SCIENCE, ART & THE SPACE BETWEEN
Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought.
Albert Einstein
Research is fundamental to Kerry Ferguson’s work.
Across botanical science, ingredient technology, art, textiles and design, the starting point is often the same:
observe, question, experiment, evaluate, refine.
Some questions are investigated scientifically through literature, controlled experimentation and analytical chemistry. Others are explored visually and materially through drawing, photography, colour, pattern and making.
Increasingly, the most interesting questions exist between these disciplines.
Research is organised around three interconnected areas
Science, Art & Design, and Science + Art.
BOTANICAL SCIENCE & INNOVATION
Scientific research focuses on understanding plant chemistry and developing technologies capable of translating botanical compounds into useful, reproducible and commercially viable ingredients.
Research areas include botanical bioactive compounds, botanical standardisation, green extraction and purification, microencapsulation and carrier technologies, stability and degradation, and the investigation of new botanical and agricultural resources.
The work combines literature research, experimental design, laboratory processing and analytical evaluation with practical manufacturing development.
While the rational mind is important, we gain a new perspective when we learn how many of the greatest scientific insights, discoveries, and revolutionary inventions appeared first to their creators as fantasies, dreams, trances, lightening-flash insights, and other non-ordinary states of consciousness.”
—Willis Harman and Howard Rheingold
ART & DESIGN
Research Through Observation & Making
Artistic research begins with observation of the natural and human environment.
Landscape, geology, botanical structures, biodiversity, architecture, history, light, colour and cultural memory provide source material for investigation.
Research can begin with scientific literature, historical documents, maps, photography or field observation before moving into drawing, pattern, colour and material experimentation.
Making becomes another form of enquiry.
The resulting work seeks not simply to reproduce nature but to interpret.
Systems, Structures, Rhythms and Histories
Embedded within it.
SCIENCE & ART
Where Disciplines Meet
Science and art provide different ways of investigating the same world.
Scientific research seeks evidence that can be measured, tested and reproduced. Artistic research enables subjects to be explored through perception, materials, culture and human experience.
A botanical specimen can simultaneiously be considered as a source of chemical compounds, an evolutionary structure, a geographic record, a colour system, a pattern and an artistic form.
A rainforest can be investigated through evolution, biodiversity and plant chemistry while also being experienced through light, texture, movement, sound and scale.
This intersection between scientific knowledge and creative interpretation is a continuing area of research.
THE INTELLIGENCE OF PLANTS
Plants have evolved extraordinary strategies for survival, adaptation, communication and reproduction.
They manufacture complex chemical compounds, respond to environmental stress, develop structural solutions, manage resources and participate in intricate relationships with other organisms.
The Intelligence of Plants explores these capabilities through both scientific and creative perspectives.
It considers plants as chemical engineers, survival strategists, designers, environmental engineers, pharmacies, communicators, material scientists and sources of creative inspiration.
Together, science and art raise a broader question: What can we learn when we stop looking at plants simply as resources or objects and begin examining them as sophisticated living systems?
PUBLICATIONS
Papers, Essays & Research Notes
The publication archive documents the continuing development of these ideas through scientific and technical papers, literature reviews, research reports, essays, art and design research, collection texts, historical research and interdisciplinary writing.
Publications are organised into:
Science
Botanical science, bioactive compounds, extraction technologies, standardisation, encapsulation, ingredient stability and botanical innovation.
Art & Design
Landscape, biodiversity, artistic research, collections, materials, processes and visual culture.
Science + Art
Research exploring the intersection of scientific knowledge, nature, materials, art and design.
RESEARCH AN EVOLVING PRACTICE
Research is not simply a record of completed work.
Questions lead to experiments. Experiments create new questions. Scientific discoveries can become starting points for visual exploration, while observation and making can provide different ways of considering scientific subjects.
Together these investigations form a continuing exploration.
The Intelligence of the Natural World.
Talk to Us
T: 61 488196527
KerryFerguson@botanicalinnovations.com.au
http://www.botanicalinnovations.com.au
http://www.dangerousbeauty.com.au
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