Terra Bulla, the influence of Yves Couder on the emerging domain of arts and physics sciences

Abstract

At the beginning of the eighties Yves Couder started to work in pattern formation field trying to observe and understand structures in complex flows. His approach was different using humble experiments to materialise simple but powerful and elegant ideas. He was establishing with Pierre Gilles De Gennes and Étienne Guyon in particular a novel way of making scientific proof by using demystified “experiences de coin de table” where the simplicity of the setting made the demonstration even more powerful. Science was becoming performative and scientists were in public talks as well as in the lab engaged physically in a tactile way with their experiments. One of Yves first contributions was to use soap films to perform hydrodynamics experiments in two dimensions. The experiments with soap films brought a sense of fragility, emotion and poetry into science; they started and entirely new field of research on bidimensional turbulence using films. This research and novel approach to science opened a pathway for some current domains like table-top sciences, frugal sciences, new types of popularisation like “la main à la pate”, but also the rapidly developing field of arts & sciences. In the present article I will draw on the affiliation of Yves’ works with the arts and sciences using several examples from my own work which is greatly inspired by his approach but also from the work of the fantastic artist duo Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand.