On Creativity and Discovery in the Fine Arts and in the Natural Sciences

Leonardo. Vol. 14, No.2, pp. 144--149. Pergamon Press Ltd., 1981. Printed in Great Britain. STATEMENTS ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE NATURAL SCIENCES AND THE VISUAL FINE ARTS AND, IN PARTICULAR, ON THE MEANING OF ORDER (PART I) Beginning with this issue. readers will be provided with contributions to the discussion ofthe above subjects obtained through the efforts of Giorgio Careri. the Italian physicist. and the Founder-Editor of Leonardo. The contributions are from invited visual artists, scientists and scholars of visual art. ON CREATIVITY AND DISCOVERY IN THE FINE ARTS AND IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 1. If Leonardo da Vinci had not lived, the 'Mona Lisa' would not have been painted by anyone (this is also true for a child's drawing), but, if Henri Becquerel had not lived, the phenomenon of radioactivity would have been discovered at some date after 1896. This statement shall be my starting point for some reflections on differences between the arts and the natural sciences. For instance, if a natural catastrophe or a human action such as a war destroyed scientific knowledge and artworks, the former could be reconstructed but the latter could not. As I and others, for example Julian Huxley, have pointed out, there are certain analogies one can make between the evolution of living organisms and the development of human cultures. Organisms and cultures can both be stable for long periods of time only to become modified and then extinct because of inability to adapt to changing conditions. Remains of extinct organisms and cultures can be compared, although artifacts should not be considered as fossils. One interesting point to examine would be why some artworks ofan extinct culture survive as part of the human heritage by being carefully protected. The analogies mentioned above involve the following aspects. As regards present-day living organisms (plants and animals, including humans), they are dealt with by biologists, botanists and zoologists from points of view of their specific characteristics, of their evolutionary history (phylogeny) and of their growth from fertilized eggs to adulthood (ontogeny). A human embryo while in the womb repeats some of the historic (phylogenie) stages of species that preceded present-day humans. Upon birth, a child, before it becomes indoctrinated by cultural traits of the society of its parents, manifests mental and emotional tendencies that resemble some of the levels of development found in still existing cultures of pre-industrial societies. Indications of artistic capacity by children in industrial 144 societies before they reach an age of about 10 years may be such a manifestation. The fact that after that age most children do not exploit this capacity may be caused by a surcharge of information on various subjects provided through education by their parents, teachers and friends. 2. I think there is a similarity between early indications of artistic capacity and the imaginative capacity needed by those who become scientists, especially. perhaps, mathematicians . Most new ideas in the sciences and in mathematics are proposed by individuals between the ages of 18 and 28, which they may therefore develop in later years. But these new ideas to be of value must be in accord with a large number of known facts and current theoretical bases of dealing with these facts. The latter can stifle the imaginative capacity needed for the proposal of new ideas when new facts require a new theoretical base. In the arts also most new ideas occur to individuals at an early age. however the stifling effect of existing art need not be so strong. An ambiance of artistic creativity, such as in the Florence of the Medici, may stimulate new artistic tendencies or schools. Although new theoretical ideas in science are influenced by current theoretical bases, they cannot be proposed before new facts about nature are discovered and the timing of their discovery cannot be predicted, even though the facts pre-existed in nature before their discovery. There is, thus, a fundamental difference between scientific advancement, biological evolution and cultural development. New species do not pre-exist in nature to be discovered but appear because of unforeseeable occurrences that need not have occurred, and the same applies to new ideologies, artworks and technological products in cultural...