“How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers.”
—Isaac Asimov
The Art of Science competition
UC Arts and UC Science once again joined forces to run our Art of Science competition. After the success of the 2020 competition, we couldn’t wait to see what incredible creations Aotearoa New Zealand school children would produce. Students from Year 5 to 13 were invited to submit their original artwork, and we were blown away by how many took the time to create an artwork highlighting their love of science!
This year the competition was run in conjunction with WORD festival Christchurch, a week-long festival that sees a range of artists from writers to poets and illustrators run public sessions and workshops. While the festival has been put on hold due to the COVID lockdown, there is a postponement date set for later in the year. Keep an eye out for their announcement.
We were thrilled to receive over 180 entries for the Art of Science Competition 2021. Entries took many forms including paintings, drawings, videos, music, sculpture, and more. So much thought was put into each piece of work and the judges had a real challenge on their hands to narrow these entries down to a Top 10 in each age category.
Winning entries 2021
The competition was held under three school year categories: Apprentices (Year 5-7), Interns (Year 8-10) and Masters (Year 11-13). Check out the winning entries below.
Winners: Apprentices (Year 5 to 7)
Joint 1st Prize: Griffin and Rhys Barak
Griffin and Rhys produced an engaging video about anatomy.
Check out the video here!
Joint 1st Prize: Ethan Waines
Ethan submitted a fun and detailed video about the science of music.
Check out the video here!
3rd Prize: Gemma Green
Gemma created an intricate drawing of a selection of Aotearoa native birds.
Top 10*
Sienna Olsen
Mishika Chawla
Ashlee Lye
Yashvi Meanger
Senuli Wijaysena
Ayana Jui Talekar – video
Ava Heath Williams
Willow Sneddon
Pyrenees Snelling
* With so many great entries, some entries were tied among the Apprentice Top 10 winners.
Winners: Interns (Year 8 to 10)
1st Prize: Natalie Sou
Natalie created a detailed pop-art poster of a super scientist.
2nd Prize: Bonnie Wang
Bonnie’s artwork that explore space and our future with science.
3rd Prize: Alexis Heckler
Alexis used her artwork to teach us about her combined love of ornithology and sailing.
Top 10*
Mary Meredith
Cindy Zhou
Sophie Elizabeth Broadbent
Matilda Livesey
James Green
Ngaio Dawson
Swali Ranjan
Hector Rohloff
* Heaps of fantastic work! Some entries were tied among the Intern Top 10 winners.
Masters (Year 11 to 13)
1st Prize: Erin Thomas-Riley
Erin created music using sinewaves to create Lissajous curves on the oscilloscope at school.
This is a video of the sounds on screen, one of her compilations.
2nd Prize: Vanessa Chen
Vanessa used her artwork to express her admiration of great scientists like Stephen Hawking.
3rd Prize: Marlonique Wolmarans
Marlonique created an anatomical artwork to show us the differences in anatomy of turtles and tortoises.
Top 10
Sarah Green
Molly Campbell
Shaneya Patel
Allegra Huband-Watson
Xiaoqian (Amy) Chen
Shreya Hima Patel
Claudia Meads
