EAGER: Exploring the Intersection of Mathematics, Science and Art

This multifaceted, two-year project will aim to unlock creative possibilities at the intersection of physical and mathematical sciences and the visual arts. It will do so by creating opportunities for collaborations among mathematicians, physicists, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and artists working in diverse media. The program will build on the experience gained in two workshops at the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, UK, in 2017 and 2020, and bring to fruition ideas generated during these events.

The activities will be developed around carefully formulated questions and will be organized utilizing a variety of platforms supportive of cross-disciplinary dialogues. A series of pioneering exhibitions and associated events will be organized in collaboration with art historians and scientists, featuring prominent international artists whose work engages mathematics or physics directly or indirectly.

The program will offer a unique platform for science advocacy and public appreciation of the physical and mathematical sciences and their role in the cultural sphere. In so doing, it will encourage a new generation of scientists to enrich their perspectives, and perhaps steer their careers in new interdisciplinary directions. The art exhibitions and their related events will generate the broadest public interest, which will be combined with a proactive educational component.

The program will also open a range of opportunities for collaboration with schools and for reimagining pre-college education as well as college majors. Furthermore, by targeted outreach it will serve to attract new talent to STEM subjects, particularly from under-represented groups. As an outreach strategy to secondary schools, ready-made lesson plans and modules for teachers will be made available to help inspire career choices of thousands of students worldwide.

The overarching ambition of the project is to expand the scope of traditional areas of applied mathematics and physics, and to stimulate new insights, mathematical approaches, as well as neural and cognitive models to the understanding and analysis of art processes, art objects and their perception. It will also serve to firmly establish an enduring community of scientists working on various topics at the science-art interface.

Beyond invigorating and redefining cross-disciplinary research, the project will inspire new ideas, suggest new research directions and problems, and stimulate advancements in physics, mathematics, and likely neural science as well. For example, liquid instabilities discernable in many paintings have only recently attracted physicists’ attention, while the singularities of solid mechanics manifest in some sculptures, fabric installations, and ceramics, suggest many as yet unexplored problems.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.