Drawing Processes of Life: Molecules, Cells, Organisms

How the challenge of depicting biological systems can generate productive questions for artists and scientists.
 
An artist sketching cell division faces a problem: what is the best way to visually represent a dynamic process? This anthology, edited by an artist and a philosopher of science, explores drawing as a way of inquiring into living processes at the molecular, cellular, and organismal scale. In doing so, drawing emerges as a tool for relaying and uncovering knowledge—a pathway for research, not an end result.
 
Incorporating drawing studies and contributions from scholars in the humanities and life sciences, Drawing Processes of Life addresses epigenetics, epistemology, and metamorphosis in insects, proteins, and other ever-shifting biological systems. A foreword by Scott F. Gilbert, a renowned evolutionary biologist and historian of science, affirms the promise of interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and scientists.

Gemma Anderson-Tempini is an artist and research fellow at Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences, University of Exeter.

John Dupré is professor of philosophy of science at the University of Exeter and director of Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences.