On art and science. In our first episode, "Do We Need Newness for Creativity?" we connected with Christine Liu, a neuroscientist and artist. She had some fantastic things to say about the intersection of science and creativity, something that is at the root of all of our Creative Fuel episodes.
On art and science. In our first episode, "Do We Need Newness for Creativity?" we connected with Christine Liu, a neuroscientist and artist. She had some fantastic things to say about the intersection of science and creativity, something that is at the root of all of our Creative Fuel episodes.
Each episode of Creative Fuel start swith one question. In the course of researching, writing, and talking with our guests, we obviously come up with many more questions along the way. They leave us with a lot to ponder, and there are many things we don't have the space to include in our full episodes. Which is where these little doses of creativity come in.
Featuring: Christine Liu. Head here to discover Christine's Venn diagram on the overlaps between art and science.
Head over to CreativeFuelCollective.com for more creative inspiration, prompts, online workshops and a robust creative community.
Hosted by Anna Brones
Co-Produced by Anna Brones & Gale Straub
Theme Music is by cleod9 music
Season 1 is Made with Support by Big Cartel
Christine Liu: A neuroscientist currently conducting postdoctoral research at UCSF, where she explores how psychedelic drugs alter neural circuits. She earned her PhD research from UC Berkeley, focusing on the relationship between nicotine and the brain's dopamine system. She's an artist at heart, and uses art as a means of scientific communication and is the co-founder of the art collective Two Photon Art.
Resources Mentioned
Anna Brones - Narration: Our Creative Fuel episodes start with one question. In the course of researching, writing, and talking with our guests, we obviously come up with many more questions along the way. They leave us with a lot to ponder, and there are many things we don't have the space to include in our full episodes. Which is where these little doses of creativity come in.
In episode 1, we connected with Christine Liu, a neuroscientist and artist. She had some fantastic things to say about the intersection of science and creativity, something that is at the root of all of our Creative Fuel episodes.
Anna Brones: By day you're a neuroscientist and then by night an artist. I'm wondering how those two fit together for you, and how you find balance in your professional life, which I assume is very different from some of your creative art outlets.
Christine Liu: Absolutely. Yeah, I do find science to be very creative, much like art and making art to be. methodological, which is a lot like science, but for me practicing both of these or having them be really big parts of my life is a way to have a lot of balance.
So oftentimes when I have a really long stretch in the lab where I do have to be very rigid and do the same exact experiment every single day, and I'm basically like a robot in the lab, then it's such a release to come home and make something that's very abstract without a lot of top down control of what I'm going to be making. Not planning what I'm drawing or not trying to draw something to replicate a figure in front of me. Art can be a release for that.
But on the other side, sometimes science involves a lot of broad thinking and research and bringing a lot of divergent ideas together and looking at a bunch of pieces of a puzzle and figuring out how they all fit together. And then sometimes the balance that art brings me there is to do a study of a flower and, take in all the details of its anatomy and try to replicate that as well as I can through my hands and my eyes. Altogether, I think that I can have the freedom to choose how I engage with my brain throughout the day and make up for it at night, with whatever kind of art I'm choosing to do. So I have phases, certainly where, I'm more into abstract painting or fluid art, and then periods where I'm doing a lot of just pen and ink studies.
Christine Liu: And that oftentimes is a response of what my demands are as a scientist during the day.
Anna Brones: That's so interesting. I was just reading an article this morning about a study on scientists and scientific researchers and that, the more beauty and wonder and awe that they experience with the thing that they are researching, the more job satisfaction that they have, which I just thought with. Yeah. Very interesting. Again, at that intersection of being amazed by things.
Christine Liu: That's at the root of a lot of mindfulness, encouraging the sense of mental wellbeing and appreciating what you already have.
Anna Brones - Narration: As a culture, we’ve often separated art and science. But they are inextricably linked. Christine drew a great Venn diagram about this that we’ll link to in the show notes.
However we produce art, and whatever we do with it, the act of being creative has a lot to offer us. And after talking to Christine I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of art and creativity to not just feed the rest of our personal and professional pursuits, but really to bring a dose of joy to our lives. That’s perhaps particularly a reminder that those of us who make art for a living need to hear.
Christine Liu: A lot of times artists make art because it feels good. And that goes back to maybe it's releasing dopamine that's I can tell that's what it does for me. A lot of times. Trying a long black line and exactly the curve that I want gives me a much more satisfying feeling that I'm pretty sure is a big dopamine release So, I think, tuning into what really makes you feel good and making sure there's a balance of that in terms of your own artistic exploration or artistic exploitation of what audience members might want to purchase. I think there's a fine balance that we all kind of need to figure out for ourselves.
Anna Brones: I love that.
Outro
Anna Brones - Narration: If you haven’t listened to episode one yet, Christine Liu and writer Amanda Machado guide us through our question “do we need newness for creativity?” It’s available wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you enjoy it, we'd be so grateful if you shared with a friend.
We’ll be back next week with episode 2. I'm Anna Brones. Thanks so much for listening.