High-energy physics lab seeks discovery-oriented artists for close interactions

“We are colliding things even more elusive than particles—human imagination and creativity,” says Ariane Koek, a former BBC producer. The force behind a new arts experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, she says, “I love anything that stretches knowledge and busts boundaries. I am fascinated by everything, and I have a nerdy interest in atomic physics.

“It’s an incredible moment for particle physics,” says Koek. “CERN has the world’s largest machine, and we are at the moment of great discovery. I can’t think of a better way of demonstrating fundamental science’s relevance to our culture than engaging in an inspirational way.” A century ago, she says, science “inspired cubism, the moderns. Now let’s inspire even more.”

To that end, last December the laboratory’s director general, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, adopted a cultural policy for CERN. Called Great Arts for Great Science, the policy sets the stage for Koek’s initiative through four strategies: Create expert knowledge in the arts through a cultural advisory board, create a point of contact for artists who want to visit CERN, create an arts residency, and access professional advice for in-house arts activities.

The cultural advisory board held its first meeting in February. Coincident with that meeting, a website (https://arts.web.cern.ch/arts ) went live to showcase significant art projects carried out at CERN or inspired by CERN science and to publicize activities that fall under the new cultural policy. Collide@CERN, a residency program for artists to spend time at the lab, will launch in the next few months—as soon as Koek raises enough money. Other arts-related activities, such as CERN’s CinéGlobe short-film festival and the choice of artwork on display at the lab, will come under the umbrella of the Great Arts for Great Science framework.

Heuer backs Koek’s initiative with strong words but no money, which he says can’t come from the lab’s coffers. In a New Year’s speech he said, “Although we are enjoying unprecedented levels of popular and political support around the world, the trend is still against basic science.” He went on to say that CERN must “first of all . . . deliver on our scientific promises. But we also have to show our relevance to society on other levels, and engagement with culture plays an important role.” A lot of artists are interested in science at CERN, says Heuer. “People want to do sculpture, films, books, ballets. . . . I wanted to channel it a bit.”

Understanding and inspiration

The cultural policy at CERN, says Koek, provides a framework for diverse activities. It says to people at CERN, “You are great scientists, and you deserve to engage with great artists.” It also acknowledges “what has been happening anyway.” Among the artists who have come “to pay homage to what CERN science is doing for culture,” Koek lists the band the Black Eyed Peas, architect Charles Jencks (see photo, above right), photographer Simon Norfolk, and Wales’s first national poet, Gwyneth Lewis. The idea of the Great Arts for Great Science initiative is to “show that CERN inspires culture not only in science but in the arts, and to create mutual understanding,” says Koek.

“The strongest and best physicists have always had a creative side,” says CERN particle physicist Helenka Przysiezniak Frey. “As a theorist, you have to play around with theory. Experimentalists are also reading and thinking about theories, so there is quite a lot of freedom, which is also like artists. Both of our jobs are asking questions, doing research.”

“I think there is an actual renaissance that is bringing these fields together,” says Liz Lerman, a choreographer whose 2010 dance, The Matter of Origins, “probes the physics of beginnings and the poetry of the mind” (see http://blogs.physicstoday.org/singularities/2010/09/big-bang-ballet.html ). Lerman sees “huge interest” from both artists and scientists in interacting. “Scientists want to reengage with their creativity. Or they know they need public support. It can help with teaching.” It can even help with research, she adds. “Some scientists are realizing that if you do embodied modeling instead of computer simulations you make different connections and you see things you wouldn’t otherwise see.” As for artists, says Lerman, “Any artist who is really wanting to connect and comprehend and know what is going on in this world has to know science.” The sense of discovery is part of it, she says, “and the other part is the implications—of the genomic revolution, the origins of the universe. . . . How do we live with this new understanding? That is where art has a huge contribution to make to the science community and the community at large.”

Color changes in a sculpture by Japanese video and photographic artist Mariko Mori represent real-time detection of neutrinos by Super-Kamiokande in Japan. The 3-meter-tall sculpture, named Tom Na H-iu for a place where transmigrating souls were believed to rest according to the ancient Celtic religion, is supposed to both reflect the death of stars and signify the rebirth of energy. Mori, a creative patron of CERN’s artists-in-residence program, says she hopes that in glimpsing a neutrino, a viewer may feel connected with the universe. Koek says the sculpture “illustrates the quality of work which [CERN’s] new cultural policy aims to attract and inspire in the future.”

“Decorating CERN is not the target,” says cultural board member Beatrix Ruf, the director and curator of the Kunsthalle Zürich art center. “Art is very influential. It’s not like a political parade. It’s micro-influences on how people think about things, how their perceptions and ways of approaching things change.” By bringing artists and scientists together, she says, the influence “could snowball.”

Toys, tools, and emotions

“Often art turns out to be a pure communication of science, or outreach,” says Koek. “Ideas in science are communicated by equations. In art, they are communicated through the senses.” Her initiative, she says, “is more about having science and arts on equal platforms, learning about each other.” Koek wants to stay away from art as outreach and focus on established and young, innovative artists who “break boundaries like CERN science does.” Although she is steering away from more conventional forms of outreach, Koek does aim to show the world that science has meaning for everyone.

The arts initiative at CERN “is an experiment,” says Michael Doser, the lone scientist on the cultural advisory board. “Success depends on the goodwill and interest of both sides.” Science can provide understanding, while art can provide meaning to the human enterprise, he says. “The program tries to set up a dialog based on mutual respect.” Doser adds that he hopes the initiative “shows that science has an effect not just on the materials plane—better toys, better tools—but on humans. Science has an emotional impact.”