SciArt Magazine - All Issues | Page 10

sion of the music and visuals. Ideally it would be beautiful and sublime, as great artworks are described. In the case of the application for handheld digital devices, one would simply touch the screen and this would activate the next image and sound. In all cases the system could run on autopilot at different speeds creating a heightened sense for the continuous and fluid nature of these synergistic systems. In essence then, through an appealing aesthetic experience, the machine would magnify embodied understandings and memories of the Krebs cycle. Furthermore, by emphasizing the synergistic and synaesthetic potentials of combining sound, image, color, and motion, there is the possibility of stimulating unconscious and latent perceptions that might lead to future “aha moments” in scientists’ minds. And there’s more to science education than instilling facts in minds and inspiring future students. Would the Dance of Life advance the public’s appreciation of science? Through such a project, we could aid in bridging the gap between the two cultures of art and science first elucidated by C.P. Snow almost 60 years ago, an idea that seems to have so much currency in the world of sciart today despite the controversies that swirled around it in the 1960s. Furthermore, is it possible that such an approach could help scientists themselves by training them to think routinely from the inside out rather than outside in? That remains, for me, the ultimate question and one about which this essay makes no claims. Towards concluding then, while most science is still taught through static illustration and rote memorization, it could be better conveyed through visual means, with sound, and in threedimensional motion. This would allow us to cultivate a sensibility for and of knowledge in the mind and the body. Such a project would necessitate scientists and computer engineers to collaborate with artists, designers, and musicians to creat