“The beauty of material thinking that can be found in the visual detritus of scientific investigation.”
Focusing primarily on the work of Benoît Mandelbrot (1924–2010), one of the most notable mathematicians of the twentieth century, this exhibition explores the role of images in scientific thinking. With their capacity to generate and shape knowledge, images are at the very core of scientific investigation: charts, graphs, notebooks, instrument readings, technological representations, even mental abstractions—all make up the essential stuff of which it is made.
This exhibition and its accompanying publication should raise questions about the merits of the idea that the illustration of a work must always be secondary to the work itself. On the contrary: Substantive images often play generative roles in the scientific process, constituting a kind of material thinking conducted by producing and interpreting visual traces, such as computer-generated images. These images are often aesthetically compelling even if they are initially scientifically impenetrable. This constitutes another revelation of the exhibition: the beauty of material thinking that can be found in the visual detritus of scientific investigation.
A Focus Project curated by Visiting Assistant Professor Nina Samuel. Focus Projects are small-scale academically rigorous exhibitions and publications that are developed and executed by Bard Graduate Center faculty and postdoctoral fellows in collaboration with students in our MA and PhD programs.
Exhibition Preview:
From September 21, 2012 to January 27, 2013, the BGC presents The Islands of Benoît Mandelbrot: Fractals, Chaos, and the Materiality of Thinking in the Focus Gallery. Curated by Visiting Assistant Professor Nina Samuel and students, the exhibition focuses primarily on the work of Benoît Mandelbrot (1924–2010), one of the most notable mathematicians of the twentieth century, and the role of images in scientific thinking.
