This monographic volume of RIEV is devoted to the Beautiful Scientific Arts. The relationship between art and science is a fascinating and complex interaction that has attracted the interest of thinkers, creators and scholars. Although they may appear to be distinct disciplines, art and science are deeply interconnected. Art, often associated with creativity, imagination and aesthetic expression, and science, characterised by logic, observation and empirical evidence, share a deep connection that transcends their apparent differences. When related, they influence and enrich each other. Both, art and science, share a creative essence and are methods of investigating the nature of the world. They seek to make sense of the world and communicate their findings to others, albeit by different means.
Our deepest gratitude and admiration for the work done by all the authors for this monographic issue. Authors with very different backgrounds whose contributions are the best exponent of what beauty means in art and science, and the interconnection between both. We hope that the reader will enjoy the beauty that lies in these articles that merge art and science and the need for each other.
We approach this subject through seven articles. The first, the foreword Towards a “New Renaissance” of the Beautiful Scientific Arts, conceived as a general approach is written by Javier Echeverria and Jesus M. Ugalde, editors-in-chief. They are the creators of the idea for the theme of this monograph centered on the beauty in the arts and sciences. In this foreword and through the articles in this monographic issue the close connection between scientific and artistic practices is shown. Are we facing a “New Reinassance”? To answer to this question let us start with a presentation of each of the articles:
The circle game has been written by Alicia Alonso, Manuel Prieto and Felix M. Goñi. The paper highlights the omnipresence of the circle, and the related figures sphere and cylinder, throughout history and in different fields, demonstrating its importance in the understanding of our world. The authors start with a definition of these figures according to Euclidean geometry and then, they detail the relevance of these geometric figures through multiple interesting and outstanding examples. In Physics and Astronomy, from the spherical shape of the massive celestial bodies to the micrometric cosmic dust, and the tools devoted to astronomical studies, with special emphasis on the remarkable common structure of the Copernican cosmos and Bohr’s atomic structure. They show up the importance of the wheel in Mechanics, but also in mystical and religious experience. In Architecture and plastic arts, there are numerous examples of the use of these geometric shapes. In Biology; viruses, cells, liposomes, plant galls and eggs have spherical forms. The authors conclude their fascinating article with a description of an astonishing manuscript recently discovered in Lisbon and a reflection on the human attraction to the circle and the sphere.
In her article Mathematics in art, for art and as art, María Jesús Esteban reviews the impact of Mathematics as a source of inspiration and as a tool for art creation and development in different artistic fields. The author starts describing the impact of mathematics on music composition, education and research providing examples of initiatives and interactions between them. Then, she follows with its importance in architecture and for architects in order to build beautiful but also realistic and safe constructions. The author makes us aware that a mathematical approach can be used to make elegant human sculptures but sculptures of mathematical objects are also present in museums and in the streets of our towns. In painting, perspective and geometry are of paramount importance and fractal art represents another strong interaction between mathematics and art. She also shows us how mathematics is involved in photography and in the design of image, video and audio compression protocols and in the special and visual effects in the movie industry. The impact on literature and poetry is also described. She ends with a very interesting reflection on whether mathematics is an art in itself, but in order to know the opinion of this great mathematician we encourage the reader to immerse themselves in this brilliant article.
The authors of the next article are Aloña Aldasoro-Zabala, Montse Hervella and Conchi de-la-Rúa. In the paper entitled Evolutionary analysis of human prosociality: an approach based on the study of HPA axis related genes in informative ancient populations, they address the study of human prosociality from an evolutionary perspective analyzing genomic data of prehistoric individuals. Through this scientific article, the authors introduce us to the complex methodology of the study of ancient DNA. Specifically, the study analyses genetic variants related to behaviors regulated through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Indeed, they report the existence of possible temporal changes in the allelic frequencies of OXTR gene, which encodes the receptor of oxytocin, a hormone with an important role in social behaviors and attachment. The authors stress the complexity of the evolution of the human prosociality and the possible influence of other factors but their results provide support for an innovative methodological proposal to analyze the evolution of sociocognitive skills of Homo sapiens. By understanding where we came from we can try to better understand who we are.
The musician Tomás Marco offers us a reflection on Music and numbers, a historical journey that, starting in antiquity, reaches the present day. Throughout history, music theory has been intrinsically related to numbers. This is not a mere historical synthesis, as Marco focuses on the thoughts of musical personalities that he considers key persons, such as Xenakis, a reference in 20th century musical creation. Music has both, a scientific and artistic character. Music and numbers have been a binomial since the origins of music itself. In all cultures, there are concepts such as rhythm and the duration of notes, which can be represented numerically through musical figures and their values. Acoustics is also mathematical; the very frequency of a sound wave determines the pitch of the sound, and this frequency can be expressed numerically in Hertz. Other concepts, such as resonance and interference, can be explained mathematically.
Iñigo Olcoz Basarte, Sergio Eslava Arraiza, Leire Arbona Puértolas and Esteban Morrás Andrés reflect on music and technology, proposing in their article Music & AI: Requiem or Symphony a dialectical journey between Music and Artificial Intelligence. The authors raise the dilemma of whether the impact of Artificial Intelligence on music will lead to a democratisation of new possibilities of artistic expression or, on the other hand, to a trivialisation that will lead to an increasingly lower quality of music. This is a very profound question, in a time like the present, where Artificial Intelligence has managed to automate cognitive skills that until now could only be imagined by human intelligence, and where the general public also participates in the synthetic generation of art in the field of musical composition. This article embarks on a journey through the historical dialectic between music and technology, looking for parallels in disciplines such as chess that have undergone similar processes, and explores the indissoluble relationship between merit and artistic result and between musical and extra-musical factors. Based on this relationship, it analyses the recent and current impact of algorithmics in avant-garde musical composition. It also looks at the legal framework relating to musical authorship, which leads to an ethical reflection on Artificial Intelligence.
We finish the issue with a very personal article by filmmaker Javier Aguirresarobe, The trail of light in cinema. Cinema is intrinsically linked to light, a light that mutates and modernises. The article summarises, from the point of view of a director of photography, the whole process of creating light in the cinematographic and/or audiovisual image, its relationship with the technical equipment, the materials used, as well as the innovations and changes that have arisen in this process from the incorporation of direct sound to the latest technological innovations in the digital era. It provides a chronological review of the evolution of cameras and the techniques used from the beginning of cinema to the present day. He also illustrates it with typical anecdotes of a cinematographer with a long career in both, analogue and digital. This personal narrative is peppered with cases that the cinematographer himself has witnessed, with protagonists such as Woody Allen, Pedro Almodóvar and Tom Cruise, among others. Sharing these personal memories and linking them so well in the story is a great success. Thus, through these pages, we get to know who he is and what he does, a figure so hidden behind the camera, but so vital in the creation of an element as vital as light in cinema. The article closes with a brilliant epilogue in which we are invited to get to know the figure of the cinematographer, a person who dreams of light and creates it, whatever the tools and period in which he or she works.
Ibarretxe Bilbao, Naroa
Jimeno Aranguren, Roldán
Guest Editors
