from inner to outer space
a selection from Ontario Science Centre's RBC Innovators' Auction
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Each year, the Ontario Science Centre (OSC) opens up a call to artists to showcase the latest in science- and technology-inspired and related works. We are proud to partner with OSC to curate a digital showcase of some of our favorite works from this year's collection.
The following art works below were selected for their aesthetic quality and conceptual depth. They naturally took on a theme as a group - that of "space." From the space inside a seed pod, to the space between species, and to outer space itself, these works span the micro to macro in the form of installation, photography, video, painting, and digital art. |
Dornith Doherty
"Archiving Eden: Exchange" Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
"Archiving Eden: Exchange" detail. Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
Archiving Eden: Exchange presents X-ray images of 5,000 seeds - the smallest number required to preserve a single plant species housed within a vault-like structure. Interactive installation by artist Dornith Doherty comes to life during seed exchange events, where visitors are invited to replace an image from the vault’s walls with a transparent envelope containing a single Canadian seed. Over time, the installation changes both physically and visually: from representational to actual, dark to light. The black-and-white X-rays lining the installation’s walls were captured by Doherty in collaboration with scientists at several international seed banks. The seeds available for exchange are representative of common agricultural crops grown in Canada including soy, corn, and beans, as well as a variety of native wild plant species.
A 2012 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, Dornith Doherty is an artist whose work is concerned with our stewardship of the natural environment. Her photographic project Archiving Eden is an extensive, dual-faceted body of work. Collaborating with scientists and seed banks on five continents, she has traced in precise detail the elaborate systems of secure spaces and technological interventions required for botanical preservation. She reflects upon poetic questions about life and time through artworks created from X-rays captured from seeds, tissue samples, and cloned plants preserved in these collections. Doherty’s work has been exhibited and collected widely in the U.S. and abroad.
A 2012 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, Dornith Doherty is an artist whose work is concerned with our stewardship of the natural environment. Her photographic project Archiving Eden is an extensive, dual-faceted body of work. Collaborating with scientists and seed banks on five continents, she has traced in precise detail the elaborate systems of secure spaces and technological interventions required for botanical preservation. She reflects upon poetic questions about life and time through artworks created from X-rays captured from seeds, tissue samples, and cloned plants preserved in these collections. Doherty’s work has been exhibited and collected widely in the U.S. and abroad.
Research2Reality
"Inner Spaces" Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
Look closely at the images. What do you see? These vibrantly colored images are not only works of thought-provoking art - they are also cutting-edge science, offering deeper insights into the inner, most intricate workings of the human body. These are photographic
magnifications of cells and tissues, showcasing what the microscopes reveal and the research in progress through the eyes of scientists.
Research2Reality (R2R) is a not-for-profit corporation with a social media initiative that connects today’s research with tomorrow’s reality. R2R takes advantage of the power of film and visual arts to tell stories about discoveries being made today in Canadian research laboratories and highlighting scientific advances around the world. We partnered with student curators from the iSchool at the University of Toronto to create a photography exhibition that was hosted at the Ontario Science Centre (OSC) and featured in the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival in 2018. The exhibition, titled Inner Spaces, featured photographic magnifications of cells and tissues, illuminating the ground-breaking Canadian research to advance our collective understanding of regenerative medicine. It allowed viewers a chance to experience the unexpected by-products created by researchers on their journey to discovery.
magnifications of cells and tissues, showcasing what the microscopes reveal and the research in progress through the eyes of scientists.
Research2Reality (R2R) is a not-for-profit corporation with a social media initiative that connects today’s research with tomorrow’s reality. R2R takes advantage of the power of film and visual arts to tell stories about discoveries being made today in Canadian research laboratories and highlighting scientific advances around the world. We partnered with student curators from the iSchool at the University of Toronto to create a photography exhibition that was hosted at the Ontario Science Centre (OSC) and featured in the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival in 2018. The exhibition, titled Inner Spaces, featured photographic magnifications of cells and tissues, illuminating the ground-breaking Canadian research to advance our collective understanding of regenerative medicine. It allowed viewers a chance to experience the unexpected by-products created by researchers on their journey to discovery.
Jean-Sebastien Gauthier
"Face to Face" from the "Within Measures" series. Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
Saskatoon-based new media artist and sculptor Jean-Sebastien Gauthier adopts diverse forms of inquiry and experimentation to explore relationships between humans, animals, and technologies. "Within Measure" is a series of original digital art works created using the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron with long-time collaborator Dr. Brian Eames. Inspired by an ongoing artist research residency in Dr. Eames’s laboratory in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology of the University of Saskatchewan (since 2017) and creating using scans and samples painstakingly prepared by the artist himself at the facilities of the Canadian Light Source synchrotron (CLS), these works explore concepts of evolution, developmental biology, and the complexity of our shared genetic heritage with other life forms.
Cutting-edge 3-D synchrotron radiation imaging techniques were used to create representations of zebrafish, tiny and robust model organisms used in genetic medical research due to homologous evolutionary traits to humans. This research project sets new precedents, as Gauthier is the first artist to use the CLS experimental facilities as a medium for artistic expression, with research time granted for the primary objectives of artistic inquiry and aesthetic experimentation. The CLS is a national research facility and one of the largest science projects in our country’s history, producing the brightest light in Canada - millions of times brighter than the sun.
Cutting-edge 3-D synchrotron radiation imaging techniques were used to create representations of zebrafish, tiny and robust model organisms used in genetic medical research due to homologous evolutionary traits to humans. This research project sets new precedents, as Gauthier is the first artist to use the CLS experimental facilities as a medium for artistic expression, with research time granted for the primary objectives of artistic inquiry and aesthetic experimentation. The CLS is a national research facility and one of the largest science projects in our country’s history, producing the brightest light in Canada - millions of times brighter than the sun.
Ali Phi
"ENFOLD I" Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
"ENFOLD III" Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
"ENFOLD" is a series of digital paintings inspired by the concept of The Invisible Shape of Things Past - 1995, drawn by a real-time process of freezing pixels of a digital video file and colorized by conversion of brainwaves data of the artist while observing the creation process of the work. This project interferes time-based cycle and freezes the pixels, creating a solid visualization of that reality captured in motion pictures. The 5-channels of data from the EEG brain scanner are converted into readable numbers for the program to take control of RGBA parameters and add color to the paintings.
Ali Phi is a computer artist and creative technologist with a background in environmental engineering sciences & experimental cinematic arts. The flow of his works is based on programming, generative audio-visual design, interactive media & immersive environment installations which depict the relation between geometry, science, light, poetry and their transformations in computer & interaction with humans. He has performed and exhibited works in international festivals like Ars Electronica, Mutek, Tasmeem Doha, Patchlab, Tadaex & Tehran Architecture Biennial beside several exhibitions in Iran, Canada, Austria, Germany, Poland, Qatar & UAE.
Ali Phi is a computer artist and creative technologist with a background in environmental engineering sciences & experimental cinematic arts. The flow of his works is based on programming, generative audio-visual design, interactive media & immersive environment installations which depict the relation between geometry, science, light, poetry and their transformations in computer & interaction with humans. He has performed and exhibited works in international festivals like Ars Electronica, Mutek, Tasmeem Doha, Patchlab, Tadaex & Tehran Architecture Biennial beside several exhibitions in Iran, Canada, Austria, Germany, Poland, Qatar & UAE.
Ekaterina Smirnova
"Apollo Lunar Module" Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
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"International Space Station Selfie" Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
Ekaterina Smirnova is a Seattle based artist. She is highly inspired by science (astronomy, physics, chemistry). The artist collaborates with scientists from around the world, interpreting their research into art. She has worked with the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). Her current project is inspired by BepiColombo, a space mission to Mercury. Ekaterina often travels, in the past few years she went to art residencies/science conferences in Japan, Europe, and throughout the U.S. Ekaterina works in different media: large scale watercolor paintings, ceramic sculptures, music collaborations, interactive electronics, and site-specific installations.
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Milumbe Haimbe
This 3D animated film draws on the story of Edward Nkoloso, the eccentric Zambian science teacher who wanted to build a spaceship to send a schoolgirl, two cats and a missionary to Mars. This was back in 1964, when Zambia gained her independence from colonial rule, and everything seemed possible. So possible that Nkoloso later quipped, “I have warned the missionary that he must not force Christianity on the people of Mars if they do not want it.” Space dream revisits Nkoloso’s story, re-framing him as a forward-thinker ahead of his time. Using 3D technology, it builds a spaceship designed to shuttle a schoolgirl, two cats and a missionary to outer space. Watch it blast off and land on the moon.
Milumbe Haimbe was born in Lusaka, Zambia. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture attained from the Copperbelt University in Kitwe Zambia, and also holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts obtained from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway. Milumbe is a multimedia artist interested in exploring diversity in popular media and culture. Her work combines several mediums including drawing, illustration, animation, video, 3D modelling, text and comic book art to navigate these themes. She has exhibited her work in numerous shows and has attended several international art residencies, including the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in Washington DC in 2016. Milumbe is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Arts Fellowship Award in 2015. She most recently participated in the Vector Festival for media arts in Toronto in July 2020.
Video courtesy of the artist and OSC.
Milumbe Haimbe was born in Lusaka, Zambia. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture attained from the Copperbelt University in Kitwe Zambia, and also holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts obtained from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway. Milumbe is a multimedia artist interested in exploring diversity in popular media and culture. Her work combines several mediums including drawing, illustration, animation, video, 3D modelling, text and comic book art to navigate these themes. She has exhibited her work in numerous shows and has attended several international art residencies, including the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in Washington DC in 2016. Milumbe is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Arts Fellowship Award in 2015. She most recently participated in the Vector Festival for media arts in Toronto in July 2020.
Video courtesy of the artist and OSC.
Diana Hamer
"Strong Gravitational Lensing 1" Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
The abstract shapes, high contrasts of light and dark and the mathematical notation represent and describe the effect of the gravitational force of dark matter on light. Distant galaxies are elliptical or spiral in shape. When their light travels towards us, it may first pass near dark matter. The strong gravitational field of dark matter acts like a lens and "bends" the light, so we see the galaxies as arcs or rings of light. Although photons of light are massless, they are rich in momentum and they move along the spacetime distortion manifest by the gravitational field. The images and mathematical notation are inspired by and referenced from the article, "How can Mathematics Reveal Dark Matter" by Chuck Keeton, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University NJ 2010.
Diana Hamer is a Toronto painter and mixed media artist. Her art is highly informed by science. In 2018, her series "Entropy and Order" was shown at the University of Toronto's Science Rendezvous ArtSci Gallery. This group of 32 paintings use abstract concepts of art and mathematics to explore the worlds of classical and quantum physics. Two of the paintings were chosen to be shown at the Propeller Gallery's 2018 "Out of This World Show," commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Royal Astronomical society of Canada. In 2019, one of the paintings from the series, "The Central Force Problem," won the mathematics-inspired art contest held by The Fields Institute/ArtSciSalon.
Diana Hamer is a Toronto painter and mixed media artist. Her art is highly informed by science. In 2018, her series "Entropy and Order" was shown at the University of Toronto's Science Rendezvous ArtSci Gallery. This group of 32 paintings use abstract concepts of art and mathematics to explore the worlds of classical and quantum physics. Two of the paintings were chosen to be shown at the Propeller Gallery's 2018 "Out of This World Show," commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Royal Astronomical society of Canada. In 2019, one of the paintings from the series, "The Central Force Problem," won the mathematics-inspired art contest held by The Fields Institute/ArtSciSalon.
Michelle Letarte
"Crab Nebula" Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
"N66, NGC346" Image courtesy of the artist and OSC.
The Crab Nebula Messier 1 is a supernova remnant of a Milky Way Nebula, 6,500 light years away. N66, NGC346 represents a dynamic star-forming region in space, some 210,000 light years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud, itself a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. These two artworks were inspired from Hubble Telescope images from 2005. Both artworks were painted with acrylic and fibers from Japanese papers were incorporated into the artworks to represent the debris in the nebulae.
Michelle Letarte has a PhD in Biochemistry and directed a Research Laboratory in Molecular Immunology at SickKids for 35 years. She is currently Professor Emerita at University of Toronto and involved in organizing Immunology Courses in Africa and Latin America. She is also a painter, whose abstract work is inspired from her numerous travels too often unique destinations. Her scientific and educational background contributes to her creative artistic process and the desire to share her experiences. Michelle has organized several art exhibitions and is currently the Chair of Propeller Art Gallery, a Toronto collective in its 25th year of existence.
Michelle Letarte has a PhD in Biochemistry and directed a Research Laboratory in Molecular Immunology at SickKids for 35 years. She is currently Professor Emerita at University of Toronto and involved in organizing Immunology Courses in Africa and Latin America. She is also a painter, whose abstract work is inspired from her numerous travels too often unique destinations. Her scientific and educational background contributes to her creative artistic process and the desire to share her experiences. Michelle has organized several art exhibitions and is currently the Chair of Propeller Art Gallery, a Toronto collective in its 25th year of existence.
