Artist Designs Materials Science Exhibits
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CAREER CLIPS
Artist Designs Materials Science Exhibits Tom Rockwell “What kind of design work do you do?” I am asked when I tell people that I am a designer. “Anything to do with science,” I answer and wait for the inevitable puzzled look. In over 10 years as an artist and designer working with scientific concepts, I have found that my interdisciplinary career takes some explaining. I typically describe my work as the creation of scientific illustrations, exhibits for science museums, and large sculptures or playgrounds that teach scientific concepts. My recent projects include design and construction of a Rainbow Maze, in which museum visitors get lost in a world of lights and colorful panels made of different optical materials; a giant model of a Cell Sorter for an exhibition about nanobiotechnology, in which children move and sort balls representing cells with different properties; and a rotating Kinetic Window, in which optical illusions, mixtures of materials of different densities, and a pendulum are set in motion as the circular window turns. My typical day involves a balance of the practical and the creative. On the one hand, I tend to the financial, legal, and other administrative dimensions of running a small business. Painted Universe Inc., which I founded in 1995, is a design/build firm that currently has six employees and a network of subcontractors. While the practical matters of running a business offer many rewarding challenges, I try to preserve a part of each day for the creative work that I find most fulfilling. Working on drawings or models, brainstorming with clients, and overseeing fabrication keep me involved in the activities that first attracted me to my chosen profession. I was raised in Europe, the son of an expatriate sculptor, and as a child, I assumed that I would be an artist. Science did not enter the scene until I came to the United States for college. Through a course on music theory, I began to see the beauty and elegance in scientific ideas and imagery. The professor who taught the class was interested in the similarities between music and mathematics, and he analyzed the aesthetics of a mathematical proof as if it were a Bach cantata. Until that time, I had been a typical arts and humanities student, keeping a respectful distance from science. From then on, however, I took a more active interest in scientific knowledge, not in order to pursue a research career, but like a painter exploring a landscape to find scenes worth
MRS BULLETIN/NOVEMBER 2003
Artist and designer Tom Rockwell (right) works with his associate Nathan Blanding in front of the Rainbow Maze, a museum exhibit that explores optical materials.
painting. Although I completed a degree in studio art, I spent much of my time looking for images in scientific texts and journals, studying the history of science, and talking with scientists about their work. Subsequent work in science museums and educational playgrounds eventually led me to form my own company. I was first exposed to materials science when I was asked
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