Science, Art and Philosophy on display

The STS Module 'Science, Art and Philosophy', run by Dr Chiara Ambrosio, explores the interactions between science and art from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Its philosophical focus is the notion of "representation", conceived as a crucial common link between scientific and artistic visual practices. Integrating the history and philosophy of scientific and artistic representations, the course addresses a broad range of issues. These include questions on the nature and role of visual representations in scientific and artistic practice, what counts as "objective" and "accurate" representation, when and how images count as "evidence", and whether the relations between science and modernism contribute to overturn the common sense view that "art invents, science discovers".

As part of the assessment for the module, students are asked to create a poster demonstrating their research from the module - both in the text used, and in the images and design of the poster itself. This usually leads to some fascinating work, and the 2019 class was no different, with posters covering concepts such as oppression, objectivity in photography, the use of machines to analyse meter in poetry, and many more.

For more information on the HPSC0111 module, you can read the module syllabus, or watch our short module video.