Building a Bridge Between Data and Art

This article is part of series of Nautilus interviews with artists, you can read the rest here.

Artist Mark Belan is a master at grabbing attention. The scroll-stopping infographics he creates for The Visual Capitalist blog are so popular on social media, there’s a good chance you’ve seen his work before. That’s no accident. Belan, who holds master’s degrees in geochemistry, astrobiology, and biomedical communications, wants science to be fun—sexy, even.

Belan recently took a break from turning data into art to create the otherworldly illustrations for “Mirror-Image Life”, the cover story of Nautilus Issue 52. We spoke to him about his creative process, social media and art, and his thoughts on artificial intelligence.

You have a background in both science and art. When did you decide you wanted to combine your two