Beyond the Lab: Where Art and Science Converge

“Art of Alchemy: The Healing Power of Plants” is a garage installation by Ouizi in San Diego.

With captivating depictions of plants pivotal to scientific discovery, as well as native San Diego fauna, 0uizi symbolizes the power of plants and the art of alchemy.

These plants were picked for their medicinal properties, showing how important they are in creating life-saving treatments. Set amidst the campus’ thoughtfully designed ecological landscape, the mural highlights the deep connection between nature and science, and how plants continue to shape modern medicine.

Each level of the Garden Garage features its own color palette and native plant description, supporting intuitive wayfinding through visual cues while creating opportunities for discovery.

These environmental graphics don’t just help people navigate—they also invite moments of connection with the artwork. For example, Milkweed, which contains cardiac glycosides long used to treat heart conditions, hints at the broader theme of scientific innovation woven throughout the space.

As members of the campus community wait for the elevator or move through the garage, these layered design elements make the experience more engaging, helping them orient themselves while forming a lasting relationship with the mural over time.

This installation by David Buckley Borden, in collaboration with William Bonner and Kennedy Rauh, celebrates the groundbreaking genetic research and therapies pioneered in the neighborhood. Created in a pointillist style using over 56,500 colorful, 3D recycled plastic dots—the work spans 1,500 square feet of fence and transforms complex genetic science into bold, accessible public art. Each dot pair represents a nucleotide in human DNA (A, T, C, G) translated into CMYK colors used in printing, resulting in a visual representation of the human genome. David Buckley Borden is an interdisciplinary designer, artist, and educator working at the intersection of art, design, and science. Informed by research and community engagement, his interactive work aims to promote a shared environmental awareness and cultural value of science within the public realm.

Isenberg Projects designed a digital touchpoint to accompany the installation. Signage invites viewers to visit a website that guides them in decoding a hidden message within the artwork. DNA is made up of nucleotides arranged in a specific order that scientists read through sequencing; groups of three nucleotides, called codons, act like letters that spell out instructions for building proteins. The website provides tools to explore codon clusters, an amino acid chart, and a diagram showing how to read each fencing panel from left to right to reveal the hidden phrase: “GENES ARE THE LETTERS OF LIFE.”

The website also offers a deeper look into various diseases represented throughout the piece—many of whose treatments or cures were discovered in Kendall Square.

By connecting viewers to interactive content, the experience guides them through the science, data, and ideas that inspired each component, deepening their understanding of the art and research behind it, while also offering a fun, puzzle-like moment of discovery and joy.

Peeta’s illusionary mural spans a seven-story garage stair tower and is inspired by platform technologies—the versatile infrastructure that enables rapid development of medicines and vaccines. Peeta’s anamorphic art evokes the perspective-shifting geometries of Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, reinterpreting them within the context of modern innovation.

Peeta, a graffiti artist from Venice, disrupts perception through his illusory works, inviting viewers to see spaces and reality in a new way. The mural features RNA-inspired shapes that interact with the building’s punched windows and sharp edges, symbolizing the modularity and adaptability that have driven the transformative impact of biomedical platform technologies. By intervening on the building’s facade, Peeta redefines the stair tower’s conventional appearance, turning street art into architectural sculpture on a monumental scale.

Known for exploring the intersection of art and science, Nathalie Miebach translates complex data into tactile sculptures using weaving techniques.

Her newest installation in Kendall Square: “A Wayfinder’s Beacon,” represents the intersection of our internal cognitive maps and external data systems.
 Miebach weaves together visual data from Cambridge maps—public transportation routes, railroad networks, biking and walking paths, land use patterns, and neighborhood landmarks—creating a layered narrative of movement throughout the city.

Through hand-painted paper, fibers, and other materials, A Wayfinder’s Beacon is a visual metaphor for the countless individual movements and memories that shape our shared experience of Cambridge.

A digital component was designed to be accessible through scanning on-site signage. The Wayfinder’s Beacon website provides an overview of the installation, insight into the artist’s process, and most intriguingly, a breakdown of the data that inspired each element of the work. This experience transforms passive viewing into active exploration, fostering a deeper connection to both the research and the artistic expression. It serves as a powerful tool for turning public art into a platform for education, storytelling, and community engagement.

Throughout his 2,000-square-foot mural, Clint Fulkerson magnifies the microscopic to weave a narrative of scientific advancements in Kendall Square, Cambridge. Isenberg Projects commissioned Clint to transform the walls, beams, and columns of this interior space into an immersive mural. As an artist, Clint approaches nature, human culture, and rapidly evolving technology with childlike curiosity. His handmade, abstract art seeks to understand and share the wonder of complex systems through intricate, rule-based processes.

“Cogo Aspicio,” the title of the mural, translates to “I am compelled to look closely.” The mural envelops the space in vesicles — lipid bilayer structures that contain biochemical reactions and transport biological cargo within a cell or between cells. Each vesicle is depicted as a flexible triangle/hexagon mesh, placing viewers within an imagined cell to observe these structures budding, fusing, and traveling through the cytoplasm along an invisible cytoskeleton.

David Teng-Olsen spent his undergraduate years studying bioengineering and his early career working as a scientific illustrator. Both periods have had a large influence on his artwork, for which Teng Olsen uses a combination of new and traditional visual methods to create environments that explore ideas in science and life.

“Golgi” stretches across 100 windowpanes, conceptualizing DNA as a list of ingredients that nature has been mixing for billions of years, giving rise to all the life we see around us. If you look closely, you’ll spot abstract representations of ribosomes, polymerases, Golgi apparatus, DNA, RNA, base pairs, and amino acids, among others. David’s inspiration for this piece stemmed from the fascinating world of gene translation and transcription, the process by which our genetic code becomes all the ‘stuff’ our bodies need to function.

Spanning 1,800 square feet, “The Fabulous Mr. Lipid” window installation dives into the chemistry of cooking—celebrating fats (aka lipids) as the unsung heroes of the kitchen. Inspired by sizzling oil, silky emulsions, and all the flavor science that makes a dish unforgettable, this piece honors both the history of innovation and global cuisine by connecting the dots between culinary science and creative storytelling.

“Krebs,” a ground mural by Dave, abstracts the Krebs cycle, one of the most important reaction sequences in biochemistry. Drawing inspiration from the hyper-localized science community around the mural site, the artist aimed to create a piece that would ring familiar to those who work and study in the area. Recognizable shapes are interwoven throughout the playful mural: hexagons recall skeletal formulas, the double helix of a DNA strand floats close by, and the bumpy ridges of a mitochondrion’s interior are layered beneath. The colorful composition uses both the familiar and the abstract to illustrate the vibrant intersection of art and science.

Known for his abstract, architectural style, Tony Sjöman has brought his unique vision to the neighborhood with Endless River.

Through a mix of shapes and shades of blue, Tony brings the genome to life, capturing both its complexity and beauty. A golden circle outlines the cell, while an array of shapes represents chromosomes. At the center of it all, a rising sun emerges between them—casting light on the genome and symbolizing the hope and progress that genetic science brings to our future.

Lena McCarthy’s large-scale ground mural depicts abstracted DNA strands. This piece symbolizes the interconnection of art and science. Throughout the mural, seemingly transparent colors overlap, blend and break through to introduce entirely new elements. This is reminiscent of Boston’s complex and collaborative scientific discovery process that continues to push us forward every day.

Lena “Mac” McCarthy is a painter, international muralist and street artist. After attending the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, she took her work to the street while living in Santiago, Chile. Lena’s murals span across Latin America, Asia, Europe and the United States. She views them as gift-giving to the public space, using bare spaces as a platform for messages of hope, and community connection.

As an extension of the nearby Recombinant mural, this large-scale ground piece features abstract DNA strands that highlight the connection between art and science. Transparent colors overlap, blend, and break through each other to reveal new forms—echoing the neighborhood’s spirit of scientific collaboration and discovery that keeps pushing us forward every day:

Sabrina Dorsainvil’s 30-foot tall, outdoor mural was inspired by the phrase “I want to be a scientist when I grow up.” The mural features the artist’s niece, Nylah, who she describes as “curious, clever, and creative”. Sabrina said “Seeing her face beaming with joy on the first day of kindergarten—with her colorful beads framing her face—reminds me of growing up myself. She inspires me every day and I hope this piece inspires the next generation of creative thinkers and future scientists.”

Sabrina Dorsainvil is a public artist, illustrator, and civic designer whose work ranges from playful drawings to strategic design projects. Sabrina’s civic practice centers on navigating the human experience and uses creative approaches to issues around public health, civic participation, care infrastructure, and the built environment. Fascinated by people and the way we interact with each other and everyday spaces, Sabrina’s artwork focuses on storytelling and finding simple ways of celebrating people and their humanity.

These projects illustrate how art can amplify a neighborhood or campus identity, creating shared value for artists, developers, tenants, and visitors alike. More specifically, they reveal how art can translate complex data and research into forms that are accessible, tactile, and deeply human. Works like Dotted Sequences by David Buckley Borden or A Wayfinder’s Beacon by Nathalie Miebach transform genetic code and city mapping data into vivid visual experiences, bridging the gap between analytical and emotional understanding. Together, these creative interventions turn highly technical spaces into environments that spark curiosity, empathy, and connection—bringing depth and meaning to science and turning it into an experience that’s not just seen but felt.