Invisible Vision: Could Science Learn from the Arts

by Sabine E. Wildevuur
Bohn Stafleu Van Loghum, Uitgever, NL, 2009
190 pp., illus., col.   € 69,50
ISBN: 9789031351015.

Reviewed by Stephen Wilson
Conceptual Information Arts, Art Department
San Francisco State University

infoarts@sfsu.edu

Invisible Vision: Could Science Learn from the Arts is an intriguing book that will be of interest to many Leonardo readers. It   was written by Sabine E. Wildevuur.   She is programme manager/ Healthcare at Waag Society in Amsterdam.   (For readers who might not be familiar, the Waag Society is a Dutch cross disciplinary organization that "develops creative technology for social innovation" and "acts as an intermediate between the arts, science and the media.")

Wildevuur's question "Could Science Learn from the Arts" is a critical question relevant to the intersections of art, science, and technology.   There have been many articles and books written in the last few years on the intersections.   Also many organizations, festivals, and arrangements to encourage collaboration have been set up. Artists have leapt to create unprecedented new works inspired by research.   The enthusiasm is building.   Most of it is based on the faith that a techno-cultural society will be enriched by the arts and sciences engaging each other in many ways.

Most of this work, however, focuses on how the arts are enriched.   By attending to the research world, artists are working with areas of inquiry of great importance to the society.   They are bringing new concepts and technologies into the art arena.   However, according to the artists, theoreticians, and policy makers encouraging this work, not only the arts will be enriched. They claim that the research community also be augmented by being introduced to new research agendas, research processes, visualization methods, interpretations, and frameworks for analyzing and communicating research.

The claim is intriguing and makes good sense.   Yet there is significant asymmetry in this corpus of work.   There is much less evidence and analysis   about the impact on the sciences.   Wildevuur's book is a strong first step in this analysis.   Concentrating on medical imaging, which is key to both science and art, she presents an impressive body of material to bear on the questions.

She offers chapters on "Making the Invisible Visible: The Gallery of Medical Imaging;" "WYSIWIG (What you See is What You Get)?," "Visualization and Data Beautification;" "From the 'Art' of Medicine to Art in Medicine;" and "Imaging and Imagination of Science: A New Perspective."   The book is richly illustrated with   historical and contemporary images drawing both from art and science.   She has done a marvelous job of locating provocative images to further her analysis.

A few examples will illustrate her approach.   In the first chapter she develops the idea that art making was intrinsic to the scientific enterprise in the early days of Western medicine/biology.   Scientists could not proceed without careful drawings and models of what they were seeing as they peered inside of bodies.   Artistic craft and vision were essential to furthering the research.   The objects created not only accurately documented observations but also generated great excitement that motivated scientists and also raised new questions that became part of the engine of science.   The "Gallery of Medical Imaging" is an exceptional resource for those studying these topics.

In the "WYSIWIG" chapter she explores the idea that contemporary medical research imaging tools such as MRI and PET scans can not create purely 'objective' images.   For example, the phenomena being scanned often do not have any specific colorization associated with them in nature.   An MRI returns data about the intensity of the spin of hydrogen atoms.   It is up to the scientists and designers of the devices to decide how to map colors to data.   Different mappings emphasize different features of the data.   Wildevuur explores the contribution an artistic sense can add to maximizing researchers' abilities to learn from their data.

The chapter "Imaging and Imagination of Science: A New Perspective" investigates new media technologies being adapted to research-immersive virtual reality and interactive gaming.   For example, immersive VR is seen as opening unprecedented new ways to understand research data.   The viewer wears stereoscopic head tracking goggles and 3D headphones such that they can move through and manipulate a high-fidelity representation of a 3D virtual data world.   They can explore data elements from all angles like they were objects floating in space.   In the VR environment, worlds that are too small, too big, or too abstract are rendered like familiar physical objects.   Wildevuur notes that this way of approaching data does not just make it visually clearer;   it actually may add   new conceptual dimensions for conducting the research.   She poses this work with experimental media as a place the arts can teach the sciences.

The book is a great resource both for its ideas and visuals.   It will add significantly to needed analysis.   It should be noted, however, that it is not a comprehensive answer to the questions.   It is lacking much direct testimonial of scientists whose felt their research had been augmented by art. Also, its focus on visualization means it does not have much to say about some of the other ways artists think they might contribute to science - for example, identification of new research agendas, development of technologies outside of commerce,   and working with non visual aspects of science.   While we can enjoy this book, we must recognize that there is still much work to be done.