The Art of Expression
Redniss introduces an incredible storytelling of Marie Curie’s and Pierre Curie’s personal lives by incorporating mesmerizing illustrations in the book Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout. The author was very reliant on aesthetics, and she did not follow a traditional biography, which in turn engaged her readers into the relationship between Marie and Pierre and their scientific discoveries through artistic visuals. As a huge fan of aesthetics myself and can not focus on a book without cool visuals, I was grateful to encounter and delve into this read. It made me had a sudden urge to include colors into this blog post.
Interestingly, Redniss begins the book with black-and-white visuals while talking about Marie Curie’s life in Poland. Due to Russian influence and societal expectations, she was discouraged to become a scientist, however it did not stop her from pursuing a career in science. This caused her to travel and meet her future husband Pierre Curie. The book transitions from black-and-white visuals into colorful line drawings. The illustrations looked young, and it felt like the author was trying to capitalize that this was just the beginning of Marie and Pierre’s love. The Curies became a couple and partners in science, and the bond between the two and their interests in science had broadened their discoveries in radioactivity. Eventually, they were given recognition for their scientific work and were rewarded with a Nobel prize. However, their work in science unfolded unfortunate events. As Redniss states, “[r]adioactivity had made the Curies immortal. Now it was killing them,” (Radioactive, 74). Marie Curie was frequently ill, experienced a miscarriage of her child, and experienced the death of her husband due to their dedication in scientific work. The author included art to portray the melancholic feelings of Marie Curie, and it added an emotional, personal element to the biography.
The author has a special talent in using art to add creative and emotional elements into the biography of Marie Curie. It related to the San Francisco conference report Art as a Way of Knowing because the art gave a visual for the relationship between Marie Curie and science. Adding art was essential to the reading because “art is a fundamental part of being human, and that learning in and through the arts is a serious form of interacting with the world by engaging with its questions, formulating ideas, and deepening knowledge” (McDougall, Bevan & Semper, 2011). The art allowed the readers to be placed in the shoes of Marie Curie, and we were personally able to relate with her emotions by simply looking at the illustrations. If Redniss did not use splash of colors and illustrations, her book would not have made a strong impact. The artistic visuals gave her readers an insight of Marie Curie’s life, and it became personable, relatable and humanistic rather than scientific and bleak.
The field of science is oftentimes seen as factual and one-sided, and we frequently idolize scientists as geniuses. However, the inclusion of art puts light to the other side of science, which shows that these geniuses are human too and experience personal emotions. We can relate this to Marie Curie as well. The art emphasized that she was relatable and also a scientist. The reading this week should serve as a reminder that art can deeply connect a person and science, and science can be humanistic and relatable.
References
- Executive Summary (p1–9) from: McDougall, M., Bevan, B., & Semper, R. (2012). Art as a Way of Knowing Conference Report. Exploratorium. https://www.exploratorium.edu/knowing/reports.html
- Part I (pages 15–107) of Redniss, L. (2015). Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout. Harper Collins.
