Japanese Edo Period (17th century) poet Bashō said, "Once one's mind achieves a state of concentration and the space between oneself and the object has disappeared, the essential nature of the object can be perceived."

Late 19th/early 20th century philosopher Henri Bergson described intuition as "...the sympathy by which one is transported into the interior of an object in order to coincide with what there is unique and consequently inexpressible in it."

For the artist, marveling at/identifying with a subject is integral to the process of creation. For a scientist—regardless of whether affection or awe were an initial impetus—experiments must be conducted from a stance of cold detachment. Bias must be strategically avoided, and findings must be objective, repeatable, quantifiable.

It is from a place between art and science that anthropologist/multispecies ethnographer Deborah Bird Rose approached her research. The concept of shimmer, a notion she borrowed from the Aboriginal Australians with whom she lived and worked for several decades, exists in this in-between place. Shimmer is the palpable joy with which fruit bats fly vast distances toward trees about to flower, and the blossoms’ perfectly adapted, sublime attractiveness to bats. While we can study bats and flowers separately by analyzing their fundamental components, we can only imagine what it may feel like to exist as other-than-human being.

As a former biologist and scientific illustrator turned conceptual artist, my interest is in the places where science and art do (and do not) intersect. I am compelled to illuminate, in myriad forms, an underlying paradox: good science must remain objective, while creative pursuits are inherently subjective.

21 Movements is a 7’40” video of water from the Pecos River running through an acequia (irrigation ditch) in Northern New Mexico on different days and at varying times. The rippling, sparkling images reflect flow rate, weather conditions, ground contour, and suspension of particles at a specific time and place. The calls of birds can be heard nearby. In this context, water is not just an inorganic chemical compound…it is a vibrant dynamic process.

The video can be used as a visual score for performance with live musicians.

7'40" sound collages containing the original ambient water sound with accompanying marimba-like tones made from beaver-chewed wood, coyote gourd rattles, bells, and flutes provide alternatives to the original soundscape.

Three 12” square paintings (watercolor and gouache) are studies—scientific illustrations—of image stills derived from the video. While they appear abstract, they are meticulous renderings of moments suspended in time/place.

"...matter as we know it is a small, "quantized" wave-like excitation on top of the background, rather like a tiny ripple on a vast sea." - physicist David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, 1980

ALYCE SANTORO

ALYCE SANTORO