What role does art have in understanding science?
I think it has a huge role on two levels. One is both artists and scientists are trying to do the same thing. They’re trying to understand the world and the universe better; they just do it from different angles. It’s great when you allow them to meld together so that the insights of each can help take the other further. The other way I think putting art and science together is crucial is the philosophy of the festival—you need to create many avenues of entry into science because you’ve got many different kinds of people you want to reach. For the science enthusiast, programs that are more pure science will reach them, but for the person whose attention is more focused on the arts and when they hear science they want to run the other way, if you have dance or music or theater or film or performance art that has an organic link to science, you can bring in a whole new group of people that can get excited about science. That’s what we try to do with those programs. Well one of the progra
