Martin Kemp

Certain kinds of art and science originate in the intuiting of deep structures that lie behind appearance—what Martin Kemp, emeritus research professor in the history of art, Oxford University, has called "structural intuitions." Some of the structures are static, relying upon fundamental forms of geometry; some disclose the process itself, like splashing; and others are the result of complex processes, like folding. In this dinner discussion, Martin Kemp will speak on themes that run across art, architecture, design, and various sciences from the Renaissance to today. Observer Effects invites thinkers to present their highly integrative work in dialogue with the fields of art and science. This lecture series takes its title from a popularized principle in physics that holds that the act of observation transforms the observed. Outside the natural sciences, the idea that the observer and the observed are linked in a web of reciprocal modification has been deeply influential in philosophy, aesthetics, psychology, and politics.