YouTube Tuesday – Retina art

(It’s actually on Vimeo, but “Vimeo Tuesday” doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely as “YouTube Tuesday”.)

This is a video about an artist-in-residence visiting a zebrafish lab studying retina function. I’ve heard other stories about artists in labs (through Subtle Technologies) but I especially like this documentary about this particular visit, because it makes the science so accessible. The scientists explain the methods they use, and why, and the artist tells about what she learned, and shows the sculpture she made based on the work. Sometimes I’m not entirely sure what the purpose is of such residencies, but once in a while a story like this comes along and I’m reminded that scientists are good at finding out new information about the world and artists are good at finding new ways of presenting information, so if it’s done well such a partnership makes perfect sense for both groups. In other cases it sometimes seems as if the residency is only beneficial to the artist, but here both groups seem to be quite happy with the collaboration.

Artist-in-Lab Jill Scott “The Electric Retina” from Anet Nyffeler on Vimeo.