Many scientists embrace the artistic medium to infuse new ideas into their scientific works. With science-art collaborations, both artists and scientists challenge their ways of thinking as well as the process of artistic and scientific inquiry. Can art hold a mirror to science? Can it help frame and answer uncomfortable questions about science: its practice and its impact on society? Do artistic practices inform science? In short, does art aid evidence?

Nature India’s blog series ‘SciArt Scribbles’ will try to answer some of these questions through the works of some brilliant Indian scientists and artists working at this novel intersection that offers limitless possibilities. You can follow this online conversation with #SciArtscribbles .

Public engagement of science opens up interesting opportunities for scientists and artists to join hands to impact societal opinions and behaviours. Sarah Iqbal, public engagement officer at the biomedical research funding body Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, finds herself at this exciting crossroad very often. Trained as a biomedical scientist, she says together the disciplines open many more doors than they do in isolation.

Sarah Iqbal

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man’s life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.” – Albert Einstein.

For as far long as one can go back in history, the sciences and the arts and those engaged in them have informed each other’s practices, shaping societies. But in recent times, active exchange between the two fields has progressively waned. Yet, practitioners of the arts and sciences have more in common than is apparent. Both are curious about the world around them – they might use different tools to explore the magnificent cosmos we inhabit but their processes are strikingly alike.

These were some of my early observations after facilitating the first art and science programme ‘The Undivided Mind’ through the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance (or India Alliance) at Delhi-based Khoj International Artists’ Association. The programme had contemporary art practitioners interact with life scientists, technologists, social scientists and the general public to produce art work that reflected on terrestrial (and extra-terrestrial) scientific principles and various human conditions.

An open studio ‘The Undivided Mind’, where artists shared their ideas and science-inspired artwork with the public.{credit}Sarah Iqbal{/credit}

Having been trained as a scientist, I am aware of the strengths and limitations of the scientific process but what pleasantly surprised me was how I could fundamentally connect to the artist’s process of enquiry and see the world through their creative lens. It left me asking the question – why have artists and scientists and the fields drifted apart?

“Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

 Educationist Ashish Jaiswal observes in his recent book “Fluid” that our inflexibility of learning from other disciplines is a deficiency of our current education system that restricts knowledge within boundaries of disciplines. This reinforces the “two-culture” divide of art and science. Jaiswal gently goads the reader to reflect on whether an artist can only pursue art and a scientist only science – can or should they cross over to other disciplines to enhance their line of questioning?

The answer is an obvious and resounding yes, and the author illustrates this through examples of famous scientists, artists, philosophers and technologists who have straddled multiple disciples with natural ease and a sense of wonder.

Crossing over, blending in

“Objective” science and “subjective” art complement each other naturally. Sci-art projects have become increasingly popular world over, with more scientists opening their labs (and themselves) to the art world, and artists keen to discover the scientific world through their line of reasoning. This has given rise to broadly three types of art and science engagements in the recent times:

• Artists employing scientific processes to produce art – popularly known as ‘bioart’
• Scientists/science communicators using art to simplify and communicate science
• Artists and scientists exchanging ideas, collectively framing questions and exploring the unknown

The first two types of engagement are the most common forms of collaboration. Art is most often used by the scientific community to convey the complexity of their research and to raise the public’s awareness of scientific and health issues. On the other hand, artists have embraced the possibility of experimenting in or outside the laboratory with biological materials and technology that can provide new direction to their work. This cross-disciplinary engagement has benefits for both.

Science empowers, so does art

During a public engagement project in Chandigarh, Punjab, we used traditional Indian truck art to understand and reflect on the agrarian and health crisis in India. A young participating truck artist shared with me, quite emotionally, that she never realised that her art had the power to influence the public and raise awareness on important health matters. Another truck artist researching on the topic said it had encouraged him to think more critically about how their actions impact their health and that of others, and to change behaviours.

Sample of truck art used to spread awareness on the link between agriculture, food and nutrition.{credit}Sarah Iqbal{/credit}

Similar sentiments were shared by a young girl in Hyderabad, where we encouraged school children to develop stories around the problem of drug-resistant infections in India through comics. “I always thought comics were to tell jokes. I never knew I could develop my own comics and use them to talk about important issues.”

Young school students using comics to talk about drug-resistant infections with their peers. {credit}Sarah Iqbal{/credit}

An engineer-turned-artist who collaborated with us on a multi-country programme to raise awareness on mental health felt it enabled her to delve deeper into this important subject. The rigour of research and understanding the science behind mental health had transformed their beliefs on the subject. These examples demonstrate that artists don’t merely act as translators of complex science and health issues but get new perspectives on their practice and can act as ambassadors for the scientific community.

Giving back

During the Khoj experiment that brought scientists and artists together, it was interesting to observe how science is shaping contemporary artistic practice. There is an ongoing discussion in the arts and sciences about whether art can also inform science. Can scientists feed this engagement back into their research?

In 2014, India Alliance funded a project to explore this question. “Bodystorm hits Bangalore” was a unique creative collaboration between dancers and scientists, where each of them helped inform the other’s practice – the scientist got three-dimensional insights into their scientific problem through the physicality of dance whereas the dancers improvised on scientific structures to create new art. The wares of this unique collaboration were open to the public.

Dancers from a group called  Black Label Movement present complex scientific concepts to a non-specialist audience at a public event in Bangalore. {credit}Poornima Kartik{/credit}

The real beneficiaries of this type of engagement are the scientists and artists themselves. A longer and sustained engagement between them is needed to realise the true potential of these exchanges and their impact on society. We need more formal spaces, where scientist can explore open-ended experimentation with arts, and where artists can learn from and shape the culture of science as also participate in scientifically-informed creative activism.

It isn’t essential to define what art and science collaborations should look like – let them unravel, and let each be unique. My experience with such collaborations has made me realise that these dialogues are important, not just to popularise science or to provide new media for artists to convey their ideas but also to help both artists and scientists challenge their own way of thinking. And to imbibe a level of sophistication in their enquiry that can be understood by all.

[Sarah Iqbal can be contacted at sarahiqbal@indiaalliance.org. She tweets from @SarahHyder]

Suggested reading:

SciArt scribbles: The mellifluous gene editor

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SciArt scribbles: Technology to aid dance

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Artists on science: scientists on art

Many scientists embrace the artistic medium to infuse new ideas into their scientific works. With science-art collaborations, both artists and scientists challenge their ways of thinking as well as the process of artistic and scientific inquiry. Can art hold a mirror to science? Can it help frame and answer uncomfortable questions about science: its practice and its impact on society? Do artistic practices inform science? In short, does art aid evidence?

Nature India’s blog series ‘SciArt Scribbles’ will try to answer some of these questions through the works of some brilliant Indian scientists and artists working at this novel intersection that offers limitless possibilities. You can follow this online conversation with #SciArtscribbles .

When Debojyoti Chakraborty isn’t engrossed in gene editing experiments in his lab, you will find him rehearsing for his next sitar recital. A senior scientist at the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in New Delhi, Debojyoti has a parallel career as a performing sitarist, trained in the Maihar school of music. The musician scientist tells us how CRISPR Cas9 and raga megh beautifully balance his creative energies.

Debojyoti Chakraborty{credit}Ashish Gupta{/credit}

Very recently, we lost one of the doyens of Indian classical music, the surbahar and sitar player Shrimati Annapurna Devi. In times when terms like ‘legend’ and ‘irreplaceable’ are used indiscriminately, Annapurna Devi is perhaps one of those artists whose lifelong devotion to music will compel us to remember her as a ‘musician’s musician’ long after she is gone.

Music, like science, is a journey of a lifetime and for the few fortunate people like me who have just begun to scratch the surface of both, they are a constant source of satisfaction and gratification.

I have been learning and playing the sitar for more than 24 years, way longer than I have been in science as my main profession. Perhaps the excitement of pursuing two fields that are seemingly infinite in scope and yet extremely rewarding for the creative mind is what still drives me to pick up my instrument for practice after a long day in the lab. Needless to say, science on most occasions for a young group leader is an extremely frustrating venture — juggling grants, research and administration. Music is thus not only a source of comfort but also a medium to vent out the nervous energy, a constant companion of the scientist.

The sitar is a seven stringed instrument (with thirteen additional sympathetic strings) that requires several parts of the body to work in unison: the vigorous right hand movements that evoke the sound, the gliding left hand that pulls on the main string and above all the continuous brain stimuli which channelise inputs from both into the shape and form of a raga or the melodic interpretation of a mood.

[Watch Debojyoti perform raga Khamaj at the Indian Embassy in Berlin, accompanied by Pt. Debaprasad Chakraborty and Ashis Paul: https://youtu.be/om5bR9eNj3M]

In many ways, there is a lot of consonance between the job of a researcher and a musician — both involve multitasking at various levels. Thus marrying music and science has traditionally not been difficult for serious enthusiasts.

For me, the initial phase of learning was marked by the general unwillingness to practice but half-hourly candy bribes from my father made sure I complied. It was only much later, when I really began to like the sounds I produced, that self-motivation crept in and I could spend long hours without feeling any stress. Several years down the line during my PhD, the belief that with persistence my project will take shape helped me wade through those doctoral blues. Music thus teaches life lessons that come handy in various situations.

For a musician, listening to good music is of paramount importance. Just like a toddler learns new words by continuously repeating them, listening to various improvisations and compositions on the same melodic structure or percussive element allows a classical musician to develop a refined, original and personal style. A lifelong devotee of masters like Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pt. Nikhil Banerjee and Ustad Vilayat Khan, I grew up buying records and hearing them every night. I attended nightlong music conferences and tried to emulate everything about the artists — from their stage mannerisms to the color of their kurtas! This helped when I later became a performer myself. After all, an artist is a package of creativity and every aspect of that package needs to be perfectly aligned to deliver a memorable performance.

Similarly, in my scientific pursuits I have been fortunate to meet scholars and laureates who have shaped our understanding of the natural sciences. In most of these meetings, I felt that humility, devotion and a child-like excitement for knowledge are hallmarks of musical or scientific greats, regardless of their age or nationality. Once I spent an hour with the outstanding dance guru Pt. Birju Maharaj, listening to compositions that he learnt forty years ago. The glee in his eyes as he recounted the tunes told me how much he loved his art form and how much pleasure he still derived. It was no different from the expressions of Edmond Fisher, the Nobel laureate, whom I had the good fortune of meeting in Lindau.

My training in both music and science has given me access to the international and truly plural nature of both fields. At the Technical University of Dresden, I have worked as a guest researcher in music, trying to model Indian ragas mathematically with musician scientists from Europe. We still tour as the musical group Dhun. Our compositions universal, an example being the interpretation of a melody by Rabindranath Tagore that has the influence of the Scottish highlands and is set to notes of raga Gaud Sarang.

The time I spent in learning from European musicians has been enriching and filled with great camaraderie. This is in stark contrast to the somber and introspective nature of pure classical performances that I give. Musical associations are creative exercises that build long distance bonds just like scientific collaborations. At least on one occasion, it had also helped me finance my stay in a foreign country when transitioning between jobs.

My area of research is focused on developing better gene editing strategies using CRISPR Cas9 to target monogenic disorders like sickle cell anemia in Indian patients. The field of genome editing is fast paced and of late, balancing research, fatherhood and music has been challenging. However the support and encouragement of close family members and friends keeps me motivated to play and perform.

Being in science makes me pursue music for its aesthetic beauty and not purely for financial reasons. This is a refreshing thought to wake up everyday to since music, like most professions, comes with cut throat competition that often undermines its inherent beauty and soulful character. Being in science also makes me work with exceptional colleagues who appreciate creative art and share similar passion.

It has been an invigorating journey so far.

[Debojyoti Chakraborty can be contacted at debojyoti.chakraborty@igib.in]

Suggested reading:

SciArt scribbles: The molecule painter

SciArt scribbles: Coupling creation and analysis with collages

SciArt scribbles: Technology to aid dance

SciArt scribbles: Music to tackle PhD blues

SciArt scribbles: Playing science out

Artists on science: scientists on art