Small worlds

One way in which scientific data can be represented is through what is called a “network”, a mathematical graph. With different types of data come different types of networks, varying in overall architecture and connective properties. The “Small World Network” (Figures 1-3), as described by Strogatz & Watts in 1998, has an architecture that reflects the connective behavior of different brain areas during consciousness. Other systems which show small world properties include road maps, metabolic processing, voter networks, and social networks, among others.

Figure 1 Title: Small Worlds (detail I); materials: styrofoam, copper, wood; dimension: 3'×3'×3'; year: 2012.

Figure 2 Title: Small Worlds (detail II); materials: styrofoam, copper, wood; dimension: 3'×3'×3'; year: 2012.

Figure 3 Title: Small Worlds (detail III); materials: styrofoam, copper, wood; dimension: 3'×3'×3'; year: 2012.

About SciArt Center

At SciArt Center, we think artists and scientists seek answers to the same fundamental questions: who are we, why are we here, and where are we going? Both art and science build models of human experience in order to extend the boundaries of human capacity. Despite this common ground, artists and scientists are too often separate in their endeavors. As a community-based arts organization, we provide support and promote cross-disciplinary approaches and interactions.

SciArt Center offers a variety of online resources for our members and also hosts an assortment of pop-up events around New York City open to the public. In creating a virtual space for our members to interact and share their work, we seek to connect scientists and artists online and explore the potentials of those connections. Paired with our partner publication SciArt in America, we publish the fruits of these cross-disciplinary interactions, bolstering the science-art community at large. Our science and art themed pop-up events including film screenings, book club meetings, art shows, panel talks, and social mixers, serve to physically bring together scientists and artists for a common creative and intellectual cause.

With the pursuit of scientific and artistic understanding within the larger paradigm of intellectual unity, SciArt Center encourages the connectivity and transdisciplinary approaches needed for the 21st century.

For more information, please visit: http://www.sciartcenter.org.

Acknowledgements

Disclosure: The author declares no conflict of interest.