Research projects

Art or science

A collaboration between the University of Tartu Museum, the Art Museum of Estonia, and the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture of the Estonian Academy of Arts, the project explores the connections between art and science in the past and present. 

In the current digital age there has been growing attention paid to the relationship between art and science, as demonstrated by a number of research, exhibition and creative projects around the world. In Estonia, too, there have been discussions about the intersections of art and science, even though their historical connections have largely been forgotten. 

On the one hand, traditional art history has deemed the collaboration of artists with scientists as a departure from “true” artistic production, even though some artists have seen this departure as “art for art’s sake”. On the other hand, even within the history of science itself, images related to scientific work have been pushed aside and their role in the production of knowledge has only recently begun to be recognised.