What’s on : Cafe-scientifique

The Creative Imagination and the Art of Science

Cafe-scientifique
Date
5 Feb 2020
Start time
7:30 PM
Venue
City Screen Basement Bar
Speaker
Professor Tom McLeish, University of York
The Creative Imagination and the Art of Science

Event Information

The Creative Imagination and the Art of Science
Professor Tom McLeish, Professor of Natural Philosophy, Department of Physics, University of York

I could not see any place in science for my creativity or imagination,’ was the explanation, of a bright school leaver to the author, of why she had abandoned all study of science. Yet as any scientist knows, the imagination is essential to the immense task of re-creating a shared model of nature from the scale of the cosmos to the smallest subatomic structures. A four year project led to the book, The Poetry and Music of Science (OUP 2019), which takes a journey through the creative process in the arts as well as sciences. The lecture draws on both past testimony and contemporary accounts of scientists, artists, mathematicians, writers, and musicians today to explore the commonalities and differences in creation.

Tom McLeish finds that the ‘Two Cultures’ division between the arts and the sciences is not after all, the best classification of creative processes. Instead, the three modes of visual, textual and abstract imagination have woven the stories of the arts and sciences together. The discussion continues by asking how creativity contributes to what it means to be human.

Doors open 7pm. Tickets are free and can be pre-booked in person at City Screen.

Alternatively tickets are available on the night of the event at the City Screen Ticket Desk –- limited to 70 for this event.