0:00:14.459,0:00:17.291 I recently published a book[br]called 'Radioactive.' 0:00:17.291,0:00:22.523 It's a visual book about invisible things. 0:00:22.523,0:00:26.329 It combines artwork and written text. 0:00:26.329,0:00:31.327 It tells the story of two scientists,[br]Marie and Pierre Curie. 0:00:31.327,0:00:35.461 It's a love story and a story full of drama. 0:00:35.461,0:00:38.580 At the turn of the 19th century[br]a young woman moves 0:00:38.580,0:00:44.001 from Russian-occupied Poland[br]to come study in Paris. 0:00:44.001,0:00:46.715 She finds room to do her research[br]in the laboratory 0:00:46.715,0:00:52.214 of a reserved and handsome scientist [br]studying heat and magnetism. 0:00:52.214,0:00:54.768 They fall in love. 0:00:54.768,0:01:00.159 They marry and have two children[br] and begin working together. 0:01:00.159,0:01:02.291 They discover two new elements, 0:01:02.291,0:01:05.951 expanding the Periodic Table,[br]with radium and polonium, 0:01:05.951,0:01:11.740 and they begin investigating[br] the startling properties of these two elements. 0:01:11.740,0:01:14.268 She coins the word 'radioactivity.' 0:01:14.268,0:01:17.910 They recognise this radioactivity[br]to be an atomic property. 0:01:17.910,0:01:20.101 And this is a momentous insight. 0:01:20.101,0:01:24.831 It's one of the critical moments[br] in the history of modern science. 0:01:24.831,0:01:27.031 They win the Nobel Prize. 0:01:27.031,0:01:29.347 And all seems to be going quite well -- 0:01:29.347,0:01:32.948 great marriage, accomplished couple,[br]two beautiful daughters. 0:01:32.948,0:01:40.011 And then in 1906,[br] Pierre Curie is killed in a tragic street accident. 0:01:40.011,0:01:42.169 Marie is forced to continue their work alone, 0:01:42.169,0:01:46.025 which she does, earning a second Nobel Prize. 0:01:46.025,0:01:47.646 Which, by the way, is completely unprecedented. 0:01:47.646,0:01:50.518 Now not only is she the first woman[br] to have won the Nobel Prize 0:01:50.518,0:01:52.759 but she is the first Double Nobel Laureate 0:01:52.759,0:01:56.064 in two different sciences, Chemistry and Physics. 0:01:56.064,0:01:58.778 And a few years later she falls in love again -- 0:01:58.778,0:02:02.608 this time with the physicist Paul Langevin. 0:02:02.608,0:02:08.542 Another fabulous romance -- [br]a coupling of two scientific giants -- 0:02:08.542,0:02:12.826 but, unfortunately, there is a catch. 0:02:12.826,0:02:16.268 Langevin was married. 0:02:16.268,0:02:19.062 Needless to say --[br]famous people in a love triangle -- 0:02:19.062,0:02:24.414 scandal ensued, duels were fought. 0:02:24.414,0:02:26.958 So this a 200-odd page book. 0:02:26.958,0:02:30.469 In addition to the narrative[br]about the Curies' biography, 0:02:30.469,0:02:34.051 it also leaps forward in time[br]to look at the contemporary 0:02:34.051,0:02:36.602 ramifications of the Curies' work. 0:02:36.602,0:02:40.155 From nuclear weapons[br] to nuclear power to nuclear medicine. 0:02:40.155,0:02:44.859 But, long story short,[br] there are these two central themes: 0:02:44.859,0:02:46.741 Radioactivity and love. 0:02:46.741,0:02:50.681 Those are the invisible things[br]I was referring to earlier. 0:02:50.681,0:02:56.176 And, because this is a book[br] in which I'm doing the writing and the research 0:02:56.176,0:03:00.300 and the artwork and also[br]the design of the book itself, 0:03:00.300,0:03:04.842 it's very important to me[br] that each of these components is meaningful 0:03:04.842,0:03:09.604 and that they each embody[br]the ideas in the narrative. 0:03:09.604,0:03:12.739 So, when it became time for me[br]to choose the medium 0:03:12.739,0:03:14.740 with which I was going to create the artwork -- 0:03:14.740,0:03:17.726 and in fact choice is very important - 0:03:17.726,0:03:20.612 I decided that I would make[br]the images with something 0:03:20.612,0:03:23.827 called cyanotype printing.[br]Cyanotype printing is 0:03:23.827,0:03:25.992 a camera-less photographic technique. 0:03:25.992,0:03:29.499 And I had two reasons for this choice. 0:03:29.499,0:03:33.171 The first was thematic. 0:03:33.171,0:03:39.258 To make a cyanotype print, [br]you take paper, you coat it with certain chemicals. 0:03:39.258,0:03:41.512 You take that chemically coated paper,[br]you expose them 0:03:41.512,0:03:46.259 to the ultraviolet rays of the sun [br]and that turns the paper a deep blue. 0:03:46.259,0:03:52.200 Now, a process using exposure[br]to penetrating rays -- 0:03:52.200,0:03:57.493 I thought made sense in a book[br] about the history of radioactivity. 0:03:57.493,0:04:00.739 And, my second reason was aesthetic. 0:04:00.739,0:04:04.722 A cyanotype print has this kind of moody,[br]twilight quality. 0:04:04.722,0:04:08.436 The white lines against the blue background -- 0:04:08.436,0:04:10.546 I thought captured what Marie Curie described 0:04:10.546,0:04:13.541 as the element radium's spontaneous luminosity. 0:04:13.541,0:04:16.061 A kind of internal glow. 0:04:16.061,0:04:21.145 So, I just want to step you through here[br] the making of one page in the book. 0:04:21.145,0:04:25.979 This is a spread, it depicts[br]the royal banquet when Marie 0:04:25.979,0:04:30.270 has arrived in Stockholm[br]to accept her second Nobel Prize. 0:04:30.270,0:04:33.919 So just to take one step back from that -- 0:04:33.919,0:04:36.633 When I begin, basically,[br]I'm always collecting drawings. 0:04:36.633,0:04:41.638 I'm just, everyday drawing [br]and I never know when I do a drawing 0:04:41.638,0:04:43.728 if it's going to end up in my published work, 0:04:43.728,0:04:47.403 but I just keep gathering[br]this little archive for myself. 0:04:47.403,0:04:51.520 This is a still life I did on my kitchen table. 0:04:51.520,0:04:55.454 These are some jazz musicians[br] that I drew at a club downtown. 0:04:55.454,0:05:01.217 My sketchbook from a Parsons' faculty meeting. 0:05:01.217,0:05:06.372 I was doing archival research [br]looking at different source material. 0:05:06.372,0:05:11.854 And then, I take these disparate elements[br]and I recombine 0:05:11.854,0:05:15.285 them into one composition[br]that gives them a new context. 0:05:15.285,0:05:18.108 And sometimes I'm surprised[br]by the new meaning 0:05:18.108,0:05:22.325 that emerges from this new context. 0:05:22.325,0:05:25.142 Because I wanna make a cyanotype printing,[br] I then take this drawing, 0:05:25.142,0:05:30.427 I turn it into a negative [br] on transparency, on an acetate sheet. 0:05:30.427,0:05:33.879 I then take that acetate sheet,[br] I place it on the chemically coated paper. 0:05:33.879,0:05:38.304 As I mentioned, I expose that[br]to the UV-rays of the sun. 0:05:38.304,0:05:43.337 And -- this is the blue image that would result. 0:05:43.337,0:05:48.271 I'll then oftentimes hand-color the image[br] -- in this case with color-pencil. 0:05:48.271,0:05:52.340 And then, the final step is adding the typeface. 0:05:52.340,0:05:56.553 So, this all makes the process seem very smooth. 0:05:56.553,0:05:58.488 Which, of course it never is. 0:05:58.488,0:06:04.838 So, now I tell you the truth,[br]which is in one example: 0:06:04.838,0:06:11.485 as I mentioned earlier,[br] Pierre Curie was killed in 1906 in a street accident. 0:06:11.485,0:06:15.383 And when I got to working on this part of the narrative,[br] I really struggled. 0:06:15.383,0:06:22.027 Because I couldn't imagine how I was going to[br] portray this harrowing moment. 0:06:22.027,0:06:27.449 How could I capture in an image[br] the wrenching emotion of a man killed, 0:06:27.449,0:06:32.604 a woman who loses her husband,[br] her scientific partner, the father of her children. 0:06:32.604,0:06:36.133 I looked to Japanese prints[br]and their portrayal of grief. 0:06:36.133,0:06:41.257 I read Marie Curie's own diaries,[br]which are just devastating. 0:06:41.257,0:06:46.852 She's described seeing her husband's body,[br] it's decomposing corpse. 0:06:46.852,0:06:50.387 And I cringe to show you this image but I will -- 0:06:50.387,0:06:53.308 This is my first attempt and I'm sure you'll agree -- 0:06:53.308,0:06:56.136 I think it falls far short. 0:06:56.136,0:07:00.070 I tried overexposing the print[br]to see if I could add drama. 0:07:00.070,0:07:05.154 I tried underexposing the print [br]to make the atmosphere dark and ominous. 0:07:05.154,0:07:09.039 I tried inverting the image[br] to make the skeleton white and the woman in negative. 0:07:09.039,0:07:10.984 And just nothing worked. 0:07:10.984,0:07:14.771 I knew this was not the right answer. 0:07:14.771,0:07:18.520 But, since I wasn't getting it,[br]I just set this section aside 0:07:18.520,0:07:22.295 and I decided to pick up[br]another part of the book 0:07:22.295,0:07:24.669 and I started working on a section that 0:07:24.669,0:07:29.283 comes much later totally different mood. 0:07:29.283,0:07:34.304 It's World War One[br]and Marie Curie is fleeing Paris 0:07:34.304,0:07:38.687 carrying a lead suitcase,[br]with her country's supply of radium. 0:07:38.687,0:07:42.954 She's taking it to Bordeaux [br]to prevent it from falling into German hands. 0:07:42.954,0:07:47.371 And in the text she's describing her adventure and -- 0:07:47.371,0:07:50.829 the orange here is a digital manipulation -- 0:07:50.829,0:07:56.462 But when I first attempted at printing this image,[br] this happened. 0:07:56.462,0:08:02.223 So I had completely botched[br]the chemicals and got this print 0:08:02.223,0:08:05.414 where basically none of the lines[br]of the drawing showed up. 0:08:05.414,0:08:07.059 You really can't see anything. 0:08:07.059,0:08:10.481 So I knew immediately[br]that I was going to have to reprint it. 0:08:10.481,0:08:15.502 But, I was shocked by the image[br] that had resulted from my mistake. 0:08:15.502,0:08:20.784 And when I thought about it,[br]in the context of that section 0:08:20.784,0:08:26.001 about Pierre Curie's death[br]something hit me 0:08:26.001,0:08:32.537 and I thought, well, actually,[br] it would be much more interesting 0:08:32.537,0:08:35.789 to use an image of nothing basically, an image 0:08:35.789,0:08:44.303 that could suggest the power -- [br]the feeling of loss, rather than spell it out. 0:08:44.303,0:08:48.915 So, it's a little hard to see[br]in this slide but this is 0:08:48.915,0:08:53.979 the layout of that spread in the book[br] about Pierre Curie's death. 0:08:53.979,0:08:58.800 I took that accidental image [br]I scrapped those terrible skeleton drawings. 0:08:58.800,0:09:02.735 I placed that accidental image facing a black page 0:09:02.735,0:09:08.458 with the lines in grey, of Marie Curie's diary -- 0:09:08.458,0:09:12.102 And I think, that in the end this is a solution 0:09:12.102,0:09:15.516 that is more subtle and hopefully more powerful 0:09:15.516,0:09:17.763 than the one I had originally planned. 0:09:17.763,0:09:22.654 It was a solution I had to really stumble into. 0:09:22.654,0:09:28.637 But, of course, it's not just [br]the artistic process that's full of accidents. 0:09:28.637,0:09:34.085 The history of science is full[br]of serendipitous discoveries. 0:09:34.085,0:09:38.553 In fact, the discovery of cyanotype chemicals themselves[br] was an accident. 0:09:38.553,0:09:44.190 In the 17th century, [br]there was a child born at the Castle Frankenstein 0:09:44.190,0:09:47.655 named Johann Conrad Dippel.[br] And Dippel went on to become -- 0:09:47.655,0:09:50.694 I'm not making this up --[br](Laughter) 0:09:50.694,0:09:53.003 Dippel went on to become[br]an alchemist and he wanted 0:09:53.003,0:09:56.487 to create a universal remedy,[br]a kind of elixir of life. 0:09:56.487,0:10:01.251 So he started to gather[br] all kinds of animals' skins and hooves 0:10:01.251,0:10:06.178 and horns, and all sorts of unsavory things[br] into what he called a Dippel's oil. 0:10:06.178,0:10:08.823 Now, Dippel shared his lab with a dye-maker. 0:10:08.823,0:10:13.974 And one day this dye-maker[br] was cooking up a brilliant red hue. 0:10:13.974,0:10:16.773 But he ran out of his key ingredient[br]so he reaches 0:10:16.773,0:10:19.363 into the cabinet and he pulls out[br]the Dippel's oil. 0:10:19.363,0:10:21.726 He adds the Dippel's oil,[br]stirs it up and instead of this 0:10:21.726,0:10:26.963 scarlet pigment that he was looking for,[br] he gets a deep blue. 0:10:26.963,0:10:30.920 It was vivid, it was light-fast[br]and it became instantly popular. 0:10:30.920,0:10:34.686 The Prussian army took it up[br]to dye their uniforms. 0:10:34.686,0:10:37.204 And we still use this formula today,[br]and one of the forms 0:10:37.204,0:10:42.054 we see it in is in the images of a cyanotype print. 0:10:42.054,0:10:46.520 But that's just one of the many[br]examples from science 0:10:46.520,0:10:48.142 of a serendipitous discovery. 0:10:48.142,0:10:50.454 We have Archimedes and his bathtub, 0:10:50.454,0:10:52.777 we have Isaac and the apple, 0:10:52.777,0:10:57.875 we have Christopher Columbus[br] setting out for India and finding the New World. 0:10:57.875,0:11:02.341 Someone is looking for one thing[br]and they find another. 0:11:02.341,0:11:06.826 Indeed, in 1896, the physicist[br]Henri Becquerel 0:11:06.826,0:11:11.115 was prepping for an experiment[br]using uranium salts. 0:11:11.115,0:11:14.041 For this experiment he needed bright light. 0:11:14.041,0:11:17.542 So, because it was overcast[br]on that particular day, 0:11:17.542,0:11:20.558 he took his uranium nuggets[br] and tossed them into a desk drawer 0:11:20.558,0:11:23.709 where they happened to fall upon[br]a photographic plate. 0:11:23.709,0:11:26.209 He closed the drawer and left the lab. 0:11:26.209,0:11:28.815 When a couple of days later he came back,[br] 0:11:28.815,0:11:32.688 he opened the drawer and found[br]that photographic plate to look 0:11:32.688,0:11:35.940 as if it had been exposed to brilliant light -- 0:11:35.940,0:11:37.989 which of course it hadn't. 0:11:37.989,0:11:42.192 It was the uranium salts themselves[br] that had exposed the plates. 0:11:42.192,0:11:48.276 Henri Becquerel had just stumbled into[br] something very significant. 0:11:48.276,0:11:52.292 A couple of scientists named [br]Marie and Pierre Curie took up the lead. 0:11:52.292,0:11:57.759 She coined the word 'radioactivity'[br]and the rest is history. 0:11:57.759,0:12:04.192 So, I just want to say that as we work toward,[br] whatever we think our goals are, 0:12:04.192,0:12:09.352 I think we should pay as much attention[br] to our missteps as to our successes. 0:12:09.352,0:12:11.976 And if at first you don't succeed it -- 0:12:11.976,0:12:15.127 it might just be the best thing[br]that ever happened to you. 0:12:15.127,0:12:17.458 (Applause)