WATCH: University of Limerick academic collaborates on project uniting art and science

An academic at University of Limerick has collaborated on a new project uniting the disciplines of art and science.

Professor Martin Mullins of UL’s Kemmy Business School and a researcher at Lero is participating in the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) STEAM Art Collaboration.

The initiative aims to inspire and engage primary school students, and the public, with research through the commission of five artworks which unite the disciplines of art and science.

Artists Shevaun Doherty, Ed Devane, 1iing Heaney, Peter Nash and David Beattie were chosen following a competitive selection process in 2020. The artists have worked in close collaboration with researchers from five SFI Research Centres including Lero at University of Limerick, to produce five artworks which creatively interpret an array of scientific topics.

The artworks are informed by research on PCR testing, quantum communications, applied geosciences, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and neuroscience and are presented through a range of art mediums. Each of the five projects is specific and unique to the artist and researchers involved.

The project is funded under SFI’s Discover Primary Science and Maths programme, and in part by The Arts Council. Dr Ruth Freeman, Director of Science for Society, Science Foundation Ireland said: “This new collaboration through the SFI Discovery Primary Science and Maths Programme provides students with access to science in an engaging and educational environment, highlighting the many important connections between science and the arts. The five artists have interpreted their concepts in a variety of exciting ways which are informed by research, but are not purely explanatory in nature. The aim of the initiative is to captivate and inspire children to learn more and I would like to congratulate all those involved in creating these works of art.”

Cork artist Peter Nash is collaborating with Professor Mullins of UL and Lero on a project focusing on some of the ethical challenges of driverless cars.

“This project examines the differences that arise when we consider a machine driving compared to a human driver,” explained Professor Mullins, a senior lecturer in risk and insurance and a co-leader of the Emerging Risk Group at the KBS, who is also a Lero researcher.

“Decisions are made in a different way and yet these decisions can have moral consequences. For hundreds of years, with Emmanuel Kant as a key staging point, we humans were thought to have unique insights in the areas of morality. The challenge for future programmers is to allow cars to think ethically. It is not only a technical challenge but a philosophical one.

“All this is intimately related to the work of Peter Nash, ways of seeing - to borrow a phrase from John Berger – is a prerequisite for the “good car” and Peter’s work addresses the phenomena of how future cars will see the road and see all of us,” Professor Mullins said.

Using stop-motion animation, the artist has created an immersive physical world. Lero research has been interpreted into a narrative which depicts the journey of an autonomous vehicle around a familiar environment. The vehicle comes across different questions, challenges and situations along its way.