Connections between art and science are becoming ever more important and popular. In this episode of Naturally Speaking we have a conversation between the artist Olivier Leger and the University of Glasgow’s own Dr David Bailey. We hope you enjoy listening to their conversation, which covers a range of topics; from the purpose of science and art in a changing world to having seal guts hosed off of Dave and the latest Avatar movie.
Olivier Leger is an ocean wildlife artist who depicts marine biology, ecology and nature. He is an avid scuba diver, and his experiences underwater, along with other research, inspires his art. He uses ink to produce a range of both colour and black and white drawings that vary from small to very large complex pieces that you can find something new in every time you look. These depict a range of marine species; his most prominent work beautifully uses scale to build ecosystems onto a species to show the species’ role in its environment and the interconnectedness of marine life. His art both inspires your imagination and appreciation of the marine environment. We would strongly encourage you to take a look at Olivier’s website, olivierleger.co.uk, to check out his art and videos.
Olivier Leger, the artist featured in this episode.
Dr David Bailey is a lecturer and research scientist in Marine Ecology at the University of Glasgow. His background is in deep water biology and long term observatories, however, he has a very broad interest area and has worked in many areas of marine biology and ecology. His research group currently works in a vast variety of marine environments from Antarctica to coral reefs, and of course also around Scotland. This variety is reflected in the over 80 publications he has to his name. Dave’s primary research theme is the conservation and management of marine systems, usually in collaboration with governments, NGOs and industry.
Here is some video footage from the seal carcass experiment Dave references in this episode.
Feature image © Olivier Leger.
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Intro and outro music sampled from: “The Curtain Rises” and “Early Riser” Kevin MacLeod [CC BY 3.0]