"Pioneers in Art and Science: John Berger and Gustav Metzger"

This work consists of two complementary documentary film monographs, commissioned by Arts Council England, which create analytical and contextual profiles of key practitioners working at the intersection between art and science.

The philosopher John Berger was a clear choice for one of the profiles because of his significant continuous engagement with art. He had previously collaborated on the ‘Signatures’ project through extended dialogues with scientists at CERN in Geneva. The research for the Pioneers of Science consisted creating a line of questioning and a narrative form for the documentary that allowed him to take his ideas about new scientific discoveries, and the role that artists might play in envisioning these, to a deeper level. Through liner and non-linear editing, the imaginative ‘lateralness’ of Berger’s thinking was made apparent, underlining his importance as a pioneer of art and science. Its first public screening was in 2005 at the exhibition Marking Time at Farmleigh Gallery in Dublin.

The Gustav Metzger documentary monograph operates in a somewhat different register to the Berger, insofar as the research focuses on this artist’s own engagement with physical properties and actions associated with his ‘auto-destructive’ practice. Metzger had also visited CERN and presented a paper at the Lisbon venue of ‘Signatures’. The challenge for this research was to create the first biographical study of this artist, to place him in both his personal and the art historical contexts, and to invite him to illuminate his ‘auto-destructive’ techniques including his use of corrosive materials and physically unstable materials. As with the Berger profile, the objective was to progressively assemble a body of evidence about Metzger’s that confirmed him as a pioneer of art and science. It was launched at the Hayward Gallery in 2004.

• http://www.lcc.arts.ac.uk/Ken_McMullen_r...