Crossing Over: Where Art and Science MeetCrossing Over, the latest of three collaborations between scholar Stephen Jay Gould and artist Rosamond Wolff Purcell, brings together thought-provoking essays and uncannily beautiful photographs to disprove the popular notion that art and science exist in an antagonistic relationship. The essays and photographs collected here present art and science in conversation, rather than in opposition. As Gould writes in his preface, although the two disciplines may usually communicate in different dialects, when juxtaposed they strikingly reflect upon and enhance one another. Working together, Purcell's photographs and Gould's scientific musings speak to us about ourselves and our world in a hybrid language richer than either could command on its own. In an essay on individuality, for instance, Gould looks through the lens of evolutionary theory to address the controversial issue of cloning and the often misguided fears it evokes. As a society that exalts the concept of the individual, Gould argues, we sometimes fail to recognize that clones walk among us. Identical twins represent "the greatest of all challenges to our concept of individuality." Rosamond Purcell's photograph depicting the famous Siamese conjoined twins Eng and Chang conveys an eerie feeling that cannot be captured in words. Through its unique combination of words and photographs, Crossing Over prompts us to ponder not only the basis of the false dichotomy between art and science, but also the distinction of mind and nature, and of all humanly imposed categories of order. Gould and Purcell's work convinces the reader that a provocative interplay between art and science is not only possible, but inevitable and necessaryas well. |
Contents
Crossing the Bar by Stephen Jay Gould | 11 |
Mind and Nature Mental Biases 85 | 14 |
Dimension and Distinction | 19 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aepyornis Agassiz ammonites anatomy animals Astaire beautiful bilateral symmetry biological body bones brachiopods chambered nautilus clone coil complex counterpart creatures crinoids culture Darwinian death dendrites depicted dinosaurs distinct Eng and Chang entropy essay evolution evolutionary evolved example face famous flexibility fossil fish fossil record Fred Astaire Gautier d'Agoty genetic geological Gould ground birds halves human Hyrtl's ichthyosaurs identical twins impose individual Kleiweg's label legs lineage lithographic living lovely mammals mass extinctions metaphorical million years ago modern molar Museum nature nature's nautiloids objects Old Red Sandstone organisms ostrich overlying pair paleontologist Peanut Permian extinction photograph plates polished preserved proglottids Purcell remains represent rhinoceroses rock Rosamond scale Scheuchzer's sea cucumbers shells side single skeletons skull slab Solnhofen Solnhofen limestone species specimen STEPHEN JAY GOULD stone sutures T. H. Huxley tapeworm taxonomy teeth theme tin boy tion unique usual vertebrates