Event 2 - From Forces to Forms Episode 2: Morphogenesis

This weekend, I attended the virtual event “From Forces to Form: Episode 2: ‘Morphogenesis’” presented at the Pratt Institute’s Manhattan Gallery. This was the second part of the “From Forces to Form” exhibition, and a continuation of the event I attended last weekend. Since I had also attended the first part last weekend, I was familiar with how the format of the meeting would be. Different artists took turns explaining their scientific projects one by one, describing the process and reasoning they went through in order to create their art. The projects chosen for this exhibition were all related to natural forces being depicted through art (Levy).

Chotai, Vivek. Screenshot of Ellen Levy's introduction to the exhibition. Manhattan, 9 Apr. 2022.

One of the projects used gravity as a paintbrush. Artist Haresh Lalwani used 3D simulations and worked with hammering steel to create sculptures that represent the motion of gravity. One of his sculptures, titled GR Flora, studied the effect of stretching out a circle made of steel to shape a square, using the same area and amount of steel. When doing so, Haresh Lalwani found an interesting effect: the more he stretched the steel to form a square shape, the more wrinkles that started to form (Lalwani). This is a prime example of representing the force that limits the stretching of steel, shown by the wrinkles in GR Flora’s sculpture.


Chotai, Vivek. Screenshot of Haresh Lalwani's GR Flora. Manhattan, 9 Apr. 2022.

Another project that stood out to me was by Gemma Anderson, who represented the biology behind the morphologies of life throughout history, through minerals, plants, and fossils. She found common patterns between the early forms of life, connecting the shape of early plants and animals by analyzing the similarities behind their symmetries. Through this project, Gemma Anderson coined the term “isomorphology,” and new ways to classify the patterns she observed, like radial symmetry and hexagonal form (Anderson).

Chotai, Vivek. Screenshot of Gemma Anderson's concept of isopmorphology. Manhattan, 9 Apr. 2022.

Gemma Anderson’s project reminded me of our topic in lectures this week, relating art to math. In her project we can see similar patterns of geometric shapes from math represented in pictures and drawings of fossils, a form of art. I enjoy attending these events because I get to see real life examples of the ideas we are learning in class. I'd recommend this event series to my classmates who want to learn how to apply what we learn in school to real life.



Proof of Attendance:



Works Cited


Anderson, Gemma. “Gemma Anderson - Isomorphology.” What Is Isomorphology?, Gemma Anderson, https://www.isomorphology.com/03what-is-isomorphology.html. 

“Explore 144 W. 14th St. in 3D.” 144 W. 14th St., Matterport, https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=svTRafZLydD. 

Lalwani, Haresh. “Gallery.” Lalvani Studio Sculpture, Architecture, Design, Morphogenomics, WordPress, http://lalvanistudio.com/sculpture/gallery/. 

Levy, Ellen. “From Forces to Forms: Episode 2 ‘Morphogenesis.’” From Forces to Forms: Episode 2 "Morphogenesis", The Art|Sci Center + Lab, https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?e=%5BUNIQID%5D&u=9baf6baeafa7dd6c42a6db349&id=f7213fa9e8. 

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