From Laboratory to Gallery: Transfer of Construction Principles of Scientific Knowledge into Works of Science-Art

Abstract

Science-art is seen as an artistic practice that uses scientific theories, concepts and laboratory equipment as its main tools, and the creative method of artists is based on the principles of scientific experimentation. Using the methods of the sociology of science and technology of B. Latour and S. Woolgar to study science-art, it is found that scientific experimentation becomes the basis (medium) of this direction of contemporary art. Thus, science-art borrows not only material objects of the scientific world, but also ways of constructing scientific knowledge, which, according to B. Latour’s research, are hidden in the specifics of laboratory practices. Key in this case are “recording techniques”, which replace various data, diagrams, samples and materials in the production of scientific knowledge, and which become an argument in academic discussions. For science-art, the analogue of such written documents are curatorial texts and explications of works, which can be placed both directly in the exhibition space and form a complex system of references to various research materials, interviews with scholars, podcasts, etc. These texts and media texts allow us to use them in the exhibition space. These texts and media texts allow the viewer to perceive the context of the artist’s creative experiment and form a specific artistic complex “artobject — text — audience”. Together with laboratory practices, science-art brings the art and mechanics of constructing scientific knowledge into the sphere of art, unwittingly fulfilling popularizing and educational tasks. However, the conceptual complexity of the works and the focus on the process of scientific investigation rather than on the presentation of results bring back to the viewer the doubt of philosophical quest and a critical view of scientific research as basic elements of academic enquiry.