Science and culture: data visualization nurtures an artistic movement.

In recent years, new ways of visualizing data and networks have had an enormous influence on many areas of research, allowing, for example, thousands of data points to depict clear trends in science citations or genomic patterns. But the impact of these methods has extended beyond areas of scientific inquiry: their aesthetic has also caught the attention of artists, whose work is characterized by the representation of network topologies and complex patterns of nodes and links. Designer, writer, and researcher, Manuel Lima first called this trend “networkism” in his book Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information. According to Lima, this trend is inspired by “rhizomatic properties likenonlinearity,multiplicity, or interconnectedness, and scientific advances in areas such as genetics, neuroscience, physics, molecular biology, computer systems, and sociology” (1). The benefits of visualizing data include the ability to see similarity of structures, rhythms, and patterns that are mirrored in many of the underlying processes of the physical world. Because visual artists make observing and visualizing essential elements of their work, it is perhaps not surprising that these tools would pique their curiosity. Artist Sharon Molloy, whose paintings often depict brightly colored complex systems, describes networkism as “the re-awakened understanding that there are no separate things. . .but our limited perceptions have divided the world into parts.” The motivations and goals of artists vary, but networkism seems to be inspired by an interest in quantifying the pervasive connectivity inherent in many of the complex problems of modern society. Lima notes that, although networks have been a popular concept for some time, the last two decades or so have seen major efforts to map and analyze a variety of systems that operate under a network topology such as the human brain, transportation grids, computer systems, the Internet, social structures, or protein–protein interactions. Artists who engage in networkism may reflect an ongoing shift in various disciplines as networks become more prevalent in our cultural consciousness. “Artists themselves appear to be fine-tuning and experimenting with the inherent appeal of the network topology as a graphical symbol and structure,” says Lima, noting the introduction of these ideas to the public through exhibition and display. For example, artist Tomás Saraceno created a dynamic immersive environment for the visitor in his “Galaxies Forming Along Filaments, Like Droplets Along the Strands of a Spider’s Web” (created in 2008 and shown at the Venice Biennale in 2009). The work consists of a room filled with interwoven elastic ropes that stretch from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Visitors might imagine they’re entangled in a vast cosmic landscape or a network of neurons. The experience is tactile as visitors can touch the cords and experience the vibration as it spreads through the network of ropes—in essence, sensing the interconnectedness. Saraceno’s work presents a unique way of experiencing, not just visualizing, complexity—some would suggest that it tests viewers’ conventional understanding of the world, as art often aspires to do. “Art at the cutting edge will always call into question our sense of what we deem to be ‘real,’ true, or important,” says codirector of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art Anne Collins Goodyear. In so doing, she argues, those who seek to push intellectual and aesthetic boundaries may find inspiration or “productive resistance” from scientific and technological endeavors that strive to “scrutinize conventional wisdom, redefining what may be imagined to be possible.”