ELSI Science-Art Collaborative Project featured Kayo Nomura as the ELSI Artist in Resident for FY2023. She explored the complex systems in the Origins of Life as the central theme and conducted seminars, workshops, and live painting during the residency.
On my first two visits to ELSI, I was introduced to various researchers from diverse backgrounds, and I had numerous dialogues with them. The conversations occurred around the topic “Complex Systems in the Origin of Life”, as it was the central theme for this year’s art-science project. I had conversations with nearly 20 scientists in astrophysics, chemistry, geophysics, and biology.
The dialogue I had with each of them confused me in a good way, as I discovered that there is no definite term for the complex system. Everyone had a different perspective of what that could mean from their scientific viewpoint. I became fascinated with the idea that this term is still in progress, which led me to explore further what it could fundamentally mean. I was also struck by the similarity between science and art, as there is no “perfect answer” in the artmaking process and its outcome.
Live Painting at the ELSI International Symposium
The ELSI International Symposium was held during my third visit to ELSI. I took part in some of the lectures and better understood how scientists from different backgrounds cultivate ideas and form new understandings.
The scientific poster session was held on the last day of the symposium, where scientists presented their research. I also took part, but instead of the standard scientific poster, I put up a canvas where I performed a live painting. I asked people who came to the venue with the question, “what is life?” referring from a scientific perspective. Based on the replies, I painted instinctively onto the canvas, driven by inspiration.
Draw with your Five Senses
During this visit, I also held an art workshop for the ESLI community. I intended for the participants to let the left side of the brain, where we tend to think logically, give it a rest and have the right brain, the creative side, to take over. I built up exercises to allow them to focus more on intuition rather than how to draw “good”.
For example, we practised drawing with a non-dominant hand without looking at the paper, making it impossible to control or predict the outcome.
In the final process, we drew with our “five senses”. I prepared keywords of five senses (i.e., the sound of rain, touch of a blanket), and each would pick and draw, inspired by what the card said. The process allowed the participants to engage in drawing in a more creative way using their imagination.
Conceptual Development
Between visits, I analysed and summarised my dialogues with scientists and dove into the creation process.
In trying to understand the meaning of complex systems and the origin of life, I laid out common key phrases that came into the conversation multiple times. “Simple rule, repetition, evolution, diversity, life pattern, copy, many mistakes, creation, destruction, sustain” were some of the vocabularies I encountered repeatedly.
I started drawing with a simple continuation of dots, being “simple” and “repetitive”, adding new layers of colours but keeping it straightforward.
Throughout the creative process, I asked myself, “what is not a complex system?” to see the term from a different viewpoint. From this question, what came to mind was the colour of black and white, with boundaries and distinctions. Flipping it over, I decided to express a complex system with different colours and create a piece with no boundaries.
Medium and Technique
In addition to placing simple dots on repeat with multiple colours, I only allowed myself to use minimum art tools to complete the piece. This was a way of expressing the complex system in the origin of life, which starts off from a simple principle. Watercolour, acrylic, and my hands were all I used. I wanted to see how such simple tools and usage of just fingertips could generate a complex, chaotic image by repetition.
I started with three primary colours: red, yellow, and blue.
From there, I cultivated more diverse colours like brown, purple, and green.
Using just my fingertips, I made marks repeatedly as if pressing stamps.
Towards the end, I used white, representing the pureness and infinity of life.
One of the phrases that stuck with me throughout the artmaking process was how simple repetition of life cycles creates complexity and diversity and how creation and destruction sustain life. With this in mind, I covered layers and dots, which are simple colours of repetition resulting in complex, unpredictable patterns, leading to the image of the complexity of life.
Conclusion
Throughout this collaborative art-science project, what remains in my mind is not about science or art but the dialogues I had with scientists on human beings and life itself. The world we live in is extremely complex. Yet, despite all the conflicts in our world, there is a sense of beauty in life—art and science act as lenses to broaden our perspective and see the world as it is. There is no end to the journey of perfecting to see life more clearly, and I am thankful for the experiences I attained from this project.
Acknowledgement:
I want to thank ELSI members for supporting and collaborating with this project, namely the following people: the project supervisor, Thilina Heenatigala; participating scientists Shigeru Masuda, Tony Z, Shawn McGlynn, Nathaniel Virgo, Liam Longo, Christine Houser, Yamei Li, John Hernlund, Harrison Smith, Keisuke Fukunaga, Trishit Ruj, Anuradha Thakur, Naohiro Yoshida, Henderson Jim Cleaves, Loren Williams, Olaf Witkowski, Michael Lachman, Eric Smith, and PR staff: Shigeru Masuda and Minako Shirakura.