“Asking new questions, new possibilities, looking at old questions from a new angle requires creative imagination and real progress.” Albert Einstein
Art seeks beauty and speaks to emotion; science seeks truth and speaks to reason. This dichotomy is not correct: artists and scientists really participate in observation and experimentation. Among the benefits of integrating art into science, the main one is creativity. A scientist must use the creativity of developing the question that his research will attempt to solve. The scientist must also be creative in designing the process to answer this question. At the same time, science irrigates the field of art. Sculptures, videos, photographs or drawings, the spectator is immersed in an infinite number of sensations.
In 2016, visual artist and Irish musician Alannah Robins opened the doors of a new artistic-scientific laboratory. Interface. The link of these two spaces / territories, the artistic and the other scientific constitute the interface.
In a natural landscape born from the science of dreams, the Connemara National Park, the Interface space allows national and international artists to channel their energy and explore art in contact with scientists.
This new platform in the Inagh Valley, has led a series of unique projects. The premises were built for a salmon hatchery in the late 1980s. Today, it is an incubation of artists that adds to the incubation of scientists. Each artist can use a shared space of 135 m².
In 2008, an Inagh Valley Trust was created, as “Ideas Creation”, comprising a group of interconnected companies whose goal is to provide alternative and responsible solutions to society. For 2 to 6 weeks each artist will be in contact with the scientists. This relationship can inspire them in their artistic practice and make them leave their comfort zone. Science and art come together to improve society through research and creative thinking.
The Interface team is not afraid of challenges. They decided to be part of the adventure Galway, European Capital of Culture 2020. Inspired by a game for children based on rapid oral transmission, artists from 19 European countries will be invited to draw their experience. At each stage, the artist will modify the initial drawing. Changes in history and drawing should reflect and reveal cultural differences and similarities. This large-scale project aims to build bridges between communities and serve to highlight areas that host minority languages and communities at risk.
This project includes a reformulation and reappropriation of certain founding principles: literality, self-referentiality or the importance and relevance of language.
Looking forward