From Leonardo DaVinci To Apple: Technology Influenced Our Society By Transforming Into Art

The final weeks of 2019 mark a moment of not only transitioning into a new year, but also a new decade: the 20s in the new millennium. As we think back on the last 20 years, we can’t help but notice that technology changed every aspect of our lives, from the mundane day-to-day to the more salient such as novel medical treatments lessening the effect of or eradicating some of the world’s diseases. With the proliferation of technological platforms and advances, we have created a new buzzword: data. 

One overlooked aspect data creation is the production of powerful ways to visualize and model processes, which intern has turned into a form of art. Cutting edge computing possibilities unknown before our time, have given scientists a tool for visualization many of the nature’s most intimate process such as protein folding or quantum level electron transfer pathways that are used to regulate biochemical mechanisms that drive bodily processes. These have opened up a gateway for art, and new artistic endeavors that couple understanding of nature’s process and artistic expression. Several initiatives in architecture and design have borrowed from the principles of nature to create products, for example in the field of synthetic biology, where modeling different growth mechanisms algorithmically produces design products. In fact, such artistic products have crept up in collections of modern museums, for example this exhibition at the MoMA in New York. Another example of art being driven by nature, is beautiful is furniture designed by Joseph Walsh, which can be seen to mimic growth processes of nature and using start of the art innovation techniques brings it to light in the form of a sofa or a chair, as seen from this Sotheby’s exhibit. 

In fact the intersection between science and art is not the creation of this millennia, but it has rather existed throughout all of human history. Art and science have been two sides of the same coin, where advances in technology have pushed the boundaries of art. This is evident if we examine history and look back at the European creations when technological innovations pushed transformation, such as the time from renaissance to the enlightenment, we see that scientific advances were conceptualized as the form of art. For example, an exhibition titled Making Marvels: Science and Splendor at the Courts of Europe, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, focuses on how the advances in technology created were used to create cutting edge objects of the period for for adoration, leisure and displayed art. One example is this moving clock from the 1500s. In such a way we see, that technology has really driven the advances of art. In fact the leading example of such movement is Leonadro DaVinci, who can be thought of as the father of innovation coupled with art. 

Today, the with the proliferation of technology design has become a much more salient feature of the workforce, as digital platforms broadcast the viewer with various images, thus their design and artistic messaging become increasingly important for products. Apple, an enterprise, known for its stringent emphasis on design principles, has succeed precisely because it used technology and presented it as art that resonated with its consumers. Perhaps hundreds years of years later, we will the iPhone in a museum exhibition.

It will be exciting to see in the future what new artistic creation technological advances will bring with it in the future, not to mention the new careers and sectors will be formed as we move through this process. As I’ve written in the past that careers in STEM have been influenced by art, it will be exciting to see this unfold as the intersection between art and science continues to merge as we progress through time.