The Art of Innovation

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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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The Art of Innovation: Omnibus 2

How art and science have inspired each other.

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Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth explore how art and science have inspired each other.

In this landmark series, art historian and Director of the Science Museum Ian Blatchford and technology historian and Head of Collections of the Science Museum Tilly Blyth explore the art of invention and the invention of art and reveal the symbiotic relationship between the two. Many feel science takes the magic out of creativity. These programmes show how scientific advance facilitates creativity. And further, how artistic and scientific endeavour are inspired by the same desires and, often, are the result of intimate conversations between good friends. Galileo's painter friend Ludovicio Cigoli paints a maculate moon on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel and what does Galileo see when he looks through his telescope? A maculate moon. The poet Samuel Coleridge and the chemist Humphrey Davy were very close friends. Scientific innovators are creative thinkers. And the creation of art is dependent on technological development, as well as an aesthetic sense. Throughout history, artists and scientists have both desired to make sense of the world around them and change it, 

Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group. 

Image credit: Science Museum Group Collection © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum.

Omnibus 2

BBC Radio 4 - The Art of Innovation, Omnibus 2

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth explore how art and science have inspired each other

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth with their second omnibus edition exploring how art and science have inspired each other in the 19th century's Age of Enthusiasm

Sir Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group, and the Science Museum’s Head of Collections, Dr Tilly Blyth, with their second omnibus edition in which they draw upon key works of art along with objects from the Science Museum Group's collection to explore how art and science have inspired each other in the late 19th century's Age of Enthusiasm

Along the way: science meets art in botanical prints; truths about photography unveiled in the first moon images; chemistry and colour in a textile fashion revolution; vision verses realism in capturing motion; celebrating modernity with the dynamism of speed.


Producer Adrian Washbourne

Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group

Readers: Shaun Mason, Katherine Cusack, Sean Baker.

Music composed by Mark Russell

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The Art of Innovation

Omnibus 2

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