Chemical Education Today edited by
Book & Media Reviews
Jeffrey Kovac University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-1600
Hyle: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, Volume 9, 2003. Special Issue on Aesthetics and Visualization in Chemistry, Chemistry in Art (a virtual art exhibition on CD-ROM) edited by Tami I. Spector and Joachim Schummer HYLE Publications: Karlsruhe, D-76137 Germany, 2003. http://www.hyle.org. $28 (U.S. individuals) reviewed by Carl P. Fictorie
The past fall, a small, but heavily traveled, hallway in our science building was taken over for a few weeks by the beginning painting class. The first project in the course was to paint a mural, and our department offered this section of hallway for their canvas. As the clients in this process, my physics colleague and I provided the class with a variety of information to use as ideas for their work. We also insisted that the mural include elements that illustrate how chemistry and physics explain physical phenomena in terms of equations, formulas, and models. The result is a hallway with a landscape on one side and a view of the night sky on the other. On the landscape, several features are accompanied by equations from mechanics and electromagnetics that are used in physics to explain the phenomena. On the skyscape, balland-stick molecular models stand in lieu of and alongside constellations. We often see students admiring the work and find that it is a catalyst for conversations, even teachable moments, about the science behind the phenomena. We are quite happy with this work of art. Or is it a work of art? This past fall Hyle published a special issue on “Aesthetics and Visualization in Chemistry”. Having just commissioned this mural, I was interested in seeing what the contributors had to say. In particular, I was curious to learn more about the aesthetic dimension of the visual objects (models, graphics, visuals of orbitals, etc.) While certain elements of the volume were very interesting, others fell short of my hopes. This volume combines two very distinct kinds of work. The text of the journal consists of the typical collection of nine reviewed papers, editorials for the two issues of the volume; four book reviews, and a report. What makes this volume unique is the inclusion of a CD-ROM containing a virtual art exhibition entitled Chemistry in Art. The CD-ROM includes commentary and images of the work of nine artists who submitted this work as part of a juried review, complemented by a curatorial project highlighting the work of five additional artists. Technically, the CD-ROM contains various HTML files that use Java-script to navigate and display JPEG images of the artwork. Any Java-compatible browser should be able to display the material, and was tested successfully on a PC running Windows 2000 and Internet Explorer 6.0 and on a Mac running OS 10 and Internet Explorer 6.0. In addition, the entire contents of the volume, includwww.JCE.DivCHED.org
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ing the art exhibition, are available online at http:// www.hyle.org (accessed Apr 2004), and can be viewed freely by anyone with Internet access. Roald Hoffmann introduces the volume by discussing beauty and pleasure in the context of chemistry, noting that aesthetics plays a role in chemistry, but cautioning that aesthetics is not the only motivating factor in chemistry. Robert Root-Bernstein and Tami Spector discuss how aesthetics can be a motivating factor, Root-Bernstein using a biographical approach for a general interest in chemistry and Spector using the example of HIV protease as a specific instance of chemical phenomena serving an aesthetic need of the chemist. Pierre Laszlo and Joachim Schummer tackle the difficult task of defining, or at least delineating, the domain of chemical aesthetics. Laszlo uses a series of mutually inconsistent, but simultaneously true propositions to argue that there is a unique chemical aesthetic. Schummer, focusing specifically on the products of chemistry—materials, molecules, and models—concludes that these products do not have intrinsic aesthetic value. I imagine this difference in their conclusions will spark an ongoing debate. James Elkins, Barbara Obrist, and David Knight provide contributions that consider aesthetics in the context of alchemy. These papers discuss different aspects of the rich aesthetic nature of alchemy, arguing for a contemporary place for this nature while noting the loss of the aesthetic nature as alchemy transformed into chemistry. Heinz Kretzenbacher discusses a similar demise in metaphorical thinking in the linguistics of chemistry, concluding that such thinking is still necessary. The Virtual Art Exhibition at http://www.hyle.org/art/cia/ index.html (accessed Apr 2004) provides a forum for artists to present works that deal with chemistry. Space does not permit an introduction to each of the artists, so I will review the categorization scheme presented by the editors, as this scheme outlines the varying perspectives used by the artists. The editors note six perspectives: the contrast of natural and synthetic materials; use of chemical transformations as a means to new phenomena; use of chemical transformation as performance art; juxtaposing laboratory equipment and other materials as a method to suggest new meaning; analysis of the impact of chemistry on society; and analysis of the aesthetics of chemistry as a theoretical exercise. What seems to be missing from this exhibition is the role aesthetics plays in the visualization, the mental pictures that chemists use to understand and explain chemical phenomena. In advising the novice painters on the mural, this was a point I wanted the work to emphasize. The landscape and skyscape are representations of real settings, but they were overlaid with features, or annotations, that are essentially theoretical abstractions. In working with these budding artists there was a tension between our desire to have a useful teaching mural (a graphic) and their desire to create a purely artistic mural (a painting). Perhaps the distinction lies in the realization that chemists are largely practical realists who use
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Book & Media Reviews visualization as a representation of chemical objects with a Ge concern for technical accuracy while artists seem to be more concerned with cultural issues and the symbolic meaning of chemical phenomena. Nonetheless this volume will help to further the dialog within and between the chemical and art communities. While readers will find an interesting collection of materials in this volume, not everyone will be satisfied. As with most topics in the philosophy of chemistry, chemical aesthetics is young, which, coupled with divergent general theories of aesthetics,
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leads to very tentative conclusions about the nature of the relationship between chemistry and art. So is our scientific mural a work of art? I think it is. It dresses up this hallway, invites reflective contemplation about the subject matter, and encourages viewers to connect physical phenomena with scientific theory. Carl P. Fictorie is in the Department of Chemistry, Dordt College, 498 4th Ave. NE, Sioux Center, IA 51250-1697;
[email protected].
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