BBC Radio 4 LW

The Art of Innovation

The Art of Innovation: Imagining Matter

Imagining Matter

BBC Radio 4 - The Art of Innovation, Imagining Matter

Ian Blatchford and Tilly Blyth on imaginative roles artists play in conceiving the cosmos

Ian Blatchford and Tilly Blyth end their series in the distant universe, to focus on the imaginative role artists can play in areas exceeding the limits of what we can conceive.

Sir Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum, and the Science Museum’s Head of Collections, Dr Tilly Blyth, conclude their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other. As science has become more theoretical and conceptual, how can art explore scientific thinking in areas that exceed the limits of what we can conceive?

From photomicrographs of Einstein’s chalkboard used during his lecture on the Theory of Relativity , to blowing up a shed and suspending its charred remains around a lightbulb, inspired by the scientific concept of Cold Dark Matter, the imaginative art installations of artist Cornelia Parker are testament to the way artists can suggest ways of thinking about scientific ideas that in themselves   seem abstract and complex.

As Ian and Tilly conclude - from the revelatory light at the centre of Joseph Wright’s Enlightenment painting of the orrery (in Episode 1) to Cornelia Parker’s central cosmological light on what is yet to be known, the ongoing dialogue between science and art is proof they are part of the same rich culture, driven by a curiosity, a creativity and an imagination that is common to both.

Producer Adrian Washbourne

Produced in Partnership with The Science Museum

BBC Radio 4

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

Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Art of Innovation

Imagining Matter

Genres

Series

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4