A recurring topic among those interested in art, science, and technology is the value of transdisciplinary approaches. In my view, those who gravitate to this area (or related areas such as interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and integrative studies) see broad-based thinking both as a creative tool and a means to innovatively address some of the complex issues of our world today. Among these people are some who value disciplinary boundaries and believe that those who can operationally span their narrow parameters have the best foundation for conceptualizing how to innovate and see beyond known territory. The tendency to cast Leonardo da Vinci in the role of the “historical archetype” of this type of person, the “Renaissance Man,” has perhaps allowed us to lose sight of the many other original thinkers who exemplify what creative minds can accomplish when paired with a far-ranging, inventive imagination.

Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience by Michel Meulders offers a reminder that we can identify a number of figures in the past who worked across disciplines. The book introduces us to Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894), trained by Johannes Müller, and one of the most accomplished physiologists of his time. A key nineteenth century polymath, Helmholtz used a versatile toolbox for his co-discovery of the principle of the conservation of energy, his invention of several instruments (e.g. the ophthalmoscope, the ophthalmometer and the telestereoscope), and his many significant contributions to physics, physiology, physical theory, philosophy of science and mathematics, and aesthetic thought.

How Helmholtz brought his varied interests and education into his laboratory is one thread that runs through the book. We learn that during his formative years he was exposed to philosophy and strongly influenced by his father, a German teacher who cultivated an interest in science and philosophy. Although Hermann was strongly attracted to the natural sciences, his father urged him toward medicine because funding for medical education was available. After training in physiology, Helmholtz worked in many areas outside of medicine over the years. Indeed, a defining feature of Helmholtz’s work was the way he branched out in many fields as he sought to translate his biological insights through an empirical and mathematical framework. In this, he was aided by his keen observational abilities and his passion for experimentation.

I began this book expecting a biography that would offer a chronology of Helmholtz’ work, along with contextual material to help the reader place his work within the nineteenth century world. The author instead offers a quite variegated picture that made it somewhat difficult for me to see the man as a whole as I read. The challenge in ferreting out Helmholtz’ story was due to the amount of material the author included that contextualizes Helmholtz in terms of the people and ideas that influenced him. For example, the chapter on “Goethe and His Vision of Nature” is 13 pages and does not mention Helmholtz. It seems its purpose is to provide a framework for where Helmholtz’ views of color differ from those of Goethe, which is discussed eight pages into the next chapter. Long “asides” such as this are quite distracting and make it difficult to understand what the author wanted the reader to take away from the book. What was clear is that the author has great enthusiasm for the accomplishments of Helmholtz. In addition to the Goethe chapter, there are chapters on “Johannes Müller: “Man of Iron” and “Conclusion: The Wisdom of Alexander von Humboldt.” It is hard to say if this format was intentional or if the chapters began as stand alone articles and were later pieced together into this book.

The strongest chapters are the two that cover Helmholtz’ work on hearing and acoustics and the one chapter that summarizes Helmholtz’s theory of visual perception. Helmholtz’s introduction in his Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music says that this work aimed to bring together work in physical and physiological acoustics, music and aesthetics that had remained unreasonably far apart. The author explains that Helmholtz’s early musical education and cultivation of musical activities throughout his life provided a foundation as well as a motivation for the experiments with sound. We also learn that this scientist invented the “Helmholtz resonator” to identify the various frequencies or “tones” present in musical chords and other sounds containing by multiple tones. The bell was among the instruments Helmholtz studied. His attraction to this instrument says quite a bit about he approached his work overall. Helmholtz was drawn to the bell because it is difficult to cast a good bell, for one needs to obtain an equal thickness around the whole circumference. If the thickness is different at two different places, there is a spot on the edge of the bell that vibrates to give a certain tone, while the neighboring spot produces a different tone and the intermediate zone between the two produced both tones at the same time. Helmholtz wanted to understand the unpleasant dissonance of this phenomenon. Ultimately, he demonstrated that difference and combination (or sum) tones existed objectively, outside the ear. (Although, ironically, bells are characterized by anharmonic relationships among their tones, but they still sound good.)

Another disappointment with the presentation was that the captions for a number of illustrations were far too abbreviated. Many basically said what the image is and provided virtually no information about how the depicted equipment (or whatever) works. Because this was not always the case, particularly in the chapter on music where the captions were full-bodied descriptions, the captions, too, led me to wonder if the chapters were originally written as stand-alone articles.

All in all, once I adjusted to the book “as a collage” and absorbed it on its own terms, I found it an informative read. It developed Helmholtz sufficiently to send me looking for more details. When I read further, I realized that all the basics were covered. It was only because the book covered the territory in an unusual fashion that it was harder for me to see the geography, so to speak.

Finally, based on the title of the book, Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience, I thought I would find many references to contemporary neuroscience. This was not the case. Basically, at the end the book acknowledges Helmholtz’s contributions to contemporary investigations, saying:

“Neuroscience and cognitive science, as we call them today, owe numerous research domains to [Helmholtz}, as well as attitudes. No phenomenon of nature, life, or environment left his encyclopedic mind indifferent. He believed he could reconcile science and philosophy, notably by thinking that Kant’s a priori had in the last resort a physiological basis that would one day doubtless be discovered.” (p. 215)

	The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World by David Deutsch Reviewed by Richard Kade
	Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing by Paul Dourish and Genevieve Bell Reviewed by John Vines
	Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience by Michel Meulders; edited and translated by Laurence Garey Reviewed by Amy Ione
	Switching Codes: Thinking Through Digital Technology in the Humanities and the Arts by T. Bartscherer & R. Coover, Editors Reviewed by Rob Harle
	Through The Looking Glass by Francisco López Reviewed by Eugene Thacker

Also:

L|R|Q – Leonardo Reviews Quarterly
The fourth issue of Leonardo Reviews Quarterly is available to download as a PDF.

Please click here to start the download.

EBOS 2011 is presented by ProArts Gallery in Oakland, CA.  This review was prepared for Leonardo Reviews .

After reviewing the 7^th Creativity and Cognition Conference [1], held in Berkeley in 2009, two thoughts kept reverberating in my mind as time passed.  First, I thought about the many reviews I have written about art and events in the Bay Area and wondered why I have never looked at the vibrant art produced here.  I also thought quite a bit about Cathy Treadaway’s paper, mentioned in that review, in which she outlined her approach to integrating newer technologies into her handcrafted art. To put these thoughts to rest, I decided to review the annual East Bay Pro Arts Exhibition (EBOS) in the Bay Area this year.  This 2-weekend event highlights the work of over 400 artists located in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of whom open their studios to the public.  While perhaps not as well known outside of the Bay Area as other locally-based projects such as Burning Man, which has achieved global recognition, EBOS does offer a noteworthy mix of innovative art, groundbreaking museum and gallery exhibitions, live concerts, and great food.

The focal point of the show is the ProArts gallery in downtown Oakland, where each artist can include a small example of his or her work.  The resulting collage is remarkably strong and immediately highlights the talent in the community.  Perhaps the most creative contribution was one that showed the degree to which art, science, and technology is now a normal part of any exhibition space.  In this case, Raines Cohen mounted a large postcard for the exhibition inside a locked box.  Just before the opening reception, he unlocked the box and placed an iPad inside that was running a video presentation of his work and photographs throughout the opening reception.  At this point it became clear that the postcard was a clever placeholder, and the purpose of the locked box was to use it for the video invitation that he ran during the opening, which was intended to entice people to visit his space. [I assume that the postcard was returned to the locked box after the opening reception.]

The purpose of the ProArts gallery space is to help art enthusiasts devise their visitation plan.  I must admit that although I mapped out a plan from the gallery presentation, once I got going, I found it hard to stay on track.  I was lured into spaces by posters on the street and comments from artists I met as I visited with them in their studios and other visitors I encountered along the way. I am not sure if I recommend this approach because I missed studios of interest based on their gallery pieces.  Still, I was glad I took advantage of those who tried to draw an audience to their space because I found some gems this way.

The first day of the four-day event I traveled around with a colleague.  We picked as one of our first stops a building where several prominent Bay Area artists (Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, William Theophilus Brown, and Paul Wonner) had had their studios there in the 1950s.  Together with David Park, who had a studio in downtown Berkeley, Bischoff and Diebenkorn founded the Bay Area Figurative style. Moreover, it was in this space, in the mid-1950s, that Diebenkorn created his famous ”Berkeley Series” of abstract landscapes in this space.

As it turned out, one of the particularly robust studios I visited, Marty McCutcheon’s, is now located in this building.  McCutcheon’s space was set up to be a gallery exhibition of his work and was one of the high points of the day.  The studio consisted of a large sculpture/installation around the walls that was uniformly whitewashed (though with bits of unpainted colors showing through).  The all-white installation was put together with found and discarded objects (a chair, a television, old paint brushes, etc.) constructed in a flattened format resembling a synthetic cubist painting.  While my companion saw shades of Diebenkorn in the asymmetrical geometry (suggesting some resonance with where the studio space was located), I thought more about Louise Nevelson’s unique assemblages made from cast-off wood and other materials that she, too, transformed into works of art. Like Nevelson’s work, I think the monochromatic color added a mysterious quality that made the work alluring.  The installation also incorporated a video projection that complemented the assemblage and truly elevated the presentation because in the video McCutcheon showed his hands drawing and working.  These clips, which were pieced together, were even more fascinating once I realized that I could see him create some of the whited out pages of text that were a part of the assemblage.  This juxtaposition brought the work of William Kentridge to mind, whose creative practice includes drawing a bit, shooting the drawing, and then drawing and shooting some more.

At first I was surprised that McCucheon’s space was set up to highlight his work and that the “working studio” aspect of his area was so invisible.  But, as it turned out, many of the folks I visited did not highlight their working space. This was a bit disappointing.  For example, there were many locations where artists grouped together to increase foot traffic, one of the largest being at a former Barnes and Noble space that was transformed into an art fair, with 43 artists displaying their work.  This was a mixed bag.  In some ways the setup made the “studio” aspect of Open Studio seemed quite remote.  Yet, I did find both intriguing work and many artists who integrated art, science, and technology themes into their projects.

Maryly Snow, for example, brought to mind that while digital art is still a relatively recent phenomenon, artists have used art, science and technology for a long time in various forms (e.g., printmaking and photography).  She was quite representative of the way artists now mix and match, often using printmaking as a technique to create works that offer a commentary on scientific and mathematical ideas.  Briefly, she works with “appropriated” images, finding ways to reassemble them and make them her own.  She had several bubble chamber images on display.  Her web page says these are from the Lawrence Berkeley Labs.  She also showed her Art for Physicists portfolio and photocollages, which are quite unlike those of David Hockney.  Whereas he keeps the multiple pieces in the presentation, Snow assembles the collage with tape and then rephotographs it so that it becomes “whole” again.

Of the places I visited, I thought Benny Alba’s studio/gallery was perhaps the best mix in terms of combining a number of artists with a “studio” feel.  Benny greets visitors as they walk in, making you feel like a guest in her home.  The studio itself, with 11 artists inside, felt quite cohesive and had the kind of community feel that was missing at the Barnes and Noble site.   The work of Vicky Mei Chen, a printmaker, stood out.  She produced small, hand-made artist books (in slipcases) exploring the relationship between urban landscape and the entities that occupy the space. Another artist of note here was Jennifer Downey, a painter whose work centers on nature and how humans interact with nature.

Although I found that traveling to so many studios has its ups and downs, the ups are more prevalent than the downs.  There are also both rewards and challenges.  Visiting one multiple space environment, with a maze-like interior, was annoying because it was surprisingly difficult to find the artists that I wanted to see.  Thinking about it later, this layout probably offered the artists who worked there more privacy.  Cluttered locations showed “the artist” more but, in some case, this meant there was not enough room for visitors (because the space was so taken up by the art). It is harder to visit artists who work in spaces that are not shared with others.  [Of those I visited I particularly liked Barbara Maricle’s, who displayed some mixed media prints that included old architectural blueprints and other materials.]

One of the fun things about this type of event is that going here and there exposes things that are ordinarily invisible.  Ironically, one building with an open studio introduced me to an exciting work that was just “sitting there” in the lobby.  Called “The Tule Wave,” the piece is a large-scale kinetic sculpture by Berkeley-born Reuben Margolin. It consists of a small electric motor located overhead that rotates a pulley, which in turn imparts movement to 241 Dacron strings. The strings then pass through brass grommets in a tension grid and descend to support 1140 sections of Tule Reed and more than 3000 brass beads.  I urge readers to visit “http://www.reubenmargolin.com/waves/Tule/” for an image of the piece and more information about how it was made. Installed at the David Brower Center in Berkeley in 2010, it is in a location I walk by daily. Yet, I had never been inside and had no idea that this extraordinary artwork was housed there.  With so much attention given to museums, exhibitions and art-designated spaces, I wonder how many similar gems we miss as we live our lives.  In this case, I find it hard to describe the dynamic and overall presence of this hanging work.

While I found the organization of the ProArts event extraordinary overall, there were a few things that were less successful in my view. The website itself is a valuable tool in planning one’s itinerary, so I can understand why many of the artists decided to display multiple images, but several of these links were broken. I also would have liked an option to save my itinerary in the online gallery.

Still, all in all, East Bay Pro Arts Open Studio confirmed my sense that art, science, and technology is quite evident across the board these days. This event, which mixes well-established masters with younger artists, highlighted many aspects of creativity and also allowed many artists to show what goes on inside their working space. It was particularly in the studios of the artists who are using what are often considered more traditional tools that I realized (from conversations and their libraries) that creative people have a knack for integrating the old and the new.

[1] Leonardo Reviews: posted December 2009 http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/dec2009/everydaycreativity.ione.php

Source: East Bay Open Studios Preview Exhibition and East Bay Open Studios 2011
Reviewed by Amy Ione

A Women’s Berlin: Building the Modern City
by Despina Stratigakos
Reviewed by Zainub Verjee

Contemporary Art in Eastern Europe
by Nikos Kotsopoulos, Editor
Reviewed by Florence Martellini

Grafik Dynamo
by Kate Armstrong and Michael Tippett, with essay by Joseph Tabbi
Reviewed by Dene Grigar

Lab Coats in Hollywood: Science, Scientists and Cinema
by David A. Kirby
and
From IBM to MGM: Cinema at the Dawn of the Digital Age
by Andrew Utterson
Reviewed by Mike Leggett

Le Sel de la Semaine: Henry Miller
by Fernand Seguin
and
Poison Woman: Figuring Female Transgression in Modern Japanese Culture
by Christine L. Marran
and
The Rule of Mars: Readings on the Origins. History and Impact of Patriarchy
by Cristina Biaggi, Editor
Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg

Making Art History: A Changing Discipline and Its Institutions
by Elizabeth C. Mansfield, Editor
Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg

Theories of International Politics and Zombies
by Daniel W. Drezner
Reviewed by Anna B.Creagh

Water, Place, & Equity
by John M. Whiteley, Helen Ingram & Richard Warren Perry, Editors
Reviewed by Zainub Verjee

Zones of Re-membering: Time, Memory, and (un)Consciousness
by Don Gifford; D. E. Morse, Editor
Reviewed by Rob Harle

Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond Buttons
by Christian Ulrik Andersen & Soren Pold, Editors
Reviewed by Ellen Pearlman

The Filming of Modern Life. European Avant-Garde Film of the 1920s
by Malcolm Turvey
Reviewed by Jan Baetens

In Praise of Copying
by Marcus Boon
Reviewed by Amy Ione

Lumo: One Woman’s Struggle to Heal in a Nation Beset by War
by Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Nelson Walker III
Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg

Paris 1919: Inside The Peace Talks That Changed The World
by Paul Cowan
Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg

Octopus Time: Bellmer Painting
by Herbert Lust
Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher

A Touch of Blossom: John Singer Sargent and the Queer Flora of Fin-de-Siècle Art
by Alison Syme
Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher

U-n-f-o-l-d: A Cultural Response to Climate Change
Museum of Contemporary Photography and Glass Curtain Gallery
Reviewed by Elizabeth Straughan, Deborah Dixon and Harriet Hawkins

The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction
Arthur B. Evans, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger, Rob Latham, and Carol McGuirk, Editors
Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara

New Materials Received – May 2011
Compiled by Martyn Woodward

Archeology of Violence, New Edition
<http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/feb2011/clastres_graubard.php>
by Pierre Clastres; trans. Jeanine Herman and Ashley Lebner
Reviewed by Allan Graubard

Autobiography of Mark Twain. The Complete and Authoritative Edition, Volume 1 <http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/feb2011/kade_smith.php>
by Harriet Elinor Smith et al, editors
Reviewed by Richard Kade

BioArt and the Vitality of Media
<http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/feb2011/mitchell_rincon.php>
by Robert E. Mitchell
Reviewed by Daniel López del Rincón

Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents
<http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/feb2011/hung_pearlman.php>
by Wu Hung, editor; with the assistance of Peggy Wang
Reviewed by Ellen Pearlman

Dans l’atelier de l’art Experiences Cognitives (The Art Workshop – Cognitive Experiments) <http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/feb2011/borillo_martellini.php>
by Mario Borillo
Reviewed by Florence Martellini

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) <http://leonardo.info/reviews/sept2010/san_kuras.php>
by Ellen Kuras, Director; Thavisouk Phrasavath, Co-Director
Reviewed by Abhijit Sen

Electronic Elsewheres: Media, Technology, and the Experience of Social Space <http://leonardo.info/reviews/sept2010/nino_berry.php>
by Chris Berry, Soyoung Kim, and Lynn Spigel, Editors
Reviewed by Martha Patricia Nino

Fleeing from Absence: Four Cross-Disciplinary Essays on Time, Its Nature and Its Interpretations <http://leonardo.info/reviews/sept2010/ox_ast.php>
by Olga Ast and Jula Druk
Reviewed by Jack Ox

Inside the Death Drive: Excess and Apocalypse in the World of the Chapman Brothers (Tate Liverpool Critical Forum, Vol. 11) <http://leonardo.info/reviews/sept2010/harle_harris.php>
by Jonathan Harris (ed.)
Reviewed by Rob Harle

La Scomparsa dell’Orologio Universale: Peter Watkins e I Mass Media Audiovisivi (The  Disappearance of The Universal Clock : Peter Watkins and Audio Visual Mass Media) <http://leonardo.info/reviews/sept2010/pennisi_duarte.php>
by German A. Duarte
Reviewed by Giuseppe Pennisi

Now Is the Time:  Art & Theory in the 21st Century <http://leonardo.info/reviews/sept2010/verstegen_vesters.php>
by Christel Vesters (coordinating editor), Jelle Bouwhuis, Ingrid Commandeur, Gijs Frieling, Margriet Schavemaker, Domeniek Ruyters, Editors
Reviewed by Ian Verstegen

Mapping the Moving Image. Gesture, Thought and Cinema circa 1900 <http://leonardo.info/reviews/sept2010/baetens_valiaho.php>
by Pasi Väliaho
Reviewed by Jan Baetens

Music and Cyberliberties <http://leonardo.info/reviews/sept2010/pennisi_burkart.php>
by Patrick Burkart
Reviewed by Giuseppe Pennisi

Out Of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness <http://leonardo.info/reviews/sept2010/vines_noe.php>
by Alva Noë
Reviewed by John Vines

Popular Music of Vietnam: The Politics of Remembering, the Economics of Forgetting <http://leonardo.info/reviews/sept2010/zilberg_olsen.php>
by Dale A.Olsen
Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg