer Flaubert said that science and art always meet at the top of the mountain. Ancient Greek artists endowed their works of art with harmony of proportional beauty according to the law of numbers.

The golden ratio is the cornerstone of western classical aesthetics. In the Renaissance, artists concretized it into scientific principles and realistic skills, such as light and shadow, focus perspective, human anatomy and so on. From Leonardo da Vinci's many mechanical invention manuscripts, we can see the shadow of the perfect combination of science and art.

Whether it is the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) educational concept advocated in the field of science education, or many attempts to combine art and technology in the field of art, they are all looking for more possibilities of intersection and integration in the same source.

First, the relationship between humanities and science

As early as the sixth century BC, the Pythagorean school of ancient Greece put forward the idea that "beauty is harmony" and applied these principles to architecture, sculpture, painting, music and other arts.

The Renaissance liberated the idea imprisoned by religion, which was not limited to humanities and culture, but involved several aspects in the field of ideology and culture. It consists of humanism movement, religious reform movement and new science movement, all of which are permeated with rationalism and restore human dignity through rationalism.

During this period, many ideological and academic masters emerged, who fully demonstrated their versatility in the fields of science and humanities, and their achievements in cross-cultural creation played a role in combining science and humanities.

In this regard, many names can be mentioned, such as Leon Batista Alberti, verrocchio, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and so on.

Leonardo da Vinci, in particular, is not only good at all kinds of arts, but also studies all kinds of knowledge. As can be seen from his manuscript, his observation and research range is very wide, including almost all fields of humanities and science.

He is not only a famous painter, but also a sculptor, engineer, architect, physicist, biologist and philosopher. In every subject, he reached the peak at that time and was recognized as the most outstanding artist and scientist in Italy during the Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci is the best candidate to combine science and art, but he is not the first person to combine science and art, nor is he the last person. Li Zhengdao is one of the scientists.

Professor Li Zhengdao is a physicist, but he also likes history, poetry, painting, music and other culture and arts very much, especially the traditional culture and arts in China.

He actively advocates the combination of science and art. Since 1987, he has cooperated with artists for many times to create works of art, held seminars on "Science and Art" and published a large-scale album of "Science and Art".

Starting from 1987, China Hi-Tech Center holds an international scientific academic conference every year, which not only attracts world-class Chinese and foreign scientists and young scholars from China, but also invites painters to paint according to the scientific theme of the conference.

Today, the integration of science and art is the requirement of the times and the demand of human development. It is not only widely carried out at a higher level, but also gradually becomes a "public topic".

Second, the influence of artistic imagination and aesthetic requirements on science.

The essence of scientific research is to reveal the mysteries of nature. Nature itself has some basic characteristics, such as simplicity, beauty, symmetry and harmony, which are inevitably reflected in its physical laws (laws or formulas).

Scientific research is actually to reveal the beauty of nature, and the highest level of scientific research will certainly develop to the artistic level.

Science can show beauty at different levels, especially on the basis of physical essence and mathematics. An equation can show the beauty of simple symmetry, and the golden number is associated with the beautiful quintic symmetry (such as the five-pointed star).

When you see the golden number, you can also say that you see the fractal structure of continued fraction and radical (flower fractal and dendritic fractal respectively), so that you can see the beautiful fractal pattern in your mind.

A nonlinear equation can be related to water waves in ditches or even stormy waves in the sea.

On the other hand, from an artistic point of view, nature is actually the most generous artist. Many artists are actually drawing artistic nutrition from the original nature and expressing the beauty of nature.

Li Zhengdao said: "Science and art are inseparable, just like two sides of the same coin. Their similarity is based on human creativity. The goal they pursue is the universality of truth. "

Art, such as poetry, painting, sculpture, music, etc. Arouse everyone's conscious or subconscious feelings in innovative ways. The more precious the emotion, the stronger the arousal, the more common the response, and the better the art.

Science, such as astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and so on. , a new and accurate abstraction of natural phenomena. The simpler the abstract exposition of scientists, the wider the application and the deeper the scientific creation.

Although natural phenomena do not depend on scientists, the abstraction and generalization of nature is the crystallization of human wisdom, which is the same as the creation of artists.

The universality pursued by scientists is a concrete abstraction and generalization, which is applicable to all natural phenomena, and its truth is rooted in the external world outside scientists.

The universal truth pursued by artists is also external, which is rooted in the whole mankind and has no time and space boundaries.

Scientists are studying the universal laws of nature and pursuing the truth of nature. Artists are also pursuing the truth of nature at some moments, but more often, they are exploring the beauty of nature. Goethe said: "Artists are creating the second nature, and what they reveal is the truth of art."

Zong Bing, a painter in the Southern Dynasties, said: "The landscape is beautiful in form" and "the quality is interesting". Artistic beauty and artistic spiritual interest are the manifestations of nature and Tao. "Mei Dao" is to express the nature of Tao and nature in the form of artistic beauty, which is the highest essence of art!

Cai Yuanpei strongly advocated aesthetic education in the early Republic of China. He believes that beauty is everywhere in light and color in physics, atomic symbol list in chemistry, images and shapes of animals and plants in biology, and geometric shapes in mathematics. He believes that aesthetic education in schools can be carried out not only in art music classes, but also in natural science classes.

When exploring the laws of nature, natural scientists are sometimes inspired by the perceptual beauty of natural things such as image, shape, symmetry, diversity and unity, and changes in light and color, thus producing new scientific discoveries.

Therefore, Qian Xuesen thinks that in addition to logical thinking and image thinking, there is also an inspirational thinking that scientists and artists also need. Image thinking and inspiration thinking moisten scientists' rational thinking, in other words, the art and beauty at some moments inspire and help scientists' creative activities to some extent.

On the other hand, thinking in images in artistic creation mainly depends on feelings, appearances, emotions, imagination and intuition, but rational thinking and logical understanding often help artists to determine the theme spirit and make it progress smoothly in composition, plot arrangement of grand scenes and long stories, and complex space handling in painting.

Liang Qichao, in his speech "Art and Science" in the National Beiping Art College in the early 1920s, believed that modern western culture evolved from the Renaissance, and the foundation of modern culture was science. On the surface, art (called art by Liang Qichao) is the product of emotion, and science is the product of reason. These two things seem to be incompatible, but they are essentially two brothers, which complement each other.

Liang Qichao believes that the mother of art and science is "Mrs. Nature", and the key of art lies in "viewing nature". The reason why art can produce science comes from the concept of "truth, goodness and beauty". "The combination of enthusiasm and cold brain is the main condition for creating first-class works of art. On the other hand, isn't it also the main condition for the establishment of science?"

Liang Qichao also predicted that there would be "scientific art" and "artistic science" in China in the future, and pinned it on the leaders of the National Art College, hoping that they would create scientific art ... (Liang Qichao's Art and Science, see Art and Science Reader edited by Dai Wusan and Liu Bing, Shanghai Jiaotong University Press, 2008).

Leonardo da vinci, an artist and scientist in the Renaissance, pointed out that "painting is indeed a science and the legitimate daughter of nature." According to Leonardo da Vinci's understanding, science is the discussion of nature. Painting is also a means to explore nature.

He thinks that all our knowledge comes from feeling, and vision is the most important sensory organ for us to acquire knowledge of nature, while painting is visual art, so it is closer to science than other kinds of art. A real science should have two basic conditions: one is based on perceptual experience, and the other is as rigorous as mathematics. Painting art has these two conditions.

"Painting science studies all the colors of objects, and studies the shape and distance of objects specified on the surface, including the fuzzy degree of objects caused by the increase of distance. This science is the mother of perspective (line of sight science). " (On Da Vinci's Painting, edited by Dai Mian, People's Fine Arts Publishing House, 1979)

During the Renaissance, Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci combined painting perspective with basic mathematics geometry, and discovered the laws of focus perspective, line perspective and air perspective. And through the study of color, we found the rule of color brightness and the three-dimensional sense of objects on the plane, which became the basis of scientific representation of things in western realistic oil paintings.

Scientists and artists may discuss some natural phenomena together, such as the study of color and light.

Newton's greatest contribution to optics is that he put forward the color theory. He proved through experiments that sunlight, that is, white light, is composed of various colors of light. He decomposed an incident white light into rainbow-like ribbons through a prism. Newton endowed his light particles with the property of "suddenly becoming easy to see through and suddenly becoming easy to reflect".

The artist Goethe wrote three volumes of monographs to discuss the color problem. The first volume, 65 1 page, used nearly 300 pages to criticize Newton's theory. The second volume, with a total of 757 pages, gives a detailed historical review of various color theories from Pythagoras to Newton. The third volume includes several color charts.

Goethe's color theory is non-mathematical and subjective, and Goethe emphasizes that color belongs to psychological effect.

Heisenberg said: "Goethe's color theory has built a harmonious order for us. In this order, even the smallest detail has the content of life, which includes the whole category of objective and subjective expression of color. "

Third, the promotion of scientific discovery and scientific and technological progress to the development of art.

In the integration of art and science, the combination of technology and art is closer. The development of science and technology provides new means of expression for art and expands the space of expression for art.

For example, in the 6th century BC, Pythagoras School applied the latest technology to architecture and music, applied the research on the relationship between the length and thickness of strings and melody to the manufacture of musical instruments, and applied the research on the relationship between beauty and a certain proportion to architecture and music.

The bronze chime unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Sui County, Hubei Province, China, adopted the very advanced melody technology, smelting and casting technology at that time.

The pyramids in ancient Egypt were built on the premise that mathematics, astronomy and physics were highly developed at that time. The development of western oil painting can not be separated from perspective, anatomy, chromatics and optics.

The study of space and time is not only a field for scientists to explore, but also a subject for artists to experiment.

The absolute concept of time and space, represented by Newton, regards time and space as two coexisting and absolutely separated entities independent of matter.

Einstein's special theory of relativity founded in 1905 pointed out that the measurement of time and space is relative, and there are inertial systems with different speeds, so it is impossible to have absolutely the same time scale and space scale.

Since the classical concept of time and space in natural science is challenged, can't the concept of time and space in painting be reconsidered? In this scientific atmosphere, Apollinaire and Picasso often talk about the new word "the fourth space" in the studio.

Picasso wanted to explore the expression of time and space in painting. Influenced by Einstein's "fourth space" theory, Picasso founded cubism. Re-explore the painting space, decompose the form in the picture, reorganize the image, and replace the natural image with the imaginary image, thus realizing a great revolution in painting.

1909, futurism, represented by Italian artists such as Bochum and Cara, introduced the concept of time into static painting and sculpture, taking power, speed, mechanics and movement as the theme in painting, expressing the new characteristics brought by machinery in industrial society, and creating works such as Mechanics of Automobile. Picasso, Bochum and Kara explored space and time through painting.

With the rapid development of modern science and technology, artistic style has more room for development. Such as: movies, television, fashion, industrial modeling design, electro-acoustic music, etc.

The combination of modern science and technology and art has greatly enriched the forms of artistic expression and expanded the space of artistic expression. For example, computer painting, computer design architecture, electronic music, computer animation and so on.

Teacher Liang Yan of China University of Science and Technology filmed a series of videos on "Beautiful Chemistry", which explained the beauty of science from an artistic point of view, and made more children fall in love with chemistry in the initial stage of science.

Some artists cooperate with scientists and musicians to adapt meteorological data into music scores for performances, and use the artistic method of data visualization to appeal to people to pay attention to climate change.

4. A perfect example of the combination of art and science

1 animal specimen art

Japanese artist Iori Yagami Tomita especially appreciates the "art of death". He combined chemistry with art to present the wonderful skeleton structure of marine life. He made a large number of specimens of marine life, including fish, turtles and seahorses. Apply chemicals to the body and then dry it. Chemicals can decompose the protein and muscles of a corpse, leaving only collagen, thus completely preserving the biological bone structure.

2 illustrations of plants

Hundreds of years ago, plant illustration was an effective way for people to record plants with healing characteristics. Detailed illustrations of herbs and other plants enable botanists and doctors to identify plant species with medicinal value. It is reported that the oldest preserved plant illustration so far is the Manuscript of Wendeng, and its history can be traced back to 5 12 AD.

3 Climate science

Marco Tedekos, an associate professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at City University of new york, noticed the beauty of climate science, such as floods, cloud structures and melting ice. In order to make climate science more attractive, he and his colleague * * * set up a research project called "Polarseeds" to present the diversified art of climate science through video, music and video.

4 Earth Art

The Earth Resources Satellite of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States has taken a large number of photos of the Earth, providing important data for the land use and natural resources utilization of the Earth. This satellite photographed mountains, canyons, islands, forests and grasslands.

5 Leonardo da Vinci

Italian painter, architect, engineer, sculptor and inventor Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated by anatomy. He is very interested in human body structure. He once claimed that he had dissected more than 30 bodies and painted many human organs and limbs.

6 Fibonacci art

Math lovers all know that Fibonacci sequence is an important sequence. The first 9-digit sequence is: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 2 1. Fibonacci sequence has direct applications in modern physics, quasicrystal structure, chemistry and other fields. To scientists' surprise, Fibonacci sequence structures also exist in nature, such as sunflowers, galaxies, honeycomb structures and hurricanes.

7 micro art

Martin Augeri, a scientific photographer, took microscopic photos of pollen, bacteria, insects and fungi with a magnification of over 500,000 times. His photos are often published on the National Geographic Channel. He said, "I hope more people can understand the smallest creature in the world. They have a perfect body structure and deserve our attention! "

8 bioluminescence art

Bioluminescent art works use natural luminescent bacteria to form intricate pattern structures, which can only be seen in dim light. As shown in the figure, these colorful bioluminescent bacteria exist in the marine environment. The researchers put these bioluminescent bacteria in Petri dishes and glow in dim light.

Al Brecht Diu Lei is a German painter, printmaker and theorist. He was the greatest German artist in the Nordic Renaissance. His woodcut prints and watercolors show accurate animal anatomy. As shown in the picture, this is his print work Rhino, which was created in18th century. This work has a clear and accurate proportion and structure of rhinoceros limbs.

10 acoustic statue

Luke jerram, a British artist, can combine science and art skillfully. As shown in the picture, this is a "sonic statue" made by jerram. Joel Hanson, a popular science writer, said: "Invisible sound waves are vividly presented in the form of 3D statues, giving people a brand-new experience!"