[-empyre-] working with scientists

[trish adams]

Hello All,

I would just like to come back to Lucette's question:

 when you develop an art work, and if you work in
collaboration with scientists, how much do you discuss in details the
methodological intricacies of their work? In other words, how much you feel the
scientist is critical of his own methodological approach? Critical in
a good way,
meaning approaching scientific questions with a critical spirit..

In response to this, from my experience, the scientists with whom i
have worked are usually pretty wide-ranging in their interrogations or
i don't think they would want to engage with an artist in the first
place! This continuing discussion is one of the things that makes the
process very appealing to me. They will take the time to explain the
issues surrounding their research, respond to my often very left-field
questions and also to teach me techniques so that i can try things for
myself. I have the impression that the interdisciplinary and
unconventional model that we develop as we go along is refreshing to
my scientific collaborators in the window of time they are able to
devote to working with an artist between their grant deadlines & and
other practical research constraints.

My current AIR with the Visual & Sensory Neuroscience group is
different from all my previous collaborations in that a) I had no
fixed project in mind when i started the residency & b) I am working
in an exploratory way with a cross-section of researcher collaborators
in the fields of olfaction, navigation & cognition. My aim is to gain
an informed overview in these areas, which will feed into the end
product i.e. the artwork.

with reference to on-going posts about neuroimaging, although i have
already made a DVD using digital image data captured at 25fps - i
admit i couldn't resist having access to these high-end cameras! - the
images that i use and the participatory responses that i hope to
engender in the immersive installations that evolve from this
residency may, in this instance, not resemble much of the actual
scientific data - rather they are likely to be my abstractions from
the whole process that i am currently undergoing.

regards, Trish
-- 
Dr. Trish Adams Artist-in-Residence Visual & Sensory Neuroscience
Group, http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/page=52793
Queensland Brain Institute
The University of Queensland.
http://mellifera.cc http:www.wavewriter.net