Science: Night and Day
Day science employs reasoning that meshes like gears… One admires its majestic arrangement like a da Vinci painting or a Bach fugue. One walks about it as in a French formal garden…Night science, on the other hand, wanders blindly. It hesitates, stumbles, falls back, sweats, wakes with a start. Doubting everything… It is a workshop of the possible… where thought proceeds along sensuous paths, tortuous streets, most often blind alleys.
Francois Jacob, The Statue Within.
The photograph shows part of Nikki Pugh’s installation on the side of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre building on the Birmingham University campus. The Day science phase is in a sans font on the metal panels of the building, the Night science part of the quote is rendered in script on frosted glass or (‘powdered ceramic’) in front of light boxes in the windows of the building. I’ll try to get a picture with the back lights on – seems more atmospheric.