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The Art of Innovation

The Art of Innovation: Polaroid Perceptions

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Polaroid Perceptions

BBC Radio 4 - The Art of Innovation, Polaroid Perceptions

Ian Blatchford and Tilly Blyth on shaping artistic landscapes through Polaroid snapshots

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth on the influence of Polaroid's instant snapshot in exploring human colour perception and new art forms creating moments in space and time

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth continue their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other with a focus on the Polaroid snapshot. 

Edwin Land’s invention of near instantaneous photographs without the need for a darkroom, opened up an exciting new chapter of artistic expression and turned the snapshot into a way of exploring human perception.

As Tilly reveals, Land’s pioneering research lab at Polaroid was a convergence of art and technology. It led to new insights into how we as humans perceive coloured objects under many different conditions.

Land’s experimentation closely paralleled artist David Hockney’s foray into Polaroid photography in the early 1980’s His “Sun on a Pool Los Angeles” is a composite of 77 Polaroid snaps from different close up positions of the same scene. As Ian illustrates, Hockney set out to manipulate time and space in an attempt to turn a scene captured instantaneously by a camera, into one which more realistically reflects how we see in real life.

Producer Adrian Washbourne

Produced in Partnership with The Science Museum Group

Image reproduced permission of David Hockney Studios

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Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

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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