SETI, Where Science and Art Meet

What came first—art or science?

The Search for Extraterrestrial Life Institute (SETI) announced on Tuesday, at its Mountain View office, the creation of its first ever artist-in-residency program to meld the two disciplines and encourage expression that helps highlight the origin of life on Earth and in the universe, according to center officials.

"We created an official recognition of this convergence between science and the arts," said Tom Pierson, the institute's executive director. "In fact, that has existed since the earliest of scientific enterprise. But it is through art that often scientific explanations have been delivered to the public."

Charles Lindsay, SETI's first artist-in-residence and former Guggenheim fellow, will spend the next two years at the institute where he will collaborate with the scientists there and at NASA, as well as film and sound-effect individuals, through SETI's relationship with the University of Southern California.

He described his project as an immersive art installation that blends video, sound and interactive sculpture.

"I will build sculptures from salvaged pieces of space program equipment, which I’ll re-fashion with sensor technologies and audio-visual components," Lindsay said. "As an artist, I am interested in interpreting the ‘memory’ of such devices in relation to our evolutionary arc from early primates to astronauts.

Lindsay described how so much of what artists do now involves technology that it only made sense for artists and scientists to work together, a conversation that came up with Dr. Jill Tarter, astronomer and director of the Institute's Center for SETI Research.

According to Pierson, the next step for SETI will be to better define and find the funds to further develop the artist-in-residence program.

To commemorate the event, several members of the scientific and the artistic joined Pierson and Lindsay. In attendance from SETI and NASA were Tarter; Dr. Jon Jenkins, analysis lead for NASA's Kepler Mission; Astronomer Dr. Laurance Doyle; and Dr. Garik Israelian, astronomer and organizer of Starmus Festival. The artists included musician Freddie Clarke, composer and filmmaker Graeme Revell and screenwriter David Twohy.