Iconoclastic art, iconophilic science? A panel discussion on the role of imagery in art and science with Eberhard Fetz, Dan Glaser, Brian McClave and Catherine Watling chaired by Jane Prophet 7.30 pm at the Sussex Arts Club, Brighton.

Two artists (Catherine Watling and Brian McClave) and two scientists (Eberhard Fetz and Dan Glaser) gave short, ten minute presentations on the role of imagery in their practice. The event was introduced and chaired by Jane Prophet, artist and director of CARTE. The title of this event uses phrases from a short essay by Hans Ulrich Obrist, THE_WHITE_WEBISTE BY HANS BERNHARD: On the Iconoclasm of Modern Art.

Catherine Watling, is a freelance artist working mainly with interactive digital installation and specialising in art-science collaboration. She is Co-Director of New Dust and Associate Artist at Junction, Cambridge. She is currently collaborating with Professor Paul Pearson (University of Cardiff), a micropaleontologist researching global environmental changes by tracking mutations in the minuscule Foraminifera fossils (also found in your everyday toothpaste). Catherine and artist Brian McClave will work with the electron-microscope to record the fossils and make a 3D movie. In partnership with FoAM one goal of the collaboration is to make an immersive installation where the fossils can be experienced as human-sized and their textures can be touched and the interaction heard.

Brian McClave has worked predominantly for the past seven years with the medium of digital, stereoscopic (3D) video. Using this technology - that is informed by lens-based practice from 19th century photography to 21st century digital gaming - he has made a series of works that examine how technology effects the way we experience the world in which we live. Central to these examinations has been the exploration of how our ability to build complex, probing, 'vision machines' expands our conception of the universe on both macro and micro levels. The stereoscopic videos are often multi-layered with information occupying different spacial layers within the 3D environment. This technique allows for a superimposition of related themes and images in a way that is impossible in 2D video work. Brian began his artistic career in experimental photography, building unusual cameras to perform specific tasks. Later he began to work with digital imaging and digital video, always applying a very experimental approach both technically and artistically. Brian has shown work extensively in the UK, Australia and the United States.

Eberhard Fetz, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, is currently a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin where the goal of his recently started 10 month project is to use graphic and multimedia techniques in new ways to represent the operation of the brain in performing a variety of behavioral and cognitive functions.

Daniel Glaser is an imaging neuroscientist and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London. He uses fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to examine human brain function. In 2002 he was appointed 'Scientist in Residence' at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London - the first appointment of its kind at an arts institution. During his residency he collaborated with the ICA curators to put on talks, panel discussions, dance workshops and psychological experiments. He chairs the ICA's Cafe Scientifique which is the London branch of a national series providing a new way for scientists to interact with a general public.

Jane Prophet graduated in Fine Art from Sheffield Hallam University (1987), completing a PhD at Warwick University (1995). Among her past projects is the award-winning website, TechnoSphere, which reflects her interest in complexity theory, landscape and artificial life: a real time 3D version is permanently exhibited at the National Museum of Photography, Film and TV, Bradford. Site-specific projects include Conductor (the inaugural installation at The Wapping Project, made using 74 tonnes of water and 120 electro luminescent cables), Decoy, and The Landscape Room, which combine images of real and computer simulated landscapes. Jane is part of CELL, an interdisciplinary collaboration that has been investigating new theories about stem cells. Jane has been working together with medical scientist Dr Neil Theise, a world leader in adult stem cell research, based in New York, mathematician Mark D'Inverno, computer scientist Rob Saunders and curator Peter Ride, from the University of Westminster. One aim has been to find new ways of visualising the recent, contentious theories of stem cell behaviour, and to find ways to feed the visualisation back into scientific research so that it can be a conceptual tool in laboratory practice. Another has been to generate a range of artistic outcomes that are under-pinned by the emerging understanding of cellular activity.

Many thanks to Dave Anderson for documenting the event.