The texts of Walter Gropius, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Gyorgy Kepes were all written more than half a century ago, but are still applicable today. Essentially, the three authors share a humanistic view of the world, which they conceive as alienated by the anaytical and atomistic methods of science. For them, the idea of the human being as part of nature is displaced by a technocratic one, which leaves us detached from a more harmonous and holistic form of living.

This diagnosis of modern life is not particularly new. The romanticists had a similar criticism of the industrialized world. But instead of solely reclaiming nature and objecting the existence of science, the author’s visions integrate technological and scientific progress in a humanistic world view. Art and science should not be considered as distinct disciplines.

Certainly, these ideas are more than relevant for a contemporary artist, and I can associate them with my work. I am fascinated by reckoning the world in new ways and to make discoveries about it. It is by doing art that I actually find out something surprising that manifests itself in my work. Particularly, i like Kepes’ thoughts about ,process – seeing’ and ‚thing – seeing’, for i have been fascinated by the notion of ‚duration’.

Science and technology have taken the world apart, before reassembling it in a utilitarian manner, resulting in all forms of man-made artefacts, which are deeply embedded in our modern experience of life. The artist’s role in this society must therefore be to put these technologies into perspective. Art can be a means to examine and explore the discoveries of science in terms of ethical, political, social aspects, and to couple technological invention with artistic invention.

[this text was written for an assignment for the 'The Language of ArtScience' class during my MA study]

References:

+ Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, “Vision in Motion”, Paul Theobald, Chicago, 1947.
+ Gyorgy Kepes (ed.), “The New Landscape in Art and Science”, Paul Theobald, Chicago, 1956
+ Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, “The New Vision”, Wittenborn, Schultz, New York, 1947 (1928).
+ Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, “Malerei, Fotografie, Film”, Florian Kupferberg, Mainz, 1967 (1927).

To me, an equalization of art and science is profoundly problematic. They differ in their fundamental questions, methods and aims. By definition, science has to be provable, verifiable, and in my opinion art can never be verifiable. Art can never be right or wrong in terms of ‚truth’ or ‚evidence’. But it can be right in terms of rising the right questions. While it is the fundamental ground of science to find answers for problems, art never gives answers. I think all art in history that provided answers was either propaganda of those who had instrumentalized it to divest and visualize their view on the world, or stemmed from ignorant artists.

I have a huge respect of a lot of scientific works and methods, and i think that they are sometimes much more poetic and creative than the majority of contemporary artworks. In my opinion it is easier to be a scientist and make work that has the quality of an artpiece, than being an artist and making art that reaches the state of a science. A scientist does have to stay in a scientific methodology to be considered as a scientist, while an artist is free in his ways of working, choosing his medium and topic etc. Sticking to formal rules is more narrowing down the potential of artistic creativity.

But in form of a relation to each other, arts and sciences can mutually enrich each other. The arts and the sciences share common ground. There are also legitimate creative ways of loaning scientific strategies for artists. I would call that concept. I am convinced that all artists who have made outstanding works have somehow had a kind of concept.

The arts and sciences also share their quest for discovies. The two domains can draw inspiration from another. Looking back in history, new discoveries in the sciences have always led to new questions in art.

Definition of a concept
A relation / montage / juxtaposition of parts in which the result is more than the sum of the distinct parts, and a transformation of these happens. Best if self-explanatory.
An idea that has a meaning. A thought that has a consequence. A (new/interesting) way of presenting a (new/interesting) view on something. That is a discovery.
A concept is a way of putting things into a relation so that these things are transformed into a discovery.

[this text was written for an assignment for the 'The Language of ArtScience' class during my MA study]

2007 / A4, 47 pages

This text is available as .pdf in German language only.
download ‘Grand Tour’ .pdf