At the Interface:Science and Art
2015 North East Area Study Days at the Bar Convent, York
Guy Rooker. Wednesday March 25th
Leonardo: his life, scientific studies, and anatomical drawings. Guy comes to NADFAS not from the arts world, but from the world of science in general, and surgery in particular. For a surgeon the basis of safe and successful operations is a sound knowledge of anatomy. His talks explore the delineation of our anatomical knowledge through the world of art, and specifically the remarkable contribution made to our understanding of the subject by Leonardo da Vinci.
Kevin Karney. Wednesday July 1st
How time has been told through the ages. Throughout civilisation,mankind has used the rhythms of nature (the cycles of sun, stars and moon, or the vibrations of the atom) to tellwhenthings should happen. All kinds of other things (the flowing of water, the burning of wax, or the falling of sand) have been used to tellhow longthings should take. The social context of who needed to tell the time, the science employed, and the accuracy required, have varied dramatically over history. But one constant and significant feature has been our perception of the transience of our own lives. This appears to have resulted in two things: firstly, time telling devices have always been produced with exceptional craftsmanship and beauty, and secondly, whilst poets understand time, philosophers have struggled...
Sally Hoban. Wednesday September 30th
The art and science of the Lunar Society. The Lunar Society of Birmingham, whose members included Matthew Boulton, JamesWatt, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestly and their friend Josiah Wedgwood, were both artists and scientists. Their legacy of experimentation in the late 18thand early 19th centuries helped give us the modern industrial world we know today. This study day discusses the relationship between art and science in the Lunar Circle, with examples drawn from subjects including painting and drawing, and Matthew Boulton’s silver. It also discusses the virtually unknown women connected with the Lunar Circle, including Elizabeth Stockdale Wilkinson (1799 – 1871), who was involved in early photography in Birmingham, and the poet Anna Seward (1747 – 1809).