Toni Feder’s excellent story “Mingling art and science opens minds” (Physics Today, April 2021, page 24) is of special interest to me as someone who has had both a career in physics and a second career in art. Feder describes many instances where an artifact of science or of art inspires work in the other’s field, and she also talks of improving dialog between those fields. But I would have liked to see stronger emphasis on the motive that drives many, if not most, scientists and artists—namely, the joy of discovery.
I was an undergraduate teacher and grant-supported physicist at Williams College for 32 years, then a sculptor for 21 years (for some examples, see www.fieldingbrown.com). The nexus between those two careers was the satisfaction I received when I actually found or did something new. When I was doing physics, that might be from a trifling bit of experimental technique or, more broadly, something publishable. When doing sculpture, it was from completing a new piece and finding it artistically pleasing.
When asked about the Nobel Prize in an interview for the BBC show Horizon, Richard Feynman replied, “I’ve already got the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it [my work]—those are the real things.”1,2 So I find myself in good company regarding the joy of discovery: It must be an important part of the “mingling” of art and science.
