Beyond Service-Subordination: Materials Experimentation in an Art-Science Collaboration

The author examines the Specialty Glass Residency, an art-science collaboration administered by Corning Incorporated and the Corning Museum of Glass in upstate New York. While the aesthetic and communicative function of art has been an important dimension in characterizations of art-science, scholarship has also demonstrated the value of art as a practice of inquiry. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the author examines an artist’s research and development contributions and argues that the residency’s focus on materials generates reciprocal benefits for artists and scientists and opens the door to different possibilities in making and experimentation.