Martin Kemp
© Martin Kemp
10 May 2011 - Structures and Intuitions in Science and Art from Leonardo to Now -
by Martin Kemp FBA, Emeritus Professor in the History of Art at Trinity College. Oxford University.
Taking it on Trust; from Leonardo to Now
When Renaissance artists pioneered techniques of naturalistic representation they created a tool not only for portraying "nature" but of also giving high levels of visual conviction to invented creatures, such as dragons. These techniques were taken over in books of fauna and flora to give an eye-witness quality to the depicted animals or plants. The representations invite out trust. However, the sword is double-edged, and can be used to provide convincing pictures of non-existent things. The viewer cannot of course check everything first hand and we have to exercise trust. How many of us have seen a duck-billed platypus? The underlying issue of naturalism and trust is at least as urgent in the modern era of digital and digitally-manipulated images. The case studies will range from Leonardo and Dürer to the present day.
Certain kinds of art and science originate in the intuiting of deep structures that lie behind appearance. Some of the structures are predominantly static, relying upon the fundamental forms of geometry; some are the result of process, like folding; others disclose the process itself, like vortices and splashing. Many of the structures result from processes of self-organisation that are shared across organic and inorganic worlds. These themes run across art, architecture, design and various sciences from the Renaissance to today. They deal with recurrent motifs that run across times and cultures, and which emerge in varied ways in different contexts.
Martin Kemp was trained in Natural Sciences and Art History at Cambridge University and the Courtauld Institute, London. He has written, broadcast and curated exhibitions on imagery in art and science from the Renaissance to the present day. He has published extensively on Leonardo da Vinci, including the prize-winning Leonardo da Vinci. The marvellous works of nature and man (1989 and 2006).
Increasingly, he has focused on issues of visualisation, modelling and representation. He writes a regular column Nature (published as Visualisations, OUP, 2000 and developed as Seen and Unseen, OUP 2006, in which his concept of “structural intuitions” is explored). He is currently writing a book on Iconic Images from Christ to Coke.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - 18h00 au CM5, Centre Midi, EPFL
Information :[email protected]