Ideal meeting of art, science
Organisers announce winners of South African Science Lens competition
IN SHOWING how science and art can be seamless allies in communicating about the world, the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA) and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) teamed up to present a photographic competition.
The winners of the SA Science Lens competition, which covered five categories, have been announced.
Kervin Prayag, with his photo entitled Meowy Muse”, took first place in the Science as Art category.
Prayag captured artist Sujay Sanan sketching a deceased caracal at UCT.
Sanan put together an exhibition called “A Place I Know”.
The paintings in his exhibit diarised the landscapes, flora, and fauna of the Western Cape, in a unique way.
In the artist’s own words, “while these works document what I fear might be lost, they are also filled with optimism”, and give a positive account of the current state of wildlife conservation.
Professor Bruce Cairncross, from the University of Johannesburg, saw theatrical flare in his winning Science Close-Up photo entitled “Happy Faces”.
The smiling face that looks like a theatrical mask is actually a picture of different inorganic geological minerals.
The white and purple crusts that look like a mask are tiny crystals of fluorite, a calcium fluoride species.
The Science in Action category focused on capturing science as it occurs.
The winning photo was Thilo Beck’s “Small scale surgery”, giving a glimpse into the great efforts of science to help us understand ecosystems.
The image depicted a tiny whitebrowed sparrow weaver (Plocepasser mahali) in the Kalahari undergoing surgery to implant a miniature data logger.
The winning entry in the special category for the 2020 competition, The Dignity of All South Africans, showed that practical science doesn’t need to be high tech.
Morgan Trimble won with her photo called “Newlands Spring’s Community Spirit”.
Emphasising how important water is to human dignity, she showed how, in the face of Cape Town’s water crisis, which threatened dignified access to clean water, a community member created a solution that allowed more users to collect water from Newlands Spring in an efficient way.
In celebration of its 50-year anniversary, the HSRC also selected a special social science photo award, choosing Dhurti Dheda’s “Connecting Worlds”.
The photo shows a street in the inner-city suburb of Doornfontein in Joburg, decorated by giant metallic “flowers” or satellite dishes.
“Through the SA Science Lens competition, SAASTA and the HSRC aim to encourage researchers and scientists to invite the public into their world.
“This is achieved through inspiring curiosity in beautiful, dramatic or interesting photographs in their research,” the SAASTA said.