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.

Mystical Substance / Untitled / Dark Matter