Project description

This project aims to create conversations between early career artists and scientists to explore questions about biodiversity and human impacts on biodiversity. We are hoping to develop ways to communicate the creative dialogue to a wider audience through making collaborative artworks including artists and scientists. This process will be documented via traditional and social media.

Digital Print (untitled reproduction) - unknown artist; Digital print on paper
Copyright: Jethrow Brice, more at http://futuremuseum.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/works-in-two-dimensions/

Background

As a biologist my day consists of reading papers about the state of the environment, the future of the planet and our role as humans in it. However, sometimes I am feeling quite detached from these issues I am reading about and work on. This project is about developing collaborative partnerships between early career artists & scientists by understanding a scientific paper and opening a discussion of what it means to them in the context of their research and artistic practice.

Aims

This project is for people who are interested in how scientists and artists work on ecological issues, especially those related to changes in the marine environment. We will be taking a benchmark scientific paper as a shared starting point. This paper contains different takes on human and natural impacts on the marine environment, providing discussion points and sparking different interpretations about what this paper means to different people. It is a starting point for creative work.

This project is for people wondering how other people, researchers, general public, respond to ecological issues and for those keen to develop creative responses which will inspire others to engage with these issues.
 

Stages

Stage 1: Artists and scientists are going to meet in a workshop to discuss the scientific paper and what it means to them. During this stage we are hoping that artist-scientist pairs will form to work together in the future.

Stage 2: The artist-scientist pairs will continue to engage in dialogue about the paper. The artists are encouraged to create a piece of work relating to what the paper means to them. The process of this will be communicated to the scientist, who is encouraged to document their thoughts of the process by the means of social and traditional media.

Stage 3: Artists and scientists will meet in a final workshop, open to the public, to discuss their collaboration and thoughts about the process and artworks will be displayed.