Evolution of Practice

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A Lab + An Artist = An Evolution of Practice.

Begun in January, 2011, this two year project places Natalie Settles' daily practice as an artist alongside the daily activities of Dr. Stephen Tonsor and the researchers in his ecology and evolution lab at the University of Pittsburgh. The project is modeled on the process of evolution—where our different practices, interacting in real space and time, exert a force on each other—in an effort to cause a change in the evolutionary trajectory of our work and thinking.

Instead of focusing from the outset on the creation of specific artworks, or scientific results, or exhibitions of either flavor, we are most interested in setting up a situation in which people from both fields come into regular contact so that, as C.P. Snow would say, "creative chances happen". These creative chances are the cultural equivalent of mutations—those that are fruitful will become culture. This is a social sculpture in which art practice and scientific research come into contact to knock heads and learn to describe the chasm in-between—reshaping the trajectory of each practice, and the mental space of each practitioner. Along the way evidence—physical works (in either art or science), and documents—of this social sculpture will occur.

Artistic practice and perspective stand to offer new insight into problematic areas in scientific research such as reductionist thinking, statistical simplification, perception of negative results, and the pursuit of ideal measurements within the variability of nature. Art also offers a high tolerance for nuance, complexity and paradox. Scientific practice offers clear links between motivations and methods, and is one of the most influential mental constructs in the modern mind—a clearer, more nuanced understanding of these may inform the art process. Additionally, both art and science examine nature and being—they stand to offer informative points of overlap, interesting glimpses of a stereo image, and productive points of dissonance.

Watch Tonsor and Settles talk about this work at the National Academy of Science's DASER:
Part 1 [9min] - Part 2 [7min] - Part 3 [7min]

Learn more about the lab: www.tonsorlab.pitt.edu

This project is supported with funds from the The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and through broader impacts funding to the lab from the National Science Foundation.

This residency collaboration was initiated between Natalie Settles and the Tonsor Lab. No formal program for residency exists with the lab or the University of Pittsburgh. If this type of work interests you, please consider beginning a conversation with an artist or researcher.