PNAS

Reimagination in art and science: Seeing the familiar in a new light and creating new things that didn’t exist before

2026-09-09

Many groundbreaking works in art and science owe their origins to the creative spark ignited by reimagination—the process whereby artists and scientists reinterpret and reframe past and existing knowledge, envisioning it in a new context that reveals new possibilities. Artistic and scientific innovation originating from reimagination brings to mind William Faulkner’s famous line, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” [W. Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun ( 1 )].

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DOI https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2614496123