Art and Science Briefing Rothamsted Research and Herts Visual Arts
Art and Science Briefing – Rothamsted to Herts Visual Arts Members
Purpose
This document is aimed at members of Herts visual arts and outlines a proposal to secure an art and
science Wellcome Trust Grant. Securing a grant of this nature from the Wellcome Trust will have
significant kudos and will provide Rothamsted Research with a unique opportunity to further
demonstrate its creative qualities and to help us reach new and different audiences.
Action and Timing
You are asked to comment on this proposal by Friday 16 August 2013.
We will need to agree a full proposal by 1 October 2013 to make the submission deadline of 1
November 2013
Introduction
I have put together this document in order to describe the potential we have to work together as
scientists and artists in order to win a Wellcome Trust grant to do this work. I myself am a mix of
these two worlds. I studied biology in university and now I create words, graphics and digital
experiences in the science sphere, here at Rothamsted Research*. [Feel free to visit my website
www.cearacrawshaw.com to see some work I’ve done]
To start, I think it is useful to explore some scientific themes which lend themselves to the
specifications in this grant, if you, the artist are inspired to create based on these themes, we have
something quite concrete to write in our grant proposal and are therefore more likely to be
successful. This is an opportunity to test the waters and see which of you are interested in these
topics which will give us a good idea of if we will proceed in this process.
The idea to get this grant from Wellcome Trust is an exciting prospect for us – we have a remit to the
public to communicate our science as we are primarily funded by the governmental body, the
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Engaging with external
stakeholders like yourselves in such an interesting way is definitely something we would like to take
part in. For you, this is an opportunity to see a research facility, meet scientists, learn about science
and introduce some new themes into your work, developing yourself as an artist.
After I’ve introduced the scientific themes that might be explored in your art, I will highlight some
science media with which you can create art.
*Rothamsted conducts independent scientific research and is the world’s longest running
agricultural research organisation. Established in 1843, we continue to develop innovations that
benefit our health, farming and the environment. We work on all scopes you can imagine – from the
pest invasion dynamics and climate change, to farm ecosystem interactions, to the nutritional value
of a single grain of wheat. The scientific approaches vary widely, but a primary goal underpins it all:
we need to make more food for more people with the same amount of land.
Ceara Crawshaw – Digital Content Manager, Rothamsted Research
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Art and Science Briefing Rothamsted Research and Herts Visual Arts
Scientific Themes
The Wellcome Trust requires that biomedical themes are central to the art being produced. It struck
me that there is a very strong connection between plants and animals on a molecular level. I aim to
give a brief summary of these in the numbered list below:
1. Plants and animals share many of the same biomolecules. Plants are known as biochemical
powerhouses, synthesising very complex molecules independently (they do after all, turn sunlight
and water into energy). Humans however, don’t shine as much in this area, and gain access to these
complex molecules through our diet. We get our core calories from carbohydrates, but things like
vitamins and other compounds made by plants are used for very specific processes in our bodies.
Without the ‘key ingredients’, these processes simply can’t happen. These processes occur at the
cellular and molecular level. Some amazing cellular processes are demonstrated in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJyUtbn0O5Y
2. Universality of our genetics
The genetic code of all of us, animals, plants and everything in between is made of the same
fundamental parts. A series of ‘base pairs’ dictates what proteins to create. These base pairs are
made of amino acids, known by their short form as A, G, C and T [adenosine, guanine, cytosine and
thymine]
The universality of the genetic code accounts for our ability to ‘manually’ change the genetics of
living things like plants. The scientific technique is called genetic modification or transformation. The
technique is not dissimilar from historical breeding done by humans since the inception of
agriculture, only it is much more instantaneous and targeted. The genetic blueprint is not restricted
to one organism or another, so if we can find a beneficial gene from one organism, we can transfer it
into another organism. This shows how similar all living things really are.
Ceara Crawshaw – Digital Content Manager, Rothamsted Research
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Art and Science Briefing Rothamsted Research and Herts Visual Arts
3. Development
Interestingly, when an egg (human) or an ovum (plant) is fertilised, they develop in a similar way.
Human Development
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgT5rUQ9EmQ
Plant Development (fertilisation…)
http://youtu.be/a0stgDwBbN4?t=6m12s
You may notice, there are similar terms used to describe the parts of the plant and the body. There
are many parallels here which can be fully explained if you are interested.
Artistic Media
So far, I’ve written this brief in terms of the scientific themes that can be explored by an artist. Our
Head of Bioimaging Smita Kurup, put forth some great options in terms of the scientific
media/resources you could use to create your art.
1. Our microscopes – we have microscopes in our bioimaging lab that can photograph
extremely small specimens.
These can be printed using our professional grade printers on sizes as wide as an A0
Some examples of scientific images obtained using our microscopes:
Ceara Crawshaw – Digital Content Manager, Rothamsted Research
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Art and Science Briefing Rothamsted Research and Herts Visual Arts
From top left: cross section of a compound eye from green lace wing , the leaf surface deplicting
an oil droplet (top right), a cross section of a leaf (with hairs) (middle left), Mesophyll cells from a
plant leaf showing chlorophyll in red and actin filaments in blue (middle right), a 3d image of an
insect (bottom left), fungal projections (bottom right)
2. Agar gel bacteria.
When we are in the lab and want to isolate and investigate a gene, we use microorganisms
to replicate the gene strand over and over again, they do this in petri dishes. Technically
speaking, these organisms are genetically modified, so they need to be double-sealed but
can be displayed as is.
The creative designs you can make with these agar plates can be quite interesting:
Ceara Crawshaw – Digital Content Manager, Rothamsted Research
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Art and Science Briefing Rothamsted Research and Herts Visual Arts
Some examples from Google images:
We can order agar plates as large as: 140mm or larger and in rectangles or circular shapes.
3. Found? material
We have scientific glassware and all sorts of lab stuff, if you like to create using found
materials, it’s very feasible. If we win this grant we can always order science stuff specifically
for your project as well.
4. Photography
Ceara Crawshaw – Digital Content Manager, Rothamsted Research
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Art and Science Briefing Rothamsted Research and Herts Visual Arts
We have a studio in the Visual Communications Unit (VCU) where we do photo shoots
(people/ things) and time lapse photography (insects, wormeries). We also have a large
array of photos taken in the past, for example, we have been taking aerial photographs of
our field experiments since (at least) 1925 (top left)
In closing
I hope that this brief has given you some idea of the array of artistic options available to you in the
context of this grant (see http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/Fundingschemes/arts-awards/wtx035174.htm for details on the grant)
If we were to win this grant, the money would be allocated to pay for associated costs of creating
this work – raw materials, etc. But also, depending on the size of the grant, it could be rolled out and
publicised. We will be creating a museum on site – and could launch this work in that location
potentially, however if we were to get the maximum amount of the grant, we could exhibit the work
in multiple places.
From speaking with those who have been through this process with the Wellcome Trust before, it
looks like the artist(s) and scientist(s) have one on one time for a certain period, then the artist will
produce something. For example, our colleague worked in a lab at UCL in developmental biology. A
songwriter came and shadowed their lab for a week, then wrote a song depicting the story of a
specific experiment that took place.
Ceara Crawshaw – Digital Content Manager, Rothamsted Research
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Art and Science Briefing Rothamsted Research and Herts Visual Arts
Really, the possibilities are very open and I’ve given a really general overview on the scientific
themes that can be explored. I hope though, that this brief gives you some idea of our work and the
larger context.
If you have questions, please send me an email at: [email protected] and we can
liaise that way, or make an appointment to have a chat on the phone.
Ceara Crawshaw – Digital Content Manager, Rothamsted Research
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