Tinkering with the possibilities of blending science and art, city-based artist Yashas Shetty, in one of his early experiments in 2007, set up a screen with an image of a wispy flower. Attached to the apparatus was a device, similar to a microphone, which when blown on caused the flower petals to disintegrate on screen.
Years later, Shetty now stakes his claim to an interesting oeuvre — amid his works figure makeshift microscopes made using web cams, an incubator created with a bulb and a food blender turned into a centrifuge.
His musical feats include a composition that destroys itself after being played once and statistics of monsoon converted to music.
Shetty is absolutely sincere in his approach as an artist in science and that is probably what has led him to create a large body of work.
“In science, living things become your medium. Science is mysterious to non-scientists and I thought why do only scientists have to be involved in science? I wanted something like a public lab where people can do science,” Shetty explains.
Playing with Life Forms
Shetty has studied computers and Western music at Berkeley and teaches at the Srishti School of Art, Technology and Design. He was an artist in residence at scientist Mukund Thattai’s lab at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS).
In another of his experiments, Shetty and his team then took a slice of DNA from a class of bacteria that produce geosmin, a chemical which produces the earthy smells that emanate when the first rains of summer fall. They then inserted the DNA into the E coli bacteria. So now you had E coli smelling of the first rains.
Does it sound poetic? Well, it is scientific too. “You had also played with life forms and that is the larger picture,” Shetty says.
This exercise won the Best Presentation award at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2009.
“A rose looks good. Vegetables have a certain taste. Is there aesthetics involved in genetically modifying things? When I started out, I thought science would want me to be an outreach guy. Now I think science needs mediators in art. It is like a new way or language of things,” Shetty ruminates.
Tinkering in the Lab
A PCR machine generates copies of DNA and Shetty’s PCR machine does too, albeit with a difference. Shetty’s PCR machine is made of a bulb and fan and uses chemicals to replicate DNA in a process he fondly calls ‘Jugaad Lab’.
About the response his work receives, Shetty says, “We have done workshops with schools and children spend hours tinkering with the instruments. Scientists in NCBS seem very open to the idea of an artist working with a scientist”.
The Scientist and the Artist
On Shetty’s work, Thattai says, “I did not want Yashas to indulge in science communication or give me scientific insights. We never think of our work in the social context. What he brought to our lab was a general dimension to our discussions. He could mix different species of plants or animals. We did not think of this.”
Thattai feels the processes involved in science and art are the same. “Art history and science history are similar. The difference lies in the way science is presented to people, as a formula. The process of presenting art to people is different”, he thinks.
So, can Thattai be a scientist in Shetty’s space for a while? What will he do?
The scientist is candid: “I would have to learn a different way of thinking. It is much harder. I may have to spend years to understand everything. We have come up with ways for non geniuses to do science. If you don’t have a talent for art, you cant do it”.
The Artist at Work
If you walk into Shetty’s den at Srishti School, you will find him trying to make markers that will detect genetically modified organisms around him.
When he is not doing that, he is teaching students to become artists and work towards spaces that blur the lines between art and science.
Pioneering Art in Science
Yashas Shetty helped set up the Centre for Experimental Media Arts at Srishti School and has previously taught at design schools across India. He is also one of the founding members of the Hackteria project (http://hackteria.org). Shetty is fascinated by the works of David Dunn who wondered if trees make any sound when they grow. He is also inspired by American aeronautical engineer and painter Frank Malina and Jack Parsons, American occultist and rocket propulsion researcher