Forking paths: depicting mitosis through process-based diagramming

ABSTRACT

Artist researcher Anderson shares a series of drawings developed through the experimental interdisciplinary project ‘Representing Biology as Process’. In this project Anderson and collaborators have developed a new approach to depict natural history through ‘relational process drawing’. With focus on the dynamic patterns of the processes of life and guided by principles of choreography, they draw together relationships between energy, time, movement, and environment at the molecular, cellular, and organismal scale. The drawings discussed are a kind of hybrid representation – composed to varying degrees of visual, numerical and linguistic expressions – that both provide new insights and generate new questions for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Drawing
• process
• interdisciplinary
• art
• science
• philosophy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Thanks to James Wakefield (Cell Biologist) and John Dupré (Philosopher of Biology) at the University of Exeter for their collaboration on this work and to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding ‘Representing Biology as Process’, project AH/P007457/1.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by AHRC [grant number AH/P007457/1].

Notes on contributors

Gemma Anderson

Gemma Anderson is an artist/researcher and mother of Una and Cosmo. She is currently co-investigator on the art/science/philosophy AHRC funded project ‘Representing Biology as Process’ (2017–2021) at the University of Exeter. She has collaborated on a number of interdisciplinary projects including ‘Hidden Geometries’ with the Mathematics Department at Imperial College London; ‘Isomorphology’ with the Natural History Museum, London; the ‘Cornwall Morphology and Drawing Centre’ at CAST, Cornwall; and ‘Portraits: Patients and Psychiatrists’ in collaboration with psychiatrists and patients at Bethlem Royal Hospital. Her work has been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Freud Museum and the Wellcome Collection, London. Most recently, her work is part of the exhibition ‘Critical Zones; Observatories for Earthly Politics’ at the Centre for Art and Media (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany and ‘The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree’ Exhibition at Camden Arts Centre, London. Recent publications include her book Drawing as a Way of Knowing in Art and Science (Intellect Press, 2017), and the peer reviewed articles ‘Drawing and the Dynamic Nature of Living Systems’, eLife Journal; ‘Dynamic Form: Klee as Artist and Morphologist’, Antennae Journal of Nature in Visual Culture; ‘On Drawing and Mathematics: From Inverse Vision to the Liberation of Form’, Leonardo Journal, and ‘Drawing Resemblance and Isomorphology’, Architectural Theory Review. Alongside academic publications, Anderson has produced limited edition Artist's Books including ‘Portraits: Patients and Psychiatrists’, Wellcome Trust, London, and ‘Isomorphology’ with Super-Collider, London and Atlantic Press, Cornwall.