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The Art of Making Science

Fostering creativity through science and art. A collaborative effort between CSAM and CART, and Montclair State and local middle schools.

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Feature image for The Art of Making Science

Ashwin Vaidya, Mika Munakata and 90 other contributors have created a magazine called The Art of Making Science (can be downloaded on the right). The magazine showcases the artistic elements of science and the scientific elements of art, and represents a collaboration between CSAM and CART, MSU and middle schools, scientists and artists. The project was sponsored by the American Physical Society through an outreach grant. The magazine fulfills our pledge to encourage public awareness of the beauty of science.

About The Art of Making Science

What defines art? What defines science? In fact, is there a clear definition of either? Are they mutually exclusive?

This magazine explores these questions and challenges you to open your eyes to the art of science around you. In this issue, you will read about physics students and performing artists collaborating on producing sustainability-themed short films through sustainable practices. You will view photographs taken by middle school and university students. Through these photographs, you will gain a sense of what the art of science means to others. You will read poetry written by molecular biology students. These poems use artistic means to describe cutting-edge scientific research. You will hear insights from physicist Dr. Jun Zhang and photographer Dr. Klaus Schnitzer about their thoughts on the intersection between art and science.

What lies inside is a part of an on-going project that promotes science-art connections and encourages students (and others) to see the art in science and the science in art. The project was motivated by our science students’ perception of the disconnect between creative and scientific endeavors. All too often, people associate creativity solely with activities such as writing, painting, dancing—well, the arts. We seldom think of creativity or artistry as having a place in the sciences. This project started with a Physics and Art photo exhibit at Montclair State University and has grown to include middle school photo exhibits in local public libraries, a collaboration with a Creative Thinking course offered to the entire university community, the development of a physics course devoted to creativity through a project-based learning approach, a blog, a series of short films, the creation of greeting and postcards, and several publications and presentations describing our efforts. What’s next? We’ll see…

We invite you to contribute to this discussion. Discuss this with others, contribute to our twitter conversation (#artofmakingscience) and write on our blog!

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