Using the Supercomputer to Visualize Higher Dimensions: An Artist’s Contribution to Scientific Visualization

The interdisciplinary research environment coupled with supercomputer graphics is affording new opportunities for collaborations between artists and scientists. The author has collaborated with specialists in such fields as agricultural entomology, topology and astrophysics to render visual representations of multidimensional computations. One collaboration has resulted in a single, aesthetic form encompassing both a new art form and the discovery of a suggested mathematical theorem. These team efforts provide interesting examples of research dynamics between artist and scientist as they work toward a common goal: visualization of the invisible. Such interaction serves as a prototype of the ‘Renaissance team’ where specialists provide a broad spectrum of skills in the quest for discovery. Artists can and will make important contributions to this research.