Book cover fit for a gallery draws truth and beauty from Cooper's lab

by Wendy Y. Lawton

This winter, the physicist phoned the sculptor and said: "Let's make something elegant."

The fruit of that phone call is a pulsing, painterly computer-generated collage. The image is testament to the connection between science and art - and the bond between two of Brown's best-known scientists and artists.

Leon Cooper, professor of physics, shares a 35-year friendship with Richard Fishman, professor of visual arts. The former Guggenheim fellows are intellectual inversions of each other: Cooper is an art buff, Fishman a science fan.

Copper admires classic artists such as Matisse, as well as the mid-century modern masters de Kooning and Pollack. For his Physics 10 class, Cooper has collaborated with Oskar Eustis from Trinity Repertory Company to stage "Copenhagen" as a vehicle for exploring parallels between science and art. When asked to explain those parallels, the Nobel laureate says: "Beauty. Quantum theory is beautiful. And the structure of neurons are like the finest pieces of architecture ever done."

When Fishman arrived in Providence nearly 40 years ago, he walked the halls of Barus and Holley looking for inspiration. Science and art, Fishman explains, both examine the natural world. His studio is testament to this; it is littered with animal bones. Through a National Science Foundation grant, Fishman has teamed with the engineering department to digitally recreate artifacts from the ruins of a Jordanian temple.

Three years ago, Cooper and Fishman brought their interests together when they taught a course on the interplay between physics and science, art and architecture. The title was "Truth and Beauty."

So the phone call was in character. Cooper had a new book coming out. Would Fishman create a cover? Cooper's only request was that the image be beautiful. A Picasso masterpiece, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," was mentioned.

"Leon offers a challenge and I just nod my head," Fishman says. "But I'm not competing with Picasso."

Instead, Fishman did what lab scientists do: Create a team and get cracking. He drafted students Ali Zarrabi and Maria Dyer to create a computer-generated design using formulas and images cranked out by Cooper's lab. Lori Hepner, digital ace and Rhode Island School of Design graduate student, also came on board.

The result, after a few months' work, is an image that, at first glance, looks like a series of contradictions.

In the background, earthy blocks of color. In the foreground, bright red and blue peaks. These "mountains," duplicated for depth, are actually computer representations of neural activity, the product of a laboratory experiment. To add another visual layer, the artists created an overlay of some of Cooper's equations. Despite the obvious references to man and machines, the effect is oddly organic.

Cooper's book was written with former Brown graduate students Nathan Intrator, Brian Blais and Harel Shouval and published in April by World Scientific. Titled "Theory of Cortical Plasticity," the book details the Brown group's theory on how neurons change when we learn and store memories.

Inspired by the book jacket project, Fishman is hatching a plan to create a campus fund to promote other science-art collaborations. Cooper's phone will soon be ringing.