A Brief History of Fringe Thinkers & How Art Supports the Sciences

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 In 1543, the first printed copy of De revolutionibus was released upon a largely geocentric population, believing Earth to be the center of the Universe. It was a manuscript written by Nicolaus Copernicus, which detailed his heliocentric hypothesis, stating evidence to support the idea that the Earth, as well as the other known planets, revolves around the Sun. There is no doubt that Copernicus would have been severely ridiculed for publishing a document containing such outlandish claims. However, in a relatively convenient fashion, he passed away directly after the first copy of the manuscript was printed. Subsequently, The planned condemnation of the manuscript also happened to get postponed due to the death of Bartolomeo Spina, who was the Catholic Church’s authority in the reviewing and censoring of books. It was not until almost a century later in 1633, that Galileo, who is now considered by many to be the “Father of modern physics, science, and astronomy” (1), was sentenced to live the rest of his life under house arrest for supporting Copernicus’ theories of heliocentrism. Not long after this incident, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek published his observations of microscopic life forms, which were previously not known to exist. He was initially scrutinized and his credibility was tarnished for a number of years until his work was validated. Another century later in 1794, German physicist, Ernst Florens Chladni, fearlessly published a book of his collected data, which explained meteorites to be rocks from outer space. The science community immediately dismissed his book and they must have thought, “Rocks! From outer space!? This man is clippin’ the King’s English!”. He was mocked for ten years before some scientists and chemists decided to actually take a good look at his claims.

What these moments, in the history of scientific discovery, all have in common is that they involved ideas, which were in great opposition to paradigms of the time. They revealed the existence of entirely new worlds and concepts that were seen as too strange and abstract to be believed by popular culture and even the science community during these eras. Science, in its most basic form, is the methodical pursuit of knowledge and ultimate truth. So it seems unusual that today, four hundred years after the persecution of Galileo, that contemporary science still does not support research in areas that linger at the edge of knowledge and human comprehension. This major lack of support for research in areas that could potentially be the most paradigm shattering, is exactly why science needs art. Some research may be considered “too out there” to receive funding or scientists may not want to approach it, fearing it will contaminate their reputation and credibility. When science is unwilling to take the plunge into unknown territory, artists are eager to take a swan dive into the abyss. And when scientists are swimming under mountains of data, obscure theories, and concepts like Hyperelliptic Surfaces and Non Vanishing Harmonic Spinors, artists are ready to take these abstracts and translate them into concrete forms. Lastly, art pulls all of this out of the shadows of the lab and casts it into the public realm, were people in all walks of life may experience it.

One artist, who has become quite a veteran in the exploration of fringe areas, that popular science is unwilling to venture into, is Duncan Laurie. Laurie is an artist and inventor who grew up in Detroit, Michigan during 1950’s and received his M.F.A in sculpture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973. Laurie currently resides in Providence, Road Island and has been exploring semiotics, metaphysics and the relationships between art and subtle energy technologies like Radionics. He operates a studio space for experimental facilitation in a range of fringe science research areas. Most noteworthy of these explorations is his work in the “Sonification of Nature Intelligence”. (2) This involved monitoring the levels of micovoltage and petravoltaic activity of plants and minerals and then transforming this data into sound, in real time, utilizing computers and software such as Ableton Live and Max/MSP. Through the sonification of subtle electrical activity, it was realized that the plants and minerals showed signs of interaction between people and music. These findings were demonstrated in Duncan Laurie’s 2008 show, at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT, titled “Rockstar”. The showing was supported by the following artist statement excerpt, “Rockstar is a short demonstration of how an ordinary piece of granite capable of producing a self-generated petra-voltaic charge can be used to summon a video and sonic representation of considerable visual complexity and sonic appeal. The over riding intent of the work is to illustrate the capacity of Nature, even in one of its most modest forms, i.e. a small piece of rock, to be capable of profound interaction with people and the environment”. (3)

In most cases, popular science would disregard Duncan Laurie’s work as metaphysical pseudoscience and refuse to approach it. Although, on other occasions, areas of research may not be thought of as too far out of bounds to a scientist, rather the government may simply be unwilling to provide funding for the program. This lack of funding for both arts and sciences is all too common in the United States but there have been continuous budget cuts to the arts for well over a decade so artists are used to figuring out how to make things work when the cash isn’t there. This is when science looks to art to do they work for them. An example of this may be observed in Revival Field, a project by North Carolina based artist Mel Chin. Much of Chin’s work focuses on how art can provoke social awareness and responsibility. In Revival Field, Chin was interested in environmental issues of land contamination and the use of hyper accumulators, plants that draw large amounts of heavy metals out from contaminated soil. Chin contacted Rufus L. Chaney, a research scientists in Beltsville, Maryland who had published papers on the potential benefits that could arise from planting hyper accumulators in contaminated soil. However, Chaney stated that the clearing of heavy metals from soil was his real passion but he was stuck working on sewage sludge due to lack of support from the conservative government. (4) It just so happened that Chin was also denied funding for the project by the National Endowment for the Arts despite proposals sent by the Citizen’s Environmental Coalition Education Fund, who greatly supported Chin’s ideas. (5) After dealing with all sorts of financial and legal issues regarding the project, Chin successfully acquired a 60 square foot plot of earth in a landfill in St. Paul Minnesota. He planted six types of plants that were known to be hyper accumulators, in a quadrant like pattern to form the shape of cross hairs, or a metaphorical targeting of the toxic zone. A year later, the artwork had finally created the science and the “heavy metal plants” were removed and handed over to Chaney where he analyzed them and determined the amount and quality of metal pulled in by the plants to be at the same level as commercial ore. This work provided evidence to the science community that proved hyper accumulators to be proficient at removing heavy metals from the soil, something that had only been tested in lab settings but actual field tests, provided in the name of art, were what helped this science research to come full circle.

In addition to exploring realms that contemporary science is not ready to delve into, art also excels at transforming the abstracts of science into more concrete experiential forms. This is probably one of the more obvious ways that art supports science but it is also has the potential to be the most insightful. This is especially true in areas like theoretical physics and neuroscience where traditional ideas of space, time, and the mind begin to unravel into a deep blur. Jonah Lehrer, in an article for the publication Shift: At The Frontiers of Consciousness, states that, “By taking artistic explorations seriously, neuroscientists can better understand the holistic properties they are trying to parse. Before you break something apart, it helps to know how it hangs together. In this sense, the arts are an incredibly rich data set, providing science with a glimpse into its blind spots.”(6) Japanese artist, Mariko Mori is one artist who has been actively approaching these blind spots between areas of science, technology, and spirituality. Several titles of her past work include, Oneness, Birth of a Star, Nirvana, and Connected World, all of which hint at ideas of transcendence and the dissolving of boundaries. Her 2003 work, Wave UFO, is a fantastic feat of architecture, engineering, science, and cutting edge technology. The work evolved after three years of research and involves the monitoring and visual interpretation of participants’ brainwaves through the use of custom designed computer programs and scientific equipment. The structure of the work is “an immense shimmering sculpture, appearing to hover a few feet above the ground. It measures 34 feet long x 17 feet wide x 14 feet tall. This fiberglass shell houses an interior capsule, which viewers enter via a series of resin lily pad shaped steps. Inside Wave UFO, three viewers at a time recline on a Technogel chair - a spongy, comfortable surface - to watch a 7-minute projection on the domed ceiling above.”(7) Once three participants enter Wave UFO, they are fitted with electrodes that monitor their brain activity. Sound, along with a projection on the ceiling, segmented into six sections, respond in real-time to the activity in each of the participants’ brain hemispheres. Functions of the mind, such as math problems or thinking in other languages will instantaneously alter attributes of the visual projection, while the two projected cells above a participant will fuse together, demonstrating when the lobes of the brain come into synchronization. This all-encompassing use of science, engineering, architecture, and technology is completely unprecedented in the world of science alone. A patient in a lab may receive their brainwave read out from an electroencephalograph, in the form of a dozen squiggly lines, which can only be interpreted by the knowledgeable neurologist. However, Wave UFOs immense use of scientific technologies demonstrates real-time feedback and previously unseen connections between people in a way that science has never endeavored to execute. Through new methods of interpreting and visualizing brain activity of multiple individuals simultaneously, Mori’s work sheds light on areas of science that have yet to be realized in the lab environment.

In acknowledging current developments in these areas of science, it is also interesting to note the shape of the sculpture, which participants’ enter, is in the somewhat classic form of what contemporary culture would deem to be an Unidentified Flying Object from outer space. UFOlogists, as they’re called, are largely dismissed by the scientific community and quickly written off as conspiracy theorists. However, there are legitimate researchers out there such as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence program, better known as SETI. In considering NASA’s recent discovery of bacteria in a meteorite from Mars(9), in conjunction with the Vatican’s sparsely publicized, 2008 statement about alien life being compatible with Christianity (10), which seemed to coincide with the UK government publicly releasing over ten years worth of UFO documentation(11); this all may seem quite bizarre but it really suggests that the studies of some serious ufologists, could also benefit from closer inspection by the popular science community.

As seen in Mariko Mori’s work, there are ways to visualize processes of the mind but when it comes to theoretical physics, there is currently no way for a physicist to generate an experience of…lets say, the eleventh dimension or mirror symmetry, which is apparently something that happens between two six dimensional manifolds that may appear to be different from one another but are indeed equivalent when occupying a hidden dimension! Maybe someone like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Guru Dev, or Leonard Nimoy, have experience these six dimensional manifolds but the closest physicists are going to get to actually experiencing their own theories is probably through listening to the sounds of Dopplereffekt. Dopplereffekt is a notoriously secretive electronic music duo, which surfaced in Detroit during the mid 1990’s but now are presumed to be located in Germany. Over the past decade, their compositions have been directly referencing contemporary physics research through the use of album and track titles like, Linear Accelerator, Niobium Resonators, and Hyperelliptic Surfaces. It is now know that some of the imagery used in their album cover art has been licensed from CERN, the world’s largest particle physics lab, located in Geneva, Switzerland. During the fifteen years of their existence, there have been only a few rare instances when Dopplereffekt has appeared in public for live performances, although all black suits and black masks have typically concealed their true identities. The first ever interview of the duo recently appeared in the October 2009 issue of The Wire, magazine. The interviewer writes, “Considering that the concepts of cutting-edge physics, of fleeting subatomic particles and unstable physical states, are entirely alien to our everyday understanding of the world, and necessarily impossible for us to access directly, Dopplereffekt’s fictional renderings of them – ping-ping tones that ricochet around the stereo space, synthetic textures that ghost between high and low registers as if through wormholes – could be the closest thing to experiencing these zones we’re likely to get.” One of the members of the duo, confirmed to be Gerald Donald, comments on their Linear Accelerator album, saying, “the tones and the arrangement are a reflection of the concept that is presented. So, representing a concept about trying to search for new matter on a subatomic scale, in a way that’s the sound that you could possibly hear.” Donald also states that there was a high level of research involved with the production of the Linear Accelerator release and that him and his partner, Micheala To Nhan Le Thi, were in contact with scientific personnel who they met up with for help throughout the production. The sounds of Dopplereffekt may take vast shifts from solid, concrete beats into lush cerebral landscapes but it’s a prime example of an art form giving shape to scientific theories that exist far beyond our general grasp of reality.

Demonstrated by the work of Mel Chin, it is understood that science can directly benefit from art, while it can also benefit more indirectly from the ambitious and highly technical works created by Mariko Mori. The future also seems more hopeful for theorists and scientists working in fringe areas when there are artists like Duncan Laurie and Dopplereffekt, who bring abstract or far-fetched ideas out of the lab and cast them into the public, creating support and greater awareness of sciences that lie at the edge of our understanding. Earlier this year, there was a Vatican Museum exhibit held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s observations, in a way, making up for their grave error during the 17th century.(12) Some ideas may seem too fantastic to be taken as fact by popular culture, especially the ones that challenge major cultural worldviews, like the possibility of the Earth not being the center of the Universe or multiple parallel Universes expanding in 11th Dimensional hyper space. But some day, humans may look back upon Earth and laugh at the days when we were slaves to gravity, space, and time.

Works Cited
(1) Finocchiaro, Maurice A. (Fall 2007). "Book Review—The Person of the Millennium: The Unique Impact of Galileo on World History".
(2) Laurie, Duncan. "EXPERIMENTAL FACILITATION: | Duncan Laurie." Duncan Laurie | Exploring Radionics and subtle energy through Art. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(3) "Art | Duncan Laurie." Duncan Laurie | Exploring Radionics and subtle energy through Art. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(4) "Art:21 . Mel Chin . Interview and Video |." PBS. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(5) "Revival Field: Projection & Procedure | Mel Chin | Walker Art Center |." Collections and Resources. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(6) Lehrer, Jonah. "Why Science Needs Art." Shift: At The Frontiers of Consciousness Sept. 2008: 8-13. Print.
(7) "Mariko Mori «Wave UFO» 2003. | Φrbit° sφaceφlace :: art in the age øf Φrbitizatiøn." Art in the Age of Orbitization - Gotchi Universe | Φrbit° sφaceφlace :: art in the age øf Φrbitizatiøn. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(8) Walmsley, Derek. "Blind Sided." The Wire Oct. 2009: 28-30. Print.
(9) "Bacteria from Mars found inside ancient meteorite - Telegraph." Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(10) "Vatican ponders extraterrestrials | Riazat Butt | World news | guardian.co.uk." Latest news, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(11) "UFO files | Newly released files from." The National Archives. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .
(12) "Vatican to E.T.: Hello, Brother | 80beats | Discover Magazine." Discover Blogs | Discover Magazine. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. .