Tugçe Bilgin, Evolutionary Biologist & Creative Technologist, Zürich University of Applied Science

While art is often thought to be oppositional to science & technology, these domains are less distinct than many of us might believe. From cave paintings to photography to the Adobe Creative Suite, artists have always endeavored to incorporate novel means of production into creative practice; and from the invention of perspectival representation to Cubism to the New Aesthetic, artists often attempt to understand and express the new sensoria that novel technologies unlock. Conversely, technology is also often driven by new creative vision, attempting to both capture and empower new forms of creativity; and science, for its part, also relies on new ways of seeing, and the capacity to draw new knowledge into being through creative questioning.

Why then, in recent decades, do we seem to have come to see these domains as oppositional? Technology is too often understood as a tool of bureaucracy or the war machine, or enlisted in service of the profit motive. Similarly, science is frequently evaluated in terms of the size of data sets and other quantitative measures that downplay experimentation and exploration.

In this talk, Tugçce Bilgin will explore how to ensure creative thinking is not forgotten by scientists and technologists. Playful challenges, games, and other artistic activities offer powerful ways to nurture imagination both in STEM education and as part of the scientific method itself. Drawing from her work as a published evolutionary biologist and an instructor of creative programming, she will share strategies for fostering creative thinking among scientists and technologists – and will welcome insights from the audience on how we can further bridge these worlds.

*Refreshments will be served.