RAW: Science Week Exhibition 2007

Curated by Erica Seccombe

RAW: 15-25 August, 2007, at Photospace, Photography and Media Arts, ANU School of Art,  Childers Street, ACTON, Canberra, ACT.

Bringing Science to the School of Art!

To celebrate Science Week in 2007, the ANU School of Art hosted an exhibition curated by Erica Seccombe which brings together Researchers in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, ANU.

The exhibition showcases images of research ranging from pure equations describing new technologies, three-dimensional shapes, Microscopic CT images of tiny bubbles, configurations of isotopes, topographical maps of particles to the optical structure of butterfly wings.

While artists don’t necessarily have to use the latest technology to make art, many artists are inspired by scientific concepts that attempt to describe the material structure of the universe and life itself. Artists and scientists have informed each other for centuries and the relationship is well documented, particularly in the last century where concepts of atomic and molecular science can be identified in the work of key artists such as Marcel Duchamp, and Kazimir Malevich and who inspired change and radical thinking in the modern art movement.

The exhibition was curated by Canberra based artist Erica Seccombe, who had an opportunity to work with the researchers in Applied Maths with support from an ACT Government visual arts grant in 2006. Her residency is testament to the legitimate relationship between artists and scientists needing increased support from local and federal government funding for collaborative projects.

Rather than highlighting examples of art resulting from these relationships, Erica felt that this exhibition was an opportunity to showcase images and ideas that have resulted from raw research, which in turn she hopes, will possibly inspire fresh ideas and collaborations between the two disciplines.

‘All of the work in this show is visually and conceptually intriguing and it gives an insight into variety of research undertaken in the Department of Applied Maths at the ANU. These researchers work on a range of experimental and theoretical problems in order to describe or discover the properties, structures and processes of material, often at nano-scale. Advanced technology plays a big part in their research and many of the machines they use they have designed and built within the Department.’

Researchers included in this exhibition (in alphabetical order):

  • Holger Averdunk
  • Anna Carnerup
  • Toen Castles 
  • Vincent Craig 
  • Myfanwy Evans 
  • Christine Henry 
  • Shaun Howard 
  • Anthony Hyde
  • Stephen Hyde 
  • Anthony Jones 
  • Munish Kumar
  • Vanessa Robbins 
  • Tim Sawkins
  • Tim Senden 
  • Adrian P Sheppard 
  • Michael Turner 
  • Peter Wood

Please note that the information on this web page was collated in 2007. Titles and research may have since changed. For more up-to-date information on the Department of Applied Mathematics visit 

http://physics.anu.edu.au/appmaths/