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The Art of Innovation

The Art of Innovation: Omnibus 3

Omnibus 3

BBC Radio 4 - The Art of Innovation, Omnibus 3

Ian Blatchford and Tilly Blyth on how art and science have inspired each other

Ian Blatchford and Tilly Blyth with an omnibus edition exploring how art and science have inspired each other in the early 20th century's Age of Ambivilance

Sir Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group, and the Science Museum’s Head of Collections, Dr Tilly Blyth, with their third 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 early 20th century's growing Age of Ambivalence.

Along the way: artists' satirical and furious response to the horrors of mechanised warfare; the clock as a friend and enemy in the industrial workplace; seeking a new language for science and art from mathematical models; the art of the possible as supersonic speeds become reality; turning the atom benign in the Cold War era at the 1951 Festival of Britain. 

 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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How art and science have inspired each other.

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.

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