“Scientists are from Mars, Artists are from Venus” was the title of a session /
discussion which took place on June 5th 2003 during the Cheltenham Festival of Science (www.cheltenhamfestivals.co.uk).

Having spent many years in the company of scientists and knowing a number of artists from my professional and personal experience, and thinking about the above stereotyping as well as my impressions of the artists and the scientists I know, I was interested in elaborating a questionnaire, this being a method that suited me best, and to send it out to both scientists and artists. I wanted to go further, to apprehend more about the way other artists and scientists work and live, than what I could extract from my own direct experience. The questions are laid out in a chronological order starting with: “what made you choose your profession”... and ending with: “would a world without science / art be livable for you?”

There were 44 questions and if I may draw any conclusions, those being based on an interpretation of a small number of scientists and artists, it seems to me that if differences there are, they are on a very personal level only, whereas the attitude towards life and work seems to be very similar indeed. They are all linked to passion!

What is shown in the final work are the answers to ten questions, where I purposely mixed the artists' and scientists' responses. I chose to add pictures and drawings I had asked all the persons to send me. The result is an animation created with the program “Flash” where the questions and answers scroll down the page and the images appear and disappear.