Reconciling Science and Art

As a child, I ruined several VHS’s from watching them on and on again: Hercules, Trolls, The Adventures of Peter Rabbit. In fact, I didn’t even remember “The Adventures of Peter Rabbit” until recently when we were having a conversation with my partner about our childhood, and I had to google “what was the name of that rabbit”. I couldn’t stand not remembering, but looking it up also made me find out something I never knew: who is the creator behind “Peter Rabbit”. That conversation and a quick internet search led me to an interesting discovery. The creator of “Peter Rabbit” was a woman, a writer, an artist, a “naturalist scientist”, and a conservationist. I’m talking about Helen Beatrix Potter. But before I tell you more about the artist and scientist that Potter was, let’s talk about the science-art interaction that our society sometimes seems to force us to separate and decide for one over the other.

Myths and more myths

In 1973 neuroscientists published several papers about the brains’ “sections”, where different “activities” are performed, and their connections. Unfortunately, the media popularized it under the erroneous interpretation that said that on an individual level we are either “left-sided” if we are “rational” or “right-sided” if we are “emotional and creative”. As has happened repeatedly, something miscommunicated and this sensational tends to last a long time in society even if it was never even true to begin with. This is one of those cases. For starters, we all have “both halves” of the brain and do not use one more than the other. There’s even more recent research that has tested this hypothesis and we still have not found any evidence whatsoever that one side of the brain dominates over the other. For the majority of the population, our brain has regions of “specialization” but they are in the end all communicating with each other to perform the specific tasks and make us who we are. Personality and personal skills and interests depend on so many factors, but we are all emotional and rational beings at the same time. Many of us have been told at some point in our lives that we have to choose “one” thing, “one” career, “one” path. For example, “you can’t be a scientist and an artist at the same time”. What a lie!

Actually, art has never been apart from science!

We accept without question that Leonardo da Vinci was a polymath and deserves to be in both science books and art history books for the great naturalist and artist he was. Regarding Ernst Haeckel we also accept the many hats he wore as a naturalist and artist, among others. Separated by almost four centuries, none of them are questioned for their “polymathy” in the same way that today many are discouraged from even trying. But that other word they have in common – naturalist – has also been “discouraged”. At what point did we stop using naturalists and switch to scientists? And what does this have to do with art? The word scientist has been in use for less than 2 centuries. The term originated after William Whewell’s proposal in 1840 where he proposed the term “scientist” taking as an analogy the term “artist”. He wanted to differentiate the fields that no longer made sense as “naturalist” or “philosopher” since they had already diversified and specialized enough (although nobody listened to him until a couple of decades later). Perhaps he didn’t intend to merge the concept of “science” with that of “art” (science + artist = scientist), but I find it interesting, almost romantic, that in one way or another they are related in this story.

Science owes a lot to Art (and women)! 

Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717) was a German naturalist and illustrator who revolutionized the world of entomology and ecology through her detailed illustrations and her courage. At that time most naturalists were men and the vast majority studied specimens that they received from collectors that they sent to the “European colonies”. That is, the illustrations and publications of most of these scientists were based on dead and preserved specimens, publishing mostly anatomical descriptions. Merian was not satisfied with this. From a young age, she showed an interest in insects, even raised “silkworms”, and documented in beautiful illustrations the life cycle of many insects going through different types of metamorphosis. We must recall that this was a time when it was still believed that insects, for example, butterflies, appeared by “spontaneous generation” from mud (how crazy was it to think that a caterpillar could become a butterfly!). Merian observed this and left it for us in her beautiful artwork. It was also a time when all these trips by naturalists to the then “European colonies” were usually financed by people and governments with economic interests in the missions they sent out. This was not the case for Merian. Although she obtained authorization from Amsterdam to travel to Suriname, she herself had to finance her trip and did so by selling her botanical illustrations. The most amazing thing about all that she accomplished in Suriname in terms of illustration and science is that she was among the first to add ecology to the illustrations. It was no longer just an anatomical thing. Instead of relying on preserved organisms, she would go and observe and draw organisms in their habitat and their natural behavior. She was even ridiculed when she came back from Suriname to Europe with a drawing of a spider feeding on a bird – but today we know that there are, indeed, spiders that feed on different vertebrates. Merian was not lying or making things up.

Peter Rabbit

Let’s fast forward to 1866, seven years after Darwin published “The Origin of Species” and the year Helen Beatrix Potter was born in England. In a “privileged” situation and family, she actually had a relatively solitary life, receiving what we would today call “homeschooling”, and she found much entertainment and comfort in nature. Her family’s position kept her, fortunately, in houses surrounded by nature. As a child, she also had many pets and loved animals. She documented all this in her watercolors. One of her teachers (governesses) had eight sons and daughters, and when one of them was ill, Potter would send them drawings and stories about the characters in those drawings. One of these characters is this rabbit who accompanied me and so many of us in our childhood: Peter Rabbit. This governess, Annie Moore, was the one who motivated Potter to turn these stories that her children received into children’s books. Potter published a total of 30 books, all inspired by nature. Her watercolors of the world around her also brought her recognition in the field of Mycology. As if her contributions to science and education were not enough, Potter also played an active role in conservation in England. She bought and managed different lands to prevent them from being irreparably transformed by activities that she was sure would destroy nature and traditional land use in those regions. Today, those lands are still protected by the National Trust in Great Britain.

Let’s build more science and art

I am intrigued at what point did we start making this separation between science and art when for centuries they so necessarily coexisted. That necessity is still there. All of us have opened a science textbook and when we don’t understand what a paragraph says we turn to the accompanying diagram to better understand a concept…that diagram is also art. Photography is art. Writing is art. Music is art. An infographic is art. All of this has never been separated from science. The myth that you can’t be more than one thing does more harm than we realize. Thinking that choosing one makes us less in the other has limited and inhibited us from experimenting in these other fields. Beyond inhibiting interest, it also creates emotional conflicts in those of us who identify with science and art but force ourselves to choose one out of fear of this false incompatibility. Art has a lot of value in itself but is also extremely valuable for science, development, and science communication. Let’s go back to encouraging this and stop “overvaluing” science over art, rationality over creativity, and let’s ditch the dangerous “half of the brain” myth.

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There are many artist-scientists today who – despite these stereotypes and myths that still prevail in many societies – are following in the footsteps of Merian, Potter, or innovating in their own way with art and science. Today, on World Art Day, I want to share with you some of my favorite current Latin American #SciArtists, feel free to share yours in the comments!

• Illustration: Arte Pellecer (Insta)
• Illustration and infographics: Esporas SciComm (FB)
• Photography: Andrés Novales Wildlife
• Illustration: Arte Anymantis
• Illustration: Arte Ciencia GT
• Illustration: La Creatura Gt
• Illustration: Watercolor.me.in
• Illustration: Botánicagt
• ¡My photo-gallery!

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