Science is founded on the creativity of the human mind, much like art. The various fields of science generate impressive pieces of data that can further spur the creativity of artists, thereby connecting worlds, languages, and people.

At The Art of Science, we believe that connecting people is an essential aspect of human kind and that art is a universal language that can be used to inspire generations and further the development of knowledge and social values. Spray painting is a versatile technique that is used at a global scale, enabling artists to express their feelings, their views of the world, and to convey messages throughout history. It is mostly used in the streets and is, therefore, recognized and accessible to all.

Merging science and art through spray painting is a way of immortalizing humanity and promote values important for both disciplines. Here, we propose to merge art and science through visual art in a live performance event.

The event we are proposing would be organized as follows: scientific photos would be collected from scientists and approximately 50-70 pictures would be selected. They would be printed on high-quality paper and organized into an installation of, for example, 4m x 3m. A street artist would then spray paint across the assembled installation in a live event, open to viewers. After the live spray painting, the installation can be presented as a whole or it can be separated into individual images. With each image being modified by the spraying, the graffiti continues to connect individual scientific images, even after the installation is disassembled, symbolizing the collaboration between scientists.

The concept behind these events addresses the difficulties of collaborative work, in fields where collaboration and multidisciplinarity are vital for progress and success. Moreover, the painting produced across the images symbolizes the interpretation of scientific results that is basically telling a story and uniting the individual results presented as in a scientific paper.

With this project, we would like to stimulate the participation of young scientists around the world, and to promote and popularize the awareness of science and relevant scientific topics.

So far, we have held one event in Goettingen, Germany, in the context of the Prion2022 Meeting. The images were contributed by the participants of the meeting as well as local scientists. The spraying was performed in front of an audience of over 100 people by a local graffiti artist Malte Orth.