{"id":216698,"date":"2016-05-03T18:37:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T21:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/?p=216698"},"modified":"2016-05-03T18:37:42","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T21:37:42","slug":"where-art-and-science-intersect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/where-art-and-science-intersect\/","title":{"rendered":"Where art and science intersect"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Detailed

Reproduction of original boards: Eduardo C\u00e9sar <\/span><\/a> Detailed illustration by Joaquim Franco de Toledo reveals diversity in orange spotsReproduction of original boards: Eduardo C\u00e9sar <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

At its peak period of productivity, the Art Production Service of the Instituto Biol\u00f3gico, housed in an impressive pink building, considered one of Brazil\u2019s finest examples of art deco style, located in the southern zone of the city of S\u00e3o Paulo, employed 17 artists.\u00a0 They produced a profusion of illustrations of plants, animals and their diseases in order to lend visibility to the research that is the subject of scientific papers, classes and advertising leaflets, and other media.\u00a0 \u201cThere was a camaraderie between the researchers who wrote the articles and were generally physicians, and the illustrators who showed what the researcher wrote about,\u201d says biologist M\u00e1rcia Rebou\u00e7as, one of the authors of the Cat\u00e1logo do acervo de ilustradores do Museu do Instituto Biol\u00f3gico <\/em>(Catalogue of the collection of illustrations of the biological institute museum), released in November 2015.\u00a0 \u201cThey depended on each other to make their work more visible, and no one considered themselves more important than others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collection, to a large extent, is the result of efforts by Silvana D\u2019Agostini, hired in 1977 as an artist in the office, which at that time had only two employees.\u00a0 The volume of work had been decreasing so when her colleagues retired, she pursued other interests and eventually specialized in museology.\u00a0 In the late 1990s, the Drafting Office officially closed, and D\u2019Agostini became a member of the team at the Institute Museum and after that, the Memory Center.\u00a0 It was within this context that she began to mine the wealth of artwork that by and large had been destined for the trash bin, putting together a collection that today includes nearly 2,500 drawings by 37 illustrators.<\/p>\n

\"Various

Reproduction of original boards: Eduardo C\u00e9sar <\/span><\/a> Various techniques: bird diseases studied by Jos\u00e9 Reis, in the drawing by Lilly AlthausenReproduction of original boards: Eduardo C\u00e9sar <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt is only recently that these originals have come to be considered historical documents,\u201d she explains.\u00a0 In the past, most were discarded after being sent to the print shop to be included in publications, or else they ended up in stacks of unimportant papers at the researcher\u2019s home or office.\u00a0 Now recovered and partially exhibited in the recently published book, available free of charge at the Institute, these works are bringing to light the fruitful partnership between art and science.\u00a0 D\u2019Agostini explains that despite advances in photography, illustrations are still indispensable, given their ability to highlight the details that most interest researchers, eliminating unnecessary static and bringing together all the elements that are part of a description.\u00a0 \u201cOften a caption is not even needed, such is the wealth of detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Agostini says that the researchers would request the services of an illustrator when they needed to document some image of their research study, and they often watched the work and pointed out pertinent details.\u00a0 Illustrators would often have a certain affinity for one type of object and form more frequent partnerships with a particular scientist, although the subjects would vary.\u00a0 German illustrator Lilly Ebstein, for example, actually on the staff of the School of Medicine of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (FM-USP), frequently collaborated with Jos\u00e9 Reis, who studied bird diseases at the Institute (in addition to his fervent commitment to science education and communication).<\/p>\n

\"The

Reproduction of original boards: Eduardo C\u00e9sar <\/span><\/a> The coffee borer beetle (by Juventina dos Santos<\/em>) was one of the reasons why the Biology Institute was establishedReproduction of original boards: Eduardo C\u00e9sar <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The variety of techniques and tools in use corresponded to the diversity of objects to be depicted.\u00a0 \u201cWe used special drawing aids like the camera lucida and the normograph as well as optical instruments like microscopes,\u201d D\u2019Agostini recalls.\u00a0 She remembers that before passing the competitive exam for her public sector position, she had been accustomed to using completely different free hand drawing techniques.\u00a0 Materials included India ink, gouache, colored pencils, watercolors and pastels.\u00a0 \u201cWe would often resort to a mix of techniques, using several of these tools on a single project,\u201d she says, remembering the despair of one of the illustrators when painting a butterfly whose iridescent wings changed color every time she looked at it.\u00a0 \u201cIt was blue, then purple and then it suddenly turned green!\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes the shapes were so delicate that the pen was not fine enough and they had to employ shading and then remove the ink with a razor like a traditional straight-edge razor blade\u00a0 \u201cBut you could only use a black blade, which you can\u2019t get any more; the stainless steel ones didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the scientific publications, illustrations were critical in providing a wider range of communication, a notion that speaks to the very essence of the Institute, founded in 1927 thanks to the success of a commission established to explain and combat the coffee borer pest that would hollow out the fruit, threatening the coffee harvest (and economic activity) of S\u00e3o Paulo.\u00a0 The coffee borer is a very tiny beetle, whose larvae perforates the coffee berry and eats the inside of the fruit, leaving an empty shell.\u00a0 Originally from Africa, the pest had no natural predator in Brazil.\u00a0 As a precursor to biological pest control, a term not yet in use at the time, an Institute employee traveled to Uganda in search of the predator wasp to raise in Brazil and distribute among coffee plantations.<\/p>\n

\"Joaquim

Reproduction of original boards: Eduardo C\u00e9sar <\/span><\/a> Joaquim Franco de Toledo (verrugose do lim\u00e3o<\/em>) was a botanist as well as an illustratorReproduction of original boards: Eduardo C\u00e9sar <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

But none of this would have a practical effect if there had been no campaign to inform the rural population and the plantation workers who often left contaminated fruit lying on the ground, where the larvae could develop and end up infecting other plants.\u00a0 \u201cThey would show movies in train cars,\u201d says biologist M\u00e1rcia Rebou\u00e7as, who started working at the Institute 56 years ago as an intern before becoming laboratory technician, researcher, museum director and eventually founder of the Memory Center.\u00a0 \u201cThe train would stop near the farms and the owners and workers would come aboard to watch the films.\u201d\u00a0 The publications distributed included meticulous illustrations, but also incorporated humor and used teaching methods to explain the issues such as what is seen in the brochure Hist\u00f3ria de um bichinho malvado <\/em>[Story of an evil creature], produced for school distribution.<\/p>\n

Today, the collection maintained by D\u2019Agostini and Rebou\u00e7as is available for viewing and is such a valuable historical archive that it is still being used as a reference to illustrate citrus diseases (another pest faced by research conducted there) and for other purposes.\u00a0 Although research departments usually do not have illustrators on staff, the activity continues to be important.\u00a0 \u201cWe often use illustrations, especially in publications that describe new species,\u201d says USP botanist L\u00facia Lohmann.\u00a0 But she explains that the artists are hired on a project basis and can never be sure when they will be called upon.\u00a0 Besides the challenge of making a living solely from scientific illustration, it\u2019s likely that the occasional relationships have done away with the closeness once enjoyed between professionals as described by D\u2019Agostini.\u00a0 \u201cIn collaborations between artist and scientist, we want illustrations to be considered as essential tools, not mere accessories,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Publication highlights the importance of scientific illustration","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[209,213],"coauthors":[1601],"class_list":["post-216698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retrospect","tag-biology","tag-botany"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216698"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=216698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}