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Visualizing science: Steve Miller

October 20th, 2007 at 07:41pm cicada

Protein #324, 2003
enamel, silk-screen on paper
Steve Miller

The protein-inspired art of Steve Miller in turn inspires Visualizing Science: Image-making in the Constitution of Scientific Knowledge, a cool-sounding symposium to be held next Wednesday, October 24, 2007, at Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University.

Miller’s strongest work is reminiscent of Japanese brush painting or Hubble photographs: darkly tangible, stylized forms floating in luminous space. But other pieces, like “Protein #330,” rely on the intrigue of the incomprehensible. What can that scribbled notation mean to the audience? Yes, it’s imposing a certain quantitative context on the protein’s inscrutable, cloud-like form, inviting reflection on the tension between the unlabeled natural artifact and the scientist’s interpretation of it. But I have no idea what it means. Nor would it matter if it was mathematically nonsensical; no one would notice. Not sure how I feel about that.

Protein #330, 2003
silk-screen on paper
Steve Miller

Steve Miller’s work

Via the indispensible Biomedicine on Display (bookmark it!)

Entry Filed under: Education, Science, Science in culture & policy, Artists & Art, Biology

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