Every year, Caltech’s literary and arts magazine Totem hosts the Art of Science competition.

This contest celebrates the intersection of art and science and the way in which art can be used to inform science. We accept any science-related art, from microscopy to digital art to paintings to hand-made crafts.

This year, we received two quilts and a necklace as submissions! Last year, we also had a collection of really interesting science-based earrings. The earrings were in the shape of chicken embryos, drosophila ovaries, and more. I love all the creative submissions we get, as well as the range of Caltech community members that submit, from undergrads to JPL staff — it’s really quite amazing.

This year, we paired up with the Graduate Student Council’s Art Contest to display artwork together in Chandler. Their art contest accepts any type of art, so it was a great combination of science and non-science related artwork. At our opening night, we had a crowd of hundreds of people show up!

In addition to having artwork along the walls in Little Chandler, we had easels set up in the main dining area, and even a red carpet.

The piece below is an annotated image of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch, and the piece below that is a GFP necklace which lights up! It’s really very cute.

To find the current exhibition and find out more about the contest, visit our website here.