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Visual Arts

Art Meets Science

Do Our Brains Find Certain Shapes More Attractive Than Others?

A new exhibition in Washington, D.C., claims that humans have an affinity for curves—and there is scientific data to prove it

Mood: experimental. Desired quality: active.

These Abstract Portraits Were Painted By An Artificial Intelligence Program

The Painting Fool, a computer program, can create portraits based on its mood, assess its work and learn from its mistakes

A New App Turns Fractals Into Ornate Art

With Frax, users can create mathematically-driven art, adding color, depth and texture to geometric shapes

Horseshoe crab

Animal Specimens, From Fish to Birds to Mammals, Get Inked

Inspired by Japanese fish rubbings, two University of Texas biologists make spectacular prints of a variety of species at different stages of decay

Jonah is cast overboard to a sea monster in an image from the earliest known atlas, the Theatrum orbis terrarum, by Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius, first published in 1570.

The Enchanting Sea Monsters on Medieval Maps

Fictitious animals on 16th and early 17th century maps hint at how people’s perception of the ocean has changed over time

“Alexis”

This Photographer Shoots Portraits With a Thermal Camera

Artist Linda Alterwitz uses a camera that detects radiant heat, instead of light, uncovering hidden thermal signatures in everyday scenes

Artist Nickolay Lamm’s depiction of a polar-grizzly hybrid

What Would a Cross Between a Polar Bear and a Grizzly Really Look Like?

As climate changes and Arctic sea ice melts, species shift habitats and may interbreed. Lamm digitally manipulates photographs to imagine these hybrids

Oto Gillen, “untitled, (Vanitas),” 2007, traditional chromogenic print, mat board, UV glass, mahogany, screws

Snack on This: One Curator Has Devoted a Whole Show to Pizza Art

What is it about that slice of cheesy goodness that makes it such an appealing subject for these artists?

These Tattoos Honor Lost, Not-So-Loved Species

To overcome how people tend to care only about cute endangered animals, Samantha Dempsey designed and distributed temporary tattoos of ugly extinct species

Oceanographer Gareth Lawson, who studies pteropods, was able to identify Kavanagh’s sculptures to species, such as this Limacina helicina.

The Gorgeous Shapes of Sea Butterflies

Cornelia Kavanagh’s sculptures magnify tiny sea butterflies—ocean acidification’s unlikely mascots—hundreds of times

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Top 10 Biggest Roadside Foods in America

Where is the world’s biggest pistachio?

Planet of the apps: The Cooper-Hewitt will release the code behind Planetary, enabling everyone to adapt the software.

How Does a Museum Acquire an iPad App for its Collections?

The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is making its first foray into design that you can’t actually see

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Cosmic Portraits Created From Hubble Space Telescope Images

Sergio Albiac generates images of people by collecting their head shots and replacing pixels with snippets from pictures of stars and galaxies

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Nobel Prize Winners Are Put to the Task of Drawing Their Discoveries

Volker Steger photographs Nobel laureates posing with sketches of their breakthrough findings

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The End of the World Might Just Look Like This

Artist Ron Miller presents several scenarios—most of them scientifically plausible—of landscapes imperiled and of Earth meeting its demise

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When Lettuce Was a Sacred Sex Symbol

For nearly 3,000 years lettuce was associated with the Egyptian god of fertility, Min, for its resemblance to the phallus

The city of Shanghai presents A True Story (above), an impressive work of mosaïculture, at Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal 2013.

Horticultural Artists Grow Fantastical Scenes at the Montréal Botanical Garden

Take a peek at some of the living artwork entered in an international competition in Quebec this summer

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This Incredible Art Installation Makes It Rain, Everywhere But On You

“Rain Room,” on display at MoMA, is an indoor downpour that detects the presence of people and adjusts to keep them dry

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The Vibrant Patterns of Portuguese Men-of-War

Beachgoers despise the stinging animals, but photographer Aaron Ansarov finds surreal beauty in them

Designer Kate McLean creates detailed smell maps of cities around the world, such as this map of the the “Smelliest Block in New York.”

Mapping the Smells of New York, Amsterdam and Paris, Block by Block

Designer and cartographer Kate McLean charts the sweet scents and pungent odors that fill a city’s olfactory landscape

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