The exploration of scientific concepts leads to visual interpretations at Greater Reston Art Center
As a child Rebecca Kamen always wanted to be a scientist—a trip to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia solidified this—but she is dyslexic, a term that didn’t exist until she was in college, so she had to learn by observing and making connections. The seed that was planted during this experience at the museum, which she describes as one of “awe and wonder,” is something Kamen strives to manifest in her work today, work she says is at the intersection of art and science.
Kamen’s exhibit Continuum at Greater Reston Arts Center, on display until Feb. 13, showcases this intersection and the visual interpretations of complex concepts—neuroscience, black holes, inner and outer space. The amalgamation of her past works—Elemental Garden (2011), Wave Ride for Albert (2005), Doppler Effect (2005), In the Beginning (2003)—are anchored by her latest installations, Portal and NeuroCantos, displays that visualize the relationship of the inner and outer space and the brain’s perception of patterns.
In Portal viewers see a light cone signifying the chaotic patterns created when two binary black holes orbit each other. “When these things move so quickly, they create a ripple in space-time, or an outgoing wave,” says Kamen, who not only creates these masterpieces but who also lectures at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard and at the National Institute of Health. “What I’m creating is … I want the viewer to have an experience of what [the patterns] would look like.”
NeuroCantos mimics the look of Portal but represents neural pathways and the firings of electrical and chemical impulses in the brain and the brain’s ability to perceive similarity of patterns at both the micro and macro scale. Soundscapes for both installations were created by artist Susan Alexjander who used sonic data from orbiting black holes to create the Portal soundscape. She utilized commentary from Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, and collaborating poet Steven Fowler, whom Kamen met at the Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria in 2015, to create the sound component for NeuroCantos.
Kamen has plans to create a third aspect to her Continuum installation using her upcoming work with a school in Australia that will incorporate insights about aspects of the Earth and turn this singular project into a global initiative for schools around the world. She sees her upcoming project as an agent for change in the world, something she sees as her legacy: combining art, science and using it to create a vehicle for educating the public.
( February 2016 )
