Scientist-artist collaborations have become a high-profile form of science communication as scientists seek creative ways to connect with publics. This qualitative case study examines one such collaboration from the perspective of scientist and artist participants’ experiences with the purpose and meaning of art. To do so, we draw on John Dewey’s concept of art as experience and Nigel Thrift and other nonrepresentational theorists’ emphasis on overlooked backgrounds that suffuse daily life. We find that sci-art creators see inherent beauty in research, seek to foreground their underappreciated objects of study, and harbor mostly instrumental goals for educating publics through their artwork.

随着科学家寻求与公众联系的创新方式，科学家与艺术家之间的合作已成为科学交流的一种引人注目的形式。这项定性案例研究从科学家和艺术家参与者关于艺术的目的和意义的经验的角度考察了这种合作。为此，我们借鉴约翰·杜威（John Dewey）的经验艺术概念，以及奈杰尔·特里夫特（Nigel Thrift）和其他非代表性理论家强调的是被忽视的背景，这些背景充斥着日常生活。我们发现，科学创作者在研究中看到了内在的美，试图凸显他们被低估的研究对象，并为通过其艺术品教育公众提供了主要的工具性目标。