"New Art/Science Affinities" was written and designed in one week by four authors (Andrea Grover, Régine Debatty, Claire Evans, and Pablo Garcia) and two designers (Thumb), using a rapid collaborative authoring process known as a "book sprint." The topic of "New Art/Science Affinities" is contemporary artists working at the intersection of art, science, and technology, with explorations into maker culture, hacking, artist research, distributed creativity, and technological and speculative design. Chapters include: Program Art or Be Programmed, Subvert!, Citizen Science, Artists in White Coats and Latex Gloves, The Maker Moment, and The Overview Effect. 60 international artists and art collaboratives are featured, including Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Atelier Van Lieshout, Brandon Ballengée, Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Openframeworks, C.E.B. Reas, Philip Ross, Tomás Saraceno, SymbioticA, Jer Thorp and Marius Watz. ISBN# 0977205347. Details: www.cmu.edu/millergallery/nasabook

An illustrated exploration of the fundamental connections between art and science, from an author who has lived in both worlds In this thought-provoking book, Philip F. Palmedo, a former physicist who now writes on art, reveals how the two defining enterprises of humankind—art and science—are rooted in certain common instincts, which we might call aesthetic: an appreciation of symmetry, balance, and rhythm; the drive to simplify and abstract natural forms, and to represent them symbolically. Palmedo traces these instincts back to a very early time in human history—demonstrating, for example, the level of abstract thinking required to create the stone tools and cave paintings of the Paleolithic—and then forward, to the builders of the Gothic cathedrals, to Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton, to Einstein and Picasso. Illustrated with more than 125 creations of the genus Homo—from a flint hand ax chipped half a million years ago to the abstractions of Hilma af Klint and the James Webb Space Telescope—Palmedo’s text leaves us with a new appreciation of the instinct for beauty shared by artists and scientists alike.

An exploration of echoes and resonances across two millennia of visual culture, this book brings together weird, wondrous, and unforgettable imagery in one stunning volume. A remarkable collection of over five hundred images, Affinities is a carefully curated visual journey illuminating connections across more than two thousand years of image-making. Drawing on a decade of archival immersion at The Public Domain Review, an online journal and not-for- profit project dedicated to exploring curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas, this volume has been assembled from a vast array of sources: from manuscripts to museum catalogs, and ship logs to primers on Victorian magic. The images are arranged in a single captivating sequence that unfurls according to a dreamlike logic, through a play of visual echoes and evolving thematic threads—hatching eggs paired with early Burmese world maps, marbled endpapers meet tattooed stowaways, and fireworks explode beside deep sea coral. At once an art book, a sourcebook, and a kaleidoscopic visual poem, Affinities is a unique and enthralling publication that will offer something different on each visit. A compelling art object and visual experience in its own right, this collection provides a launchpad for further exploration and inventive engagement across all forms of visual culture and expression.

The intent of this volume is to provide an enticing review, for a general audience, of the very broad topic of connections between art and science; and the writing is deliberately casual and narrative rather than scholarly or encyclopedic. The scope is narrowed somewhat by emphasis on Western culture (with some examples from other civilizations) and by exclusion of literature. After overview chapters, the author delves into some specifics of architecture, decoration, painting and cognition, graphic design, and the performing arts, before concluding with a chapter on art and science symbiosis. The text is attractively produced and illustrated with some 200 (small) diagrams, photos, and reproductions. Strosberg is co-founder of Recontres Art et Science, an association in Paris that sponsors conferences and other events in collaboration with UNESCO. This work was originally published in French, in Paris, in 1999 by UNESCO (although its connection with that agency's mission is not entirely clear). c. Book News Inc.

After becoming a part of the Tau, one of twenty-two large global network Affinities in the near future, young Adam Fisk thinks his life has improved for the better until the different Affinities begin to go to war with one another in a conflict that will change Adam's world forever.