@ARTICLE{10.21494/ISTE.OP.2021.0721, 

TITLE={From Science to Art: extraterrestrial realms of the imagination}, 
  
AUTHOR={Georges Chapouthier, }, 
	
JOURNAL={Art and Science}, 
	
VOLUME={6}, 

NUMBER={Special issue}, 
	
YEAR={2022}, 

URL={https://openscience.fr/From-Science-to-Art-extraterrestrial-realms-of-the-imagination}, 
	
DOI={10.21494/ISTE.OP.2021.0721}, 
	
ISSN={2515-8767}, 
	
ABSTRACT={The different forms of living organisms on earth provide examples of considerable biodiversity, often arising from physical constraints that have forced them to adapt to their environment. Such constraints can lead to an overall architecture of complexity in “mosaic form” determined by two broad principles: the juxtaposition of entities of the same type, and their subsequent integration into systems of ever-increasing complexity where the initial entities have become parts of the system. Working on the hypothesis based on the Aristotelian model that the same constraints and the same architecture of complexity can be found throughout the universe, is it possible to imagine extraterrestrial forms of life? Such reasoning has the rational arguments of physics and constraints combined with exercises of the imagination offering potential for possibilities of unlimited scope. On a rational level we have determined a number of forms that could plausibly be extraterrestrial: beings made from carbon chains, independent modules, occasional recombination of carbon chains producing “sexual” variants, tree structures, bilateral symmetry, protective “cocoon” stages, steady temperature, perception/action systems, artefacts and central command units. This will then allow scope for artistic imagination with every possibility able to eventuate.}}