Ars Scientia is an initiative that explores how art and science can learn from one another—creatively, conceptually, and critically.
We bring together physicists, artists, writers, and educators to reimagine the boundaries of knowledge and its transmission. Through residencies, collaborative research, exhibitions, and public events, we create space for inquiry at the edges of disciplinary expertise.
The project began as an experiment in dialogue: how might the sensibilities of artists influence scientific questions—and vice versa? Our first major programming followed Drift: Art and Dark Matter, a 2021 exhibition at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Since then, Ars Scientia has grown into a vibrant platform for cross-disciplinary exploration, based at the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute at UBC and supported by the Research Excellence Cluster program.
We are interested in how both scientific and artistic practices grapple with uncertainty, materiality, and the limits of perception. Whether through speculative theory, technical investigation, or embodied practice, our work fosters unexpected encounters—between people, methods, and epistemologies.
Ars Scientia also engages with questions of pedagogy: how do we learn, teach, and share across difference? Our programs support undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and artists in experimenting with new modes of knowledge exchange. We believe that learning together—across disciplines, languages, and lived experiences—is a radical act of collaboration.
If you’re curious, join us.