Two black nodes floating in a blank space.

a home for collaborative rule-breaking
between art, science, and wonder

[ scroll to begin ]

Two black nodes floating in a blank space.

art-science
undisciplined

Two black nodes floating in space. Each node has three radiating waves around it.

a movement for how we
create, learn, & imagine

together

Two black nodes floating in space. Each node has three radiating waves around it. Between the two nodes, there are two wave forms subtly connecting the two nodes.
Two black nodes floating in space. Each node has four radiating waves around it. Between the two nodes, there are three wave forms subtly connecting the two nodes.
Two black nodes floating in space. Each node has five radiating waves around it. Between the two nodes, there are five wave forms subtly connecting the two nodes. The outermost waveforms are red.
Two black nodes floating in a blank space.
Two red curves facing in opposite directions and meeting in the middle.
Two black nodes floating in a blank space.

a home for collaborative rule-breaking
between art, science, and wonder

[ scroll to begin ]

Two black nodes floating in a blank space.

art-science
undisciplined

Two black nodes floating in space. Each node has three radiating waves around it.

a movement for how we
create, learn, & imagine

together

Two black nodes floating in space. Each node has three radiating waves around it. Between the two nodes, there are two wave forms subtly connecting the two nodes.
Two black nodes floating in space. Each node has four radiating waves around it. Between the two nodes, there are three wave forms subtly connecting the two nodes.
Two black nodes floating in space. Each node has five radiating waves around it. Between the two nodes, there are five wave forms subtly connecting the two nodes. The outermost waveforms are red.
Two black nodes floating in a blank space.
Two red curves facing in opposite directions and meeting in the middle.

the field

What is Undisciplining?

Undisciplined practice is about so much more than transactional exchange between art and science.

It is a methodology for inquiry, play, and innovation, surfacing questions and possibilities that neither field could reach alone.

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Two textured circular forms intersecting in the middle like a venn diagram.

why does
art-science
matter?

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A plain light green background.
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It expands knowledge and nurtures curiosity and joy.

It generates new work, discoveries, and questions.

It brings poetic imagination into the sciences.

It strengthens institutions by centering collaboration across difference.

the field builders

Janani, a South Asian trans masculine person and Natalie, a white woman smiling outdoors with a background of green foliage and pink flowers.

Meet Janani & Natalie

An art-science team who dared to imagine collaboration differently.

Their partnership began as an experiment and has grown into a methodology building the field of undisciplined practice.

Janani, a South Asian trans masculine person standing outdoors on a sunny day, smiling, with his hands in his pockets, wearing a yellow shirt with blue and black patterns, and a blurred green background.

janani balasubramanian

Janani Balasubramanian is an artist, director, founder, and leading voice in art-science and immersive experience design. His works have been commissioned and presented by institutions across the cultural and scientific spectrum — from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA to the San Francisco Exploratorium and the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time series.

A 2025 Lenore Tawney Fellow and Co-founder of Forever Lab at Stanford Medicine, Janani is known for blending storytelling, technology, and care into transformative collaborations. His work has received support from the MacArthur Foundation, Sundance Institute, National Endowment for the Arts, and many others.

Natalie, a white woman with glasses and shoulder-length brown hair smiling outdoors with trees and a blurred background.

natalie gosnell

Dr. Natalie Gosnell is an astrophysicist, artist, and Associate Professor of Physics at Colorado College. In her work as a teacher-scholar, she is a leader in building bridges across disciplinary boundaries, particularly in the world of art-science. Her research focuses on binary stars that have been fundamentally changed by their companion.

She is the recipient of the Cottrell Scholar Award and Colorado College’s Excellence in Teaching Award, and her work has been published widely in leading journals. Alongside her scientific work, Natalie has been an artist-in-residence at the Sundance Institute Theater Lab, Leonardo@Djerassi, and The Public Theater, among others.

3D black wireframe with scattered multicolored dots on white background.

The Gift | Undisciplining in Action

The Gift is a living example of the Art-Science Undisciplined methodology in practice — a collaborative work that transforms complex astrophysics into an immersive experience of connection, loss, and renewal.

Co-created by Janani, Natalie, and Dr. Andrew Kircher, The Gift explores the fates of two stars in close orbit — bound by gravity, exchanging their very essence as one nears the end of its life. This celestial relationship becomes a profound metaphor for the act of giving, receiving, and transformation, inviting audiences to experience science as story and the cosmos as kin.

In February 2025, The Gift was presented in Los Angeles as part of Getty’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide.

Presented by The Music Center at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the evening included an intimate conversation with co-creators Janani, Natalie, and Dr. Andrew Kircher alongside beloved actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Reading Rainbow). The video below showcases the immersive installation that brought audiences of all ages into dialogue with the stars.

the process

A Framework for Collaboration

Art-Science Undisciplined invites collaborators to model their work on the rhythms of a living ecosystem — where ideas take root, grow through shared tending, and flourish with care.

The process unfolds through a series of interconnected stages that can guide artists, scientists, leaders, and funders alike in building generative, cross-disciplinary relationships.

At each stage, the framework emphasizes what makes collaboration possible: resources, time and space for play, and a culture of mutual curiosity. Without these, many groundbreaking partnerships might never take root.

Together, these practices form an antidote to disillusionment — a scaffold for potential and a blueprint for a field that transcends disciplinary boundaries.

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Preparing the Soil

Groundwork begins within.
Two black nodes floating in a blank space.

Individual reflection and groundwork: how artists, scientists, and their allies ready themselves for undisciplined collaboration.

This stage calls each participant to examine the assumptions, fears, and barriers that limit cross-disciplinary work — and to replace them with more generative questions:

What can you do instead? What tangible steps can you take?

Seeding to Germination

Play, listen, and exchange.
Abstract digital artwork with colorful flowing lines and circular shapes on a white background.

Early exchanges and experiments that create shared understanding across disciplines.

Collaborators begin to play, prototype, and share their distinct creative and research practices. Supporters create space for this play without the pressure of production. Through curiosity and dialogue, rigid assumptions dissolve, revealing a shared language of discovery.

Sprouting to Budding

build shared values & experiment.
Colorful abstract design with curved lines in purple, green, blue, and brown on a white background with black geometric shapes.

The emergence of shared values, iterative experimentation, and early collaborative growth.

Here, collaborators establish agreements that honor both individual and shared values — the roots of sustainable collaboration.

Iteration, trust, and time nurture the “aha” moments that begin to define a collective vision.

Blossoming to Maturation

Extend the collaboration outward.
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The flourishing of ideas and outcomes that extend beyond the team — transforming communities and institutions.

Collaboration now expands into networks of support: funders, team members, co-creators, and public participants.

The work becomes a living ecosystem of influence, and the collaborators themselves evolve — undisciplining their own methods, fields, and communities of practice.

the JUMP

collaboration to transformation.
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The ultimate, expansive goal of undisciplined collaboration: to change systems, transform relationships to knowledge, and create resounding impact.

As more people engage this process, a new ecosystem takes shape — one in which art-science teams are recognized for their transformative impacts.

Art-Science Undisciplined

a playbook for transformative collaboration

This is where the book Art-Science Undisciplined enters the story — as a record, companion, and invitation into the very field it helped bring to life.

A computer-generated visualization of a twisted, double-helix structure with colorful points connected by thin black lines, resembling a stylized DNA strand.
An abstract illustration of two twisting, elongated shapes with flowing lines and multicolored dots on a black background.

the book

Overview of the Book

Book cover titled "Art-Science Undisciplined: A Playbook for Transformative Collaboration" by Janani Balasubramanian and Natalie Gosnell, featuring an abstract red illustration by Lenore Tawney on a light background.

Art-Science Undisciplined: A Playbook for Transformative Collaboration offers a practical and imaginative guide to intertwine the distinct but overlapping fields of art and science.

Drawing on years of collaboration and stories from other art-science teams, Janani Balasubramanian and Natalie Gosnell share strategies and insights that help artists, scientists, and leaders build worlds beyond disciplinary boundaries.

Who is it for?

For artists, scientists, funders, educators, and anyone building teams across disciplines.

pre-order now
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Art-Science Undisciplined is published by University of California Press.

The development and writing of this book was supported by the Sloan Foundation books program and by a Leonardo@Djerassi Residency at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program.

The cover features Untitled (red) (ca. 1971), an ink-on-paper work by American artist Lenore Tawney, presented courtesy of the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation.

Group of people doing yoga exercises outdoors in an urban setting.

praise for the book

  • "I wish I had this book at the outset of my career, but I am thrilled to start using it now! The authors weave a thorough and practical guide with inspiring stories of real teams and their projects, illuminating possibilities for meaningful and productive art-science collaborations."

    Emily Rice

    Associate Professor of Astrophysics
    Macaulay Honors College, City University of New York

  • "Science, like art, is a profound expression of human creativity. This book imagines the possibilities when the two meet and articulates a compelling vision for artist-scientist collaborations, inspiring readers to play and explore—to create—beyond disciplinary confines."

    Keivan G. Stassun

    MacArthur Fellow & Professor of Astrophysics
    Vanderbilt University

  • "Janani Balasubramanian and Natalie Gosnell are your thoughtful, inviting, and—above all—necessary guides to the terra incognita of arts-science collaboration. The world they map in Art-Science Undisciplined is ambitious and practical and it has the potential to transform not just this field but the nature of collaborative inquiry."

    Jake Pinholster

    Dean of College of Fine and Applied Arts
    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  • "A wondrous playbook that invites us to imagine a future unbound by silos, where artists and scientists dream together—conjuring and cultivating worlds that weave the poetic with the empirical. This daring, playful collection is an inspirational journey into ‘undisciplined’ ways of being, knowing, and becoming. A true dreambook, it offers a brilliant blend of creative strategy and alchemy, calling us to bring our whole selves—and the full expression of our curiosities—into shared spaces of practice and possibility."

    Eleanor Savage

    President & CEO
    Jerome Foundation

  • "Explores new networks born from myriad shifts in the academy and the fields of arts and sciences writ-large. This book invites deliberate encounter with the unknown while offering inspiring and practical approaches. Together the authors platform expansive collaboration as key to the cultivation, repair, and bold vision so profoundly needed in this time."

    Daniel Alexander Jones

    Artist & Educator

connect with us

Three people sitting at a table, filling out worksheets or writing, with a woman on one side and a man and a child on the other side, in a room with yellow walls and decorative chairs.
People reading and exploring The Gift in a large, historic library with portraits on the wall and wooden furniture.
A young man with dark hair, wearing a light-colored shirt and a green jacket, speaking into a microphone in a room with wooden walls and colorful artwork in the background.
Woman with glasses and curly hair speaking into a microphone at a panel discussion or interview.
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Collaborative Offerings

Janani & Natalie work with universities, cultural institutions, funders, and practitioners to seed new possibilities for cross-disciplinary collaboration. Whether through speaking engagements, leadership consultations, or practitioner workshops, you’re invited to help grow this movement.

Academic and Cultural Institutions:

  • Keynote lectures

  • Workshops for leadership

  • Workshops for practitioners 

Funders and philanthropic groups:

  • Keynote lectures

  • Workshops for leadership

    • On reimagining support for undisciplined collaborations

    • On appropriately assessing proposals from collaborative teams

  • Consulting on creation of future programs to support the development and long-term support of undisciplined teams

reach out now
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An audience seated in a large, wood-paneled ballroom with chandeliers, attending a presentation or event with some people clapping and filming.
A person wearing a black face mask is looking at a yellow book titled "The Gift."

Events & Tour

Be the first to explore the world of Art-Science Undisciplined by joining us on tour for conversations, lectures, book signings, and workshops. 

The field is growing — and so is the tour. Upcoming events will be announced soon. Join our mailing list to stay informed or invite the Art-Science Undisciplined team to your institution.

bring us to you
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Stay in our Orbit

The undisciplined ecosystem is only beginning to take shape. Join our growing multiverse of collaborators, thinkers, and dreamers — and be the first to know as new projects, events, and opportunities unfold.