VISUALIZING SCIENCE TO BETTER COMMUNICATE IT

In XX Century, Science started to study complex and profound aspects of phenomena, far from the ones we are familiar with (microscopic world, huge masses or velocities, and so on). The relevant results may be very far from what our senses suggest us.
This is obviously a great problem for the comprehension of all the Science produced in the last century, because extra efforts are required to understand something that, very often, is perceived as abstract and counter-intuitive. At least these difficulties arise if one tries to visualize those results.
Since sight is one of the most important sense we use to relate ourselves to the surrounding world, it is clear that we are faced with an important issue. The Digital Technologies make it possible to represent and visualize “modified realities”, “alternative worlds”, i.e. exactly the “real world” as it appears to our senses in uncommon conditions. So we think this is an opportunity we cannot miss.

VIRTUAL LABS AS A MEAN TO BETTER TEACH SCIENCE

As it is already universally recognized, Digital Technologies are an incredibly powerful tool for teaching.
We do not want to stress this point any further, but just want to emphasize that in the case of the teaching of Science they have a particular meaning. Interactivity is the essence of Science: scientists look at Nature, formulate models of it, test it trough experiments, and looking at the results they re-formulate models; an so on: the story starts again! It is a genuine interactive process. So Digital Technologies let us create Virtual Labs, which are closer to the spirit of Science than Text Books. This is also a great resource in an epoch in which books are living a profound crisis, at least among the youngest generations.

THE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AS A MEAN TO EXPLORE THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN SCIENCE & ART

History of Arts and History of Science tell us that Mathematics and Painting have developed along parallel tracks; an analogous pathway is recognizable in other forms of Visual Art (e.g. in Architecture) as well as in Music.
On the common European framework, this parallel evolution can be divided, for exemplification purposes, very schematically into four steps:
a. Classical Art (from the Antiquity to Middle Age) represents the space as it is. Platonic Solids and the Golden Ratio are the prototype of beauty and harmony. The underlying Geometry is Euclidean Geometry, which describes the “ordinary space”.
b. Renaissance Art is dominated by Perspective: the space is not represented as it is, but as it appears. The geometric counterpart is Projective Geometry, which is the mathematical approach to exactly the same problem!
c. Modern Art (XIX Century): the world is represented as it is perceived by the mind. And in Mathematics we have with Riemannian Geometry the dissolution of an absolute space in favour of many private ones.
d. Fractal Art, and even Fractal Architecture, are examples of Art generated starting from mathematical structures.
Nowadays Mathematics intersects transversally all forms of “Cultural Industry”. In relatively recent years this was fully recognized and a number of “fora of discussion” have provided good bases to discuss about these deep interrelationships.

THE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AS A TOOL TO PRODUCE NEW ART

In our days Science in general, and Mathematics in particular, play a direct and explicit role in several forms of Art (visual, plastic and musical). Very well known is, for example, the existence of methods to generate Art and Music by means of computers and electronic devices. From mathematical concepts and scientific scenarios it is possible to extract classical and modern pieces of Art, and to realize environments offering innovative spaces composed by images, sounds, tools for generating new artistic and creative forms. It follows that Mathematics is not only an essential tool for Science and Technology, but also for Humanities and, in particular, for Art. Pushing this analysis a little bit further, we may say that Mathematics gains of Art one of its main reasons of development and change along with time.

THE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND ART AS TOOLS TO PRODUCE NEW SCIENCE

In the past centuries the relation between Art and Science was very strong, but then the two disciplines were separated, and it is only recently that the two are intermingled in new, different ways.
Marvin Minsky points out the importance of artistic representations to better understand scientific concepts: “No matter what one’s purposes, perhaps the most powerful methods of human thought are those that help us find new kinds of representations. Why is this so important? Because each new representation suggests a new way of understanding-and if you understand something only one way, then you scarcely understand it at all. Perhaps this is the way the arts so often precede the flowerings of culture”.
Moreover, Stephen Wilson pushes the concepts even further, demonstrating through a rich variety of examples that “The role of the artist is not only to interpret and spread scientific knowledge, but to be an active partner in determining the direction of research”.
Creatively exploring and understanding interdisciplinary arguments through new technologies and Art may lead to new intuitions in the scientific domain. The issue of programmability or openness (or open toolsets) also represents the possibility of creating new scientific scenarios.