ABSTRACT
When X-rays were first invented, wealthy women commissioned radiographs of their bejeweled hand as a “self-portrait.” The jewelry conferred status, bringing the novel image out of the realm of science and placing it firmly in the world of art. This interesting anecdote shows a fundamental impulse of the mind to navigate between science and art. On one hand, art – in the form of decorative rings – tames the frightening and even repulsive character of such science while, on the other, scientific inventions such as radiography make the world visible in new ways. The philosopher Michel Serres has explored intellectual questions that engage science and art simultaneously in his book Le Passage du nordouest (Serres and Hermes, 1980). For Serres, the floating icebergs and uncertain archipelago of the trans-continental route through northern Canada serves as a metaphor for investigation and discovery, as it has oscillated between scientific inventions and philosophical inquiry throughout history.
