Yonder Art•Science: Talk Series

We are excited to continue the Yonder Talks series, a colloquia series hosted by Yonder Art•Science at the Niels Bohr Institute, about synergies between art and science. The talks will share inspiring stories about the possibilities that appear when artistic and scientific methodologies intersect. Whatever your discipline, we hope these talks will inspire you and be the seed of something new. Each colloquium will be followed by a reception. Everyone is welcome!

Title: What Does Art-Science Collaboration Make Possible?

Abstract: By the nature of our work, astrophysicists are storytellers. I am particularly interested in the stories of stars in binary systems that have been changed by their companion. A key example of these are blue straggler stars, often identified by their location above the main sequence in open cluster color-magnitude diagrams, therefore seeming to be “straggling” behind their expected evolution. From HST photometry and spectroscopy, we now know these systems have white dwarf companions, revealing their past mass transfer histories. But what choices do we have when tasked with telling this story? Exploring this question as I embarked on a long-term art-science collaboration opened possibilities that have changed all aspects of my work as a teacher-scholar. In this talk I will connect my astrophysics research to the important broader questions we face when telling science stories and share how I answer these questions through my efforts in the world of art-science.