During the Renaissance, for instance, the discovery of the optical lens, the microscope and the magnifying glass. Those wonderful Dutch floral paintings with bugs running all over them are a good exampleof the interest that occurred in seeing the minutiae of God’s creatures.

The renewed interest in spatial geometry led to the emphasis on “realistic” perspective; to wit, the myriad pictures of ornate cityscapes in Italy. Not to mention, the illegal anatomy lessons that resulted in a completely new way of representing bodies in paintings – Michelangelo and Leonardo da V being the two giants of art that brought back this understanding to the art world (the ancient Greeks had been there before the Italians revitalized this knowledge in the 1400s.
The Impressionists were implementing new scientific knowledge on optical perception and new understanding on how light refracts and breaks up.
It would be an interesting thesis in the arts, to follow through history linking scientific discovery with the advances in art thought and theory.
As for computers….
They’ve obviously made a gigachange on our society. It’s mind-boggling, what has changed in the last twenty five years since the popularization of the computer; and there’s no denying that art has put that instrument to work, making huge changes in Art.
K

The serendipity thing comes into play a lot in scientific arenas too. I guess anytime one is tinkering around on the edges, things start to happen.

I can’t think of any good science type examples from my time on the chemistry bench. Mostly when my experiments went wrong they exploded. Maybe that’s why I am in computers now.

MDW