Art and science in the UK: a brief history and critical reflection

During the first decade of the twenty-first century, a conjoint activity, ‘SciArt’, was constructed, whose supposed interdisciplinarity very often shaded into a species of science communication. In this decade, discussions about the complementarity of art and science were conceived in terms of epistemology, notably the qualities of imagination and curiosity. Having briefly established this historical background, this paper moves on to discuss how, during the current decade, Art and Science (A&S) discourse has altered due to a number of changes in the cultural politics of both its constituent fields, emerging as a ‘transdiscipline’ characterised by ‘creativity’. Eighteen in-depth surveys with leading practitioners in A&S form a substantial part of the research material. The paper examines, in large part through their critically engaged responses, what the disciplinary, economic and cultural implications of this changed discourse may be. Though potentially angled, at times, towards the solution of so-called ‘wicked’ problems, transdisciplinarity also sacrifices the specific critical expertise of art, fetishizes tech at the expense of science, and selectively ignores institutional problems inherent in funding and power structures.