The JRC SciArt project actively investigates the overlapping fields where the arts and sciences operate, their similarities of method and commonalities of approach. The assumption is that after centuries of estrangement, both bodies of knowledge are converging again in a new constitution/constituent of knowledge, freed from the limits inflicted by arbitrary disciplinary codes. This is executed as a JRC project, linking art as well as science to policymaking and hence, to society.
It follows a strict DIY philosophy, based on the understanding that you have to experience the rapprochement between art and science first-hand if you want to understand why and how they are converging again , responding to a crisis of representation that has touched both art and science for a long time.
Every two years, scientists, artists and policymakers meet, explore, dialogue, find out, and, sometimes, disagree. Yet they discover: similarities of intent, method, scope, in their differences of approach. They experiment with methods of questioning and investigation, with concepts of representation of reality. If everything goes well, they connect and develop shared projects. Then, the room fizzes with energy, the artists are inspired by science to develop proposals for novel works of art nurtured by science, which in its turn is inspired by art and policy. The resulting artworks are produced the year after in a common shared endeavour which we call opera, referring to the Latin plural of opus (work).
Just like any good experiment, it is not afraid to fail.
- Adriaan Eeckels, SciArt Project Leader
