Chemical Innovations in Visual Arts Creations

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue attempts to bring together chemistry and the visual arts. Chemical innovation used to create visual arts is the central theme. Both two- and three-dimensional art are included. Chemical reactions (bioluminescence, chemiluminescence, oscillating reactions, etc.), physicochemical processes (crystal formation, chromatography, shape memory, fluorescence, phosphorescence, ferrofluidics, etc.), and novel materials (alloys, metamaterials, etc.) are included, but this list is not meant to be exhaustive.

This Special Issue is accepting three kinds of articles: Communications, full papers, and review articles.

Communications describe a novel chemical technique or material that creates a new visual art medium or drastically changes the aesthetic properties of an old (pre-21^st century) visual art medium. The chemical processes or material formulations must be described with sufficient detail for reproducibility by a person with two years of college chemistry lab training (one year of general chemistry and one year of organic chemistry) and there must be a plausible description of the chemistry involved in creating the desired artistic effect, including supporting chemical literature citations. The communications must also include at least one example of a prototype piece of artwork that utilizes the new technique.

Full papers describe a novel chemical technique or material that creates a new visual art medium or drastically changes the aesthetic properties of an old (pre-21^st century) visual art medium. The chemical process or material formulation must be described with sufficient detail for reproducibility by a person with two years of college chemistry lab training (one year of general chemistry and one year of organic chemistry) and there must be a plausible description of the chemistry involved in creating the desired artistic effect, including supporting chemical literature citations. The full paper must also include at least three examples of maturely developed artwork that utilizes the new techniques or materials, preferably ones that have been displayed in a reputable art gallery or museum exhibition. The full paper should include an “Artist's Reflections” section, in which the artist–author describes how the new techniques or materials help them to communicate specific themes. Some examples include abstract connections, aesthetic elements, psychological metaphors, ecological symbolism, human nature, contradictions, political perspectives, emotional responses, futurism, synthetic life, spirituality, fantasy and wonder, and “impossible” or Escher-like constructs.

Review articles are of two types.

The modern review describes one type of chemical innovation in the visual arts by at least five different, 21^st century, publicly-exhibited, professional artists. The detailed description of the chemical process or materials must be reproducible and variations in these innovations must be noted. The artistic goals of the minimum five artworks presented as examples in the review must be based on interviews with the artists and supported by verifiable quotes.

The pre-modern review describes one type of non-traditional chemical process in the visual arts by at least five different pre-21^st century, publicly-exhibited, professional artists. The detailed description of the chemical process or materials must be reproducible and variations in these innovations must be noted. For living artists, the artistic goals of the minimum five artworks presented as examples in the review must be based on interviews with the artists and supported by verifiable quotes. For deceased artists, art historians or museum curators familiar with the work of the artists described must be used to describe the artist's goals unless the artist has written or electronically transcribed opinions of their own artwork.

Miguel O. Mitchell
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. J is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Chemistry
• Painting
• Drawing
• Sculpture
• Fluorescent
• Phosphorescent
• Bioluminescent
• Chemiluminescent
• Mixed media
• Metamaterials
• Shape memory
• Ferrofluidics
• Crystal formation
• Chromatography
• Oscillating reactions
• Alloys