Crossing Over: Art and Science at Caltech, 1920–⁠2020

Crossing Over: Art and Science at Caltech, 1920–⁠2020: Press

Crossing Over: Art and Science at Caltech, 1920–2020

There is much in this third edition of Pacific Standard Time, titled “Art & Science Collide,” that comes from a decidedly “art-adjacent” sector of creative production, one wholly in thrall to automated imaging. Data-scraped and algorithmically composed visualizations of everything from weather patterns to crowd formations, often masquerading as painterly abstractions, are on plentiful display across institutions participating in this latest PST. “Crossing Over,” the show mounted on the grounds of Caltech, provided a welcome tonic to this kind of technocratic pseudo-Duchampianism. First, there is the cozy Spanish Colonial Revival style of the campus itself, which we were invited to meander through, passing between the exhibition’s six locations. Nothing could be farther from the sleek control-room minimalism of Google or Apple headquarters than the ornamental dark wood paneling, the inbuilt cabinetry, the dim glow of green-glass lamps—and, outside, the folly-full landscaping scheme—of this environment.

Artists Unearth Universes in Caltech’s Archives

The artists in Crossing Over were inspired by a century of monumental discoveries from the scientists who have made Caltech one of the world’s most elite research institutions.

The artists — Halloran, Lita Albuquerque, Jane Brucker, Shana Mabari, and Helen Pashgian — were inspired by a century of monumental discoveries from the physicists, engineers, chemists, and other scientists who have made Caltech one of the most elite scientific research institutions in the world. The show is divided into sections (The Infinite Lawn, Time Stream, and Powers of Ten) to cluster technological advancements into their own themed galleries, particularly in astronomy, physics, and chemistry — but that’s by no means every discipline covered in this show.

Crossing Over: Art and Science at Caltech, 1920–2020

Crossing Over: Art and Science at Caltech, 1920–2020, curated by Claudia Bohn-Spector and directed by Peter Collopy, presents an exhibition by way of a scavenger hunt. Funded in part via the Getty Foundation’s current PST ART: Art and Science Collide initiative, the exhibition unfolds across six sites at the hermetic institution. In it, materials from Caltech’s archives are presented alongside work by artists such as Helen Pashgian, Lita Albuquerque, and Lia Halloran in spaces that are usually reserved for scientific research and instruction. In wielding scientific materials as and alongside aesthetic ones, the exhibition makes all of Caltech into a playground for various forms of observation.

And Getty Created PST

The Mars image is a perfect example of that union: a first-of-its-kind scientific visualization that is also an otherworldly landscape of our planetary neighbor in warm shades of orange, yellow, and brown. In fall 2024, it was exhibited at Caltech in the illuminating Crossing Over: Art and Science at Caltech, 1920–2020. The show was organized by independent curator Claudia Bohn-Spector and Peter Sachs Collopy, who oversees archives and special collections at Caltech. Dozens of objects illustrated the ways in which art has served scientific research and, conversely, science has inspired art, including Renaissance-era books laden with elaborate depictions of star systems and a magnificent 1930s photograph of a solar eclipse. Another example was the 2020 painting Helium Blaze, by contemporary artist Lita Albuquerque, showing a dazzling orb of white gold against a field of blue pigment, like a fiery sun hovering against an inky sky. Art and science, says Bohn-Spector, are bodies of knowledge that are “joined at the hip.”

Crossing Over: An Arts and Sciences Fusion at Caltech

Among the standout pieces is an image that Collopy describes as “the first TV image of Mars,” taken by Mariner 4 in 1965. This iconic image, transmitted as a digital photograph by radio from Mars to Earth, exemplifies the technological and visual advancements central to Caltech’s scientific legacy.

The feedback from visitors has been overwhelmingly positive. “People are especially drawn to the merging of scientific and artistic elements,” Collopy shared, adding that many visitors appreciate the cohesive layout and design of the exhibition, which spans multiple campus sites. By making the exhibition free to the public, Caltech hopes to engage both the campus community and the wider public in this unique journey through science and art.

Campuswide Exhibition Bridges Art and Science at Caltech

Crossing Over spans six locations across campus—three galleries and three contemporary art installations—and tells the story of how scientific discovery and visual culture have shaped one another at Caltech. The exhibition highlights objects from the Caltech Archives and Special Collections, including rare books, scientific illustrations, molecular models, paintings, photographs, and more. Crossing Over is also accompanied by a visual catalogue of essays on the history of science and art at the Institute.

"We have done smaller history of science exhibitions before," says university archivist and head of Archives and Special Collections Peter Collopy, who spearheaded and directed the Crossing Over project. "But this is on a scale that is absolutely new."

Crossing Over: Where Art and Science Meet

This fall, Caltech is home to a new exhibit called Crossing Over: Art and Science at Caltech, 1920–2020.

Part of Getty's event, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, Crossing Over is a campuswide public exhibition presented by Caltech Library that opens on September 27 and runs through December 15. Take a look at some of the featured items from this exhibition.

Crossing Over: Art and Science at Caltech, 1920–2020 is free, self-guided, and open to the public. Visiting hours for the indoor galleries are Wednesdays–Sundays, 11 a.m.– 4 p.m.

View the slideshow at Caltech Magazine.

Light and Energy Meet in Norton Simon, Caltech Shows

If you enter the Caltech campus from the west side, walking along the grassy Bechtel Mall framed by the oldest buildings at the school, the first things you see of the Crossing Over series are Shana Mabari’s Spectrum Petals. This wonderful series of seven sculptures – each a smooth plastic disc about 3 feet in diameter and 6 inches thick – are spread across the lawn, standing on edge as if they just landed from outer space.

The discs — in red, blue, green, yellow, orange — look like semi-transparent lenses, perhaps designed for a large telescope. In fact, they’re slightly reflective, casting odd bands of color on the grass. (The squirrels foraging on the lawn near a disc seem spooked by the appearance of an identical squirrel looking back at them.)

Aiming for the Stars: PST Art Exhibitions Will Show What Happens When Scientists and Artists Mix

Crossing Over incorporates work that artists made and showed at Caltech, alongside images made by scientists and artist-made renderings of scientific discoveries and speculative illustrations. It spans five Caltech campus sites and begins in the Robinson Laboratory of Astrophysics, which was built with a dome for a telescope pointed at the sun. The exhibition starts with an image of the sun, projected from that telescope on to frosted glass, and proceeds to trace, through images and objects, the history of the Palomar Observatory. Designed in the 1920s by George Ellery Hale, the observatory was famous even before its 1948 completion. The exhibition includes intricate 1930s pencil and ink drawings by Russell Porter, an architect and amateur telescope builder, including a cutaway drawing of the not-yet-built 200in telescope.