College News

Fluidity

Creativity flows at new center

ONE OF THE FIRST DISPLAYS THIS FALL in the Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity was artwork by Harvey Mudd students in the class Fluidity: Art, Science & Images/Special Topics in Art, taught by Rachel Levy, associate professor of mathematics and associate dean for faculty development, and Ken Fandell, associate professor of art and Michael G. and C. Jane Wilson Chair in Arts and the Humanities. By exploring art and mathematics in images and fluids, students gain perspective on the theory and context of fluid visualizations and create visual works informed by art’s historical and theoretical contexts.

Incidental Instability by Allison Barry ’16. Using a rattleback—a spinning top in the shape of semi-ellipsoid that exhibits a scientific phenomenon—Barry worked with the unstable nature of the rattleback motion within the context of a fluid. “I was surprised by many of the flows, and they manifested the idea that sometimes the best art is not what you intend to create or where you expect it to be.”
Incidental Instability by Allison Barry ’16. Using a rattleback—a spinning top in the shape of semi-ellipsoid that exhibits a scientific phenomenon—Barry worked with the unstable nature of the rattleback motion within the context of a fluid. “I was surprised by many of the flows, and they manifested the idea that sometimes the best art is not what you intend to create or where you expect it to be.”

The Center, created with a $25 million gift from Rick and Susan Sontag—1964 graduates of Harvey Mudd College and Pomona College, respectively—is an innovative setting where students from the five Claremont Colleges can work in creative teams. Nicknamed “The Hive” for the buzz of creative thought and collaborative activity it is designed to foster, the center supports students’ creative development and helps equip them to work collaboratively to address the future’s most ambiguous problems and complex challenges.

Step by Step by Emma Meersman ’16. How a small drop of liquid affects a much larger pool provided the impetus for Meersman’s project. She documented the process of hibiscus tea diffusing into water. “Much like the drops of tea, all of the time invested in something will contribute to an end result … a second of time here or there will slowly saturate the pool of experience.”
Step by Step by Emma Meersman ’16. How a small drop of liquid affects a much larger pool provided the impetus for Meersman’s project. She documented the process of hibiscus tea diffusing into water. “Much like the drops of tea, all of the time invested in something will contribute to an end result … a second of time here or there will slowly saturate the pool of experience.”

Emma Meersman ’16, one of the students whose work was featured there, says, “I am very glad to have a space like The Hive. I think that it encourages collaboration between the colleges and allows students to interact in an open, creative environment. The Fluidity course challenged me to think about how scientific concepts could be applied to an art project as well as how to view scientific experiments through an artistic lens. The course encouraged students to experiment and discover new things about the world, a value that is also reflected in The Hive.”

Warped Dimensions by Nicky Subler ’16. Subler shot this with a Canon Powershot in automatic macro mode. She placed honey on an angled glass plate, backed by a page from a lab notebook, and lit it with a desk lamp. “Part of art is the ability to see beauty in mistakes, in messes. Or to see beauty where someone hasn’t looked yet.”
Warped Dimensions by Nicky Subler ’16. Subler shot this with a Canon Powershot in automatic macro mode. She placed honey on an angled glass plate, backed by a page from a lab notebook, and lit it with a desk lamp. “Part of art is the ability to see beauty in mistakes, in messes. Or to see beauty where someone hasn’t looked yet.”
Portal by Jim Wu ’16. Wu used a DSLR camera with macro lens to capture this image of soap film against a black background. “I recruited my friend, Laura Zhang, to hold the soap film and perturb it by adding soap droplets to the top and blowing gently on the film … It seems as if we, the onlookers, are peering through a portal into another vibrant and colorful world.” Wu’s artwork, created for the class Fluidity: Art, Science & Images/Special Topics in Art, was one of the first displays this fall in the Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity.
Portal by Jim Wu ’16. Wu used a DSLR camera with macro lens to capture this image of soap film against a black background. “I recruited my friend, Laura Zhang, to hold the soap film and perturb it by adding soap droplets to the top and blowing gently on the film … It seems as if we, the onlookers, are peering through a portal into another vibrant and colorful world.” Wu’s artwork, created for the class Fluidity: Art, Science & Images/Special Topics in Art, was one of the first displays this fall in the Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity.