Argus camouflage by Chris Maynard
Jenni Lacey, membership marketing officer at the Society of Biology, finds inspiration for BioArtAttack – an art science competition being run as part of Biology Week 2014.
Creative thinking is fundamental to problem solving and is often at the heart of great discoveries. At the Society of Biology we want to inspire people from a young age to be imaginative and analytical by thinking about the links between art and science.
These two subjects have historically been characterised as polar opposites but increasingly we are being encouraged to look at the similarities between the subjects and think about how they complement each other.
Inspired by this idea and memories of our childhood love of Art Attack the Society of Biology has launched BioArtAttack,as part of Biology Week 2014. We are inviting individuals or groups of young people (18 and under) to make a biology-themed art collage, model or sculpture. They can submit their project to the competition by taking time-lapsed videos, or a series of photographs to illustrate the process of the artwork being created. Although there are no prizes for adults, we are also welcoming contributions from all ages to offer inspiration.
By Chris Maynard
We’ve started an inspiration board to spark your imagination which includes Chris Maynard’s beautiful silhouettes created from fallen bird feathers. Maynard is an entomologist by training and hopes his creations will inspire people to look more closely at the world around us:
“I hope that seeing birds in a different light through my artwork will encourage appreciation of avian life and hence a desire to conserve it.” [taken from Treehugger.com]
We also stumbled across Research in the pipeline: I love tubes by Nathan Cooze which was an entry for the Research as Art competition at Swansea University and takes a more whimsical view of how science can be viewed as art, as he displays the materials and written work from his MRes project.(This can be seen on our Pinterest board).
We also couldn’t resist making our own BioArtAttacks here at the office and created a giant grasshopper from cereal, pasta, sugar and leaflets.
Prizes
There are two categories for entry
- Under 11 years old
- 11 – 18 years old
There will also be a ‘People’s choice award’ voted for by the public. The winner from each category will receive a stop motion animation kit from Hue Animation along with a year’s free BioNet for eligible individuals.
More inspiration is available on our Pinterest board and further details on how to enter and get involved are on our website.