Product Description

Seen | Unseen is a deep, richly illustrated, and erudite analysis of the interconnections between science and the visual arts. Martin Kemp explores the responses of artists, scientists, and their instruments, to the world--ranging from early representations of perspective, to pinhole cameras, particle accelerators and the Hubble telescope.

From Leonardo, Durer, and the inventors of photography to contemporary sculptors, and from Galileo and Darwin to Stephen J. Gould, Kemp considers the way in which scientists and artists have perceived the world and responded to its patterns, and sees common "structural intuitions" reflected in their work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #735365 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

From Booklist
In Seen/Unseen, Kemp engages in some Leonardo da Vinci-like lateral thinking, tracking the parallel and often complementary ways in which artists and scientists have visualized the world from the fifteenth century to the present. Kemp connects the dots between, say, perspective in Renaissance painting to the three-dimensional computer models of today. Kemp's explications require the reader's close concentration as they illuminate not only painting, sculpture, photography, and satellite imaging but also anatomy, astronomy, particle physics, and advanced mathematics. This does not make for light reading, but the rewards are substantial. Kevin Nance
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"This well-illustrated book will appeal to anyone interested in form and perspective in the visual arts,as well as to science readers interested in perception and aesthetic sense."--Chemistry World

About the Author

Martin Kemp is Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford. He is perhaps best known as an expert in Renaissance art, and especially the work of Leonardo. Kemp himself studied both history of art and the natural sciences at Cambridge, and is as sure-footed in his treatment of the scientific context of imagery as he is in scholarly history of art. Among his books is the recent and highly successful Leonardo published by OUP.

Customer Reviews

Art & Science, Friends for Life
Please don't be put off by the Introduction. Keep reading; you'll be glad you did. The Intro seemed (to me) to be an extreme example of the overly precise elaboration of subtle(!) nuances that readers of scholarly writings learn to tolerate because we NEED the information buried - somewhere - within. But as soon as he moved away from trying to explain himself (his intentions, his book), and moved onto his topic, the writing began to flow. It became a wonderful opportunity to "listen" while an expert mused upon the historical intertwinement of the evolution(s) of art (his field) and science (one he has bothered to learn quite a lot about) ... and their apparent interdependence. He claims interest only in the varied uses of visual experience, but not in the currently-popular reconciliation of art and science. Yet, page by page, I found myself developing clearer understanding of why so many thinkers are feeling driven to try to reconcile these realms of activity that are often contrasted in ways that demean one or the other. Similarly, he shows no particular interest in a third currently-popular realm that I expected to find treated, our evolving brain and its wiring &/or activity. But he has made it easier for someone who does have this interest to write the next book in what could become a "series."