[I-House Academy] Einstein and Picasso Creativity in Art and Science–What are the Connections? (cancelled)

Due to the earthquake that occurred on March 11th, this event has been cancelled.

  • Speaker: Arthur I. Miller, Professor Emeritus, University College London
  • Moderator: Murakami Yoichiro, President, Toyo Eiwa University
  • Date: Tuesday, March 29, 2011, 7:00 pm
  • Venue: Iwasaki Koyata Memorial Hall, International House of Japan
  • Admission: 1,000 yen (Students: 500 yen, IHJ Members: Free)
  • Language: English/Japanese (with simultaneous translation)
Almost simultaneously, in the first decade of the 20th century, Albert Einstein discovered relativity and Pablo Picasso cubism. How—and why? This fascinating story involves their often turbulent personal lives, the high drama of their struggles to achieve new ideas in the face of opposition from contemporaries, and the unlikely sources for their creative leaps, ignored by everyone else. To fully understand what happened involves coming to grips with wide-ranging questions such as: Are there similarities in creativity between artists and scientists? What do artists and scientists mean by “aesthetics” and “beauty”? Can we unravel creativity at its highest level? These questions will be addressed in this lecture by Dr. Miller.

Dr. Arthur I. Miller

Dr. Arthur I. MillerDr. Arthur I. Miller is emeritus professor of history and the philosophy of science at University College London. Fascinated by the nature of creative thinking and, in particular, by creativity in art and science, Dr. Miller has examined the histories of the world’s greatest scientists and artists in an interdisciplinary manner to explore how the human mind works at its most creative. He has lectured on his research at many institutes of higher learning, including L’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and Harvard University. He is the author of Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time and the Beauty that Causes Havoc (Basic Books 2002), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and Empire of the Stars, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Aventis Prize for Science Books. His most recent book is Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung (W.W. Norton & Company 2009). The paperback version, 137: Jung, Pauli and the Pursuit of a Scientific Obsession, was published in July 2010. For more on his work, please see his website: www.arthurimiller.com

Prof. Murakami Yoichiro

Specializing in the history and philosophy of science, Prof. Murakami Yoichiro completed PhD course of the University of Tokyo in 1968. After serving as director of the University of Tokyo Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, visiting professor at the Vienna University of Technology, professor in the Graduate School of International Christian University, and professor in the Graduate School of the Tokyo University of Science, he is now president of Toyo Eiwa University and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo and at International Christian University. Major publications include: Bunmei no naka no kagaku [Science in Civilization] (Seidosha, 1994); Bunka toshite no kagaku/gijutsu [Science/Technology as Culture] (Iwanami Shoten, 2001), and Ningen ni totte kagaku to wa nani ka [What is Science in Human Terms?] (Shinchosha, 2010).