Finding an artist-residency program to work with on ArtSciConverge at your field station or marine lab (FSML) can really help. They can refer good artists to you, and act as partners in art/sci projects, grant applications and other programs. Some of these residencies are even looking for scientists to enrich their residencies, and you can help them find some.
Many artist residencies are already focused on ecology. I've worked with the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS) and the Alliance of Artist Communities (AAC) to produce a map to help you find each other. I'd like to keep developing the map with more residencies, since many FSMLs also produce research in the social sciences and humanities, as well as the hard sciences.
Let us know if you use the map to make a connection.
In 2014, 4 artists, 4 scientists and the project coordinator, all from the University of Wyoming, met at the prestigious Ucross Foundation ranch for a 2-week retreat. The results of that collaboration—called the Cross-Pollination Experiment--are astonishing and ongoing. The following is a record of correspondence about the project between me (Faerthen Felix), participant Michael Dillon, and organizer Jeff Lockwood.
Jeffrey A. Lockwood is Professor of Natural Sciences & Humanities at the University of Wyoming. He began his career as an entomologist, then shifted to philosophy.
Brochure, explaining the project and some of its outcomes.
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FF:It looks like Ucross facilitated the Cross-Pollination Experiment. How did they find all of you? Was it an open call, or were you recruited? It sounds like there was an "organizer" and Ucross didn't just invite you all out to stay, then leave you alone. Who was that organizer, and how was the experiment structured? Were there structured exercises, specific goals and deliverables?
MD: Jeff [Lockwood] was the mastermind of the initial Cross-Pollination project (which led to all the other good stuff), did the fund raising (from many sources on and off campus), and was the leader. He planned all the activities, the approach, etc. Briefly, we were invited by Jeff and then all lived together for 2 weeks -- we had separate housing but spent most of our meals and lots of free time just hanging out. This was a critical element, in my opinion, because we had the chance to really get to know and trust each other. Jeff ran nightly post-dinner meetings in which we reflected on the day, discussed the positive, negative, difficult, exciting, etc.
Our first day was a "perspective" day, in which we all had the morning to prepare a presentation about the place (Ucross) through our eyes/experience/academic background. We spent the afternoon moving between our studios giving and attending these presentations (8 in all). Jeff then organized a "speed dating" for the next day in which each artist spent 1 hour with each scientist discussing ideas. The goal was to come out of each of those meetings with several concrete ideas for how you could collaborate in a meaningful way. That is, not just artists interpreting the science or scientists trying their hand at art, but rather collaborations that enhanced both disciplines. Jeff paired us up (not sure how he decided as there were so many interesting collaborations possible!) and then we went to work. We had less than a week to make progress on the collaboration as Jeff had already scheduled a "Saturday University" event for the end of the trip in which we would present our "products" to the broader public in the Ucross space.
JL: Some backstory…I did a residency at Ucross as a writer. And in the course of that time, I had some lovely chats with Sharon Dynak, the executive director. She indicated that Ucross was increasingly interested in projects that would integrate natural sciences and arts, particularly as a means of gaining a deeper appreciation of the ranch and surrounding countryside. I was putting together a pitch for a UW venture in this regard when Shannon Smith (executive director of Wyoming Humanities Council) met up with me and became super-excited about the possibilities. So Ucross provided enormous in-kind support and WHC provided financial support (especially in terms of the public presentations as UW’s Saturday University program that summer). I should also note that the UW Biodiversity Institute provided funding. I’ve also attached one of the original proposals so you can see what approach was being advocated.
FF:I find that, almost universally, people who have engaged in art/sci collaborations find them useful and positive, but it is difficult to measure outcomes clinically, and there is little actual science available on the results. Do you have any publication references that somehow document the effectiveness of the collaboration?
MD: I know what you mean, but don't have references. Our own experiences and all the products that have emerged are the best evidence I can provide.
"This has been an incredibly productive, fruitful venture: 3 exhibitions, a documentary film, an online repository of microbe portraits and artist responses to them, an opera, and Xbox Kinect video game, 3 NSF grants to date totaling over $6 million in funding. The cross pollination website has links to videos and other information about the different projects. We continue to actively develop new projects and collaborations. This venture has been one of the most exciting, invigorating, rewarding, and fun things I've done for quite some time!" -- MD
JL: I’m there with Michael. Our products speak for the productivity of this venture. But one of the deliverables is also a sense of morale, excitement, playfulness and fulfillment for academic artists and scientists who may not see much “external” reward and, indeed, have good reason for demoralization.
FF:I found this statement by Jeff Lockwood really interesting: "These synergies have revealed elements of the natural world that would otherwise be overlooked by both artists and scientists." Can you elaborate and provide some examples? This is a big aspect of our push to get more art at field stations: that art is a discovery process that can enhance scientific creativity, and uncover raw material for science. But finding clear and obvious A-to-B examples is challenging.
MD: One example was my collaboration with Rachael Shaw, a dancer/choreographer. We used the notation of dance (Laban notation) to quantify the posture and movements of bees after exposure to sublethal doses of pesticides. A tool from choreography allowed us to better quantify something that was otherwise difficult to describe but visually obvious: bees move differently when exposed to minute quantities of pesticides. Unfortunately, we have not published this work. Rachael moved not long after the initial Ucross trip and we've found it difficult to find time to work together from a distance. Other examples are the microbestiary, and a collaboration between Jeff and Anne Guzzo (a composer): an opera about the disappearance of the Rocky Mountain Locust.
JL: Yup, LOCUST: THE OPERA is premiering this September (I’ve attached the proposal for that project so you can get a sense of the science/art collaboration)—and I should add that Ashley Carlisle, one of the Ucross participants, will be designing and producing our costumes, scenery, etc.
FF:It's great that UWYO faculty work with Ucross. I think field research stations would really benefit from identifying artist-residencies near them to collaborate with on art/sci linkages.
MD: Ucross was fantastic - very supportive of the whole endeavor. But, although some of our art faculty apply for and are awarded residencies at Ucross, I am not sure that the Art/Science residency is an ongoing element for them.
JL: I think that one of the key features that made our venture successful (in addition to my very carefully selecting participants—there was no open call for people) is that everyone came from one institution, which has allowed the venture to continue for years with all sorts of combinations and recombinations of people based on interests and opportunities. And such ongoing collaborations would be very difficult to sustain across institutions (heck, they’re hard enough across departments and colleges in a single institution!).
FF:Is there any kind of exportable prescription that either guided the process, or emerged from it? Something like the HJ Andrews Ecological Reflections program that is kind of plug-and-play for any field station that wants to participate, or Best Practices, or anything like that I can direct field stations to?
MD: I think that, in our case, the key was Jeff's vision -- the combination of prescribed reflection and conversation time, of a deadline for a product, and also of flexibility so the group could go where it wanted to (we often veered from Jeff's original plan - to his consternation and delight, I think).
JL: If there is anything approximating a set of guidelines/rules, it might be found in this very concise summary on YouTube. I’ve attached the text that I used for this Ignite presentation:
IGNITE
Science & Art: Instructions for Making a Chimera
1.
I have had the joy of orchestrating a three-year project bringing art and science into collaboration. We call ourselves the Ucross Pollinators to honor the institution hosting our gatherings—and to capture the underlying spirit.
2.
The Wyoming Humanities Council has been our principle supporter because they understand that if the arts are the flowers of civilization and the sciences are its stems, then the humanities are the roots.
3.
Our products include: National Science Foundation grants infused with art, a Microbestiary of unicellular life, a choreographic scoring method to encode insect movement, and operatic arias evoking the geology of Wyoming.
4.
I’d like to share with you what I’ve learned as an academic anthropologist, observing artists and scientists working and creating together—as well some thoughts about the institutional framework in which they are embedded.
5.
As for the people, here’s a simple but important consideration. Scientists are not artists and vice-versa. Each pursues distinct ways of knowing themselves and the world. To which I say, Viva la difference!
6.
The recipe for a tasty collaboration of artists and scientists is not to blend them into a homogenous smoothie, nor to make a loosely tossed salad. Instead, simmer them together into a mouthwatering stew.
7.
For our venture, I chose “big dogs”—people at the top of their game, not those needing to yap to establish their dominance in the pack. I’ve found that little dogs are much more likely to bite.
8.
The sense of wonder among the participants that catalyzed collaboration was akin to watching a spellbinding magician—and then being even more enchanted upon learning how the scientific or artistic trick was done.
9.
The one quality that is critical to fruitful art-and-science ventures is playfulness—a vulnerable, childlike willingness to ask “why not?”, to wonder “what if?”, and to genuinely share one’s toys.
10.
Scientists and artists need more than a one-night stand to achieve satisfaction. Fulfillment requires sustained interaction, and fertility is enhanced by proximity. And so, being colleagues at the same institution is a tremendous asset.
11.
Collaboration does not mean artists making science pretty. Rather, it requires mutual respect and that means genuine parity of power and prestige. In this dance, each must be willing to lead—and to follow.
12.
Without constraints, the possibilities at the intersection of science and art are astronomical. We need boundaries. Or as Robert Frost said of free verse poetry: It’s like playing tennis with the net down.
13.
An interdisciplinary team is often seen as having an ecologist and geologist. Nobody ever adds a poet or dancer. We sought transdisciplinarity—engagement that was synergistic rather than additive.
14.
I’ve observed that pairs work extremely well. Having one partner allows intimacy. Academic orgies don’t entail the commitment that sustains relationships. Maybe science and art collaborations are like American marriage—serial monogamy.
15.
Turning to the institutional context, universities might tolerate, but rarely encourage, science-art collaborations—unless there’s money to be had. So, individuals must find working together to be internally rewarding.
16.
Trying to define science and art is an unhelpful starting point institutionally—much like attempting to define the humanities. It’s like saying that before dating, one must define beauty, intelligence, and love.
17.
The university has islands of authentic collaboration—such as the Art Museum and the Biodiversity Institute—floating in a sea of institutional ambivalence. For the most part, we have a College of Arts or Sciences.
18.
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is a glutton. Adding the Arts to create STEAM (I prefer MEATS) still leaves artists nibbling crumbs from the table. But please sir, I want some more.
19.
Art-and-science collaborations subvert institutional norms. The results don’t add up on a spreadsheet; they defy administrative classification. These projects are viewed as the icing, not the cake, of a respectable academic career.
20.
In conclusion, art-and-science collaborations are acts of humanistic faith. The Cross-Pollinators will continue to pursue beautiful, grotesque, and strangely enchanting works that take flight—or not.
Cross-Pollination Experiment documentary. Explains the program in detail as it unfolded.
Saturday University lecture. Explains some of the trouble communicating the project.
There's not much that is more tech-y and science-y than a space program. In a way, a spacecraft is the ultimate field station, embedding humans in an undeveloped, hostile natural environment to enable research.
Artist Charles Lindsay has explored the concept of a field station using cast off research apparatus, including space program hardware. Lindsay also started and runs the artist residency program at SETI. NASA and JPL have remarkable art programs. Artist Trevor Paglen has launched photographs into space that will likely outlive human civilization, and the artist will soon launch Orbital Reflector, the first satellite whose sole purpose is to be a work of art.
But has an artist ever actually been sent to space in that capacity? Is physical space a cultural space? The European Space Agency funded the Arts Catalyst program to explore that question from 2005-2009.
This unique residency is a collaborative initiative of Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST) and Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Empiricism and intuition are not mutually exclusive. The goal of the project is to explore and expand how the creativity of scientists and artists are connected.
Held October 13-15, 2018 in Philadelphia, PA, "this training combines best practices from the arts-and-cultural sector with specific, hands-on information about artists' residencies.
Whether you are still in the early dreaming stage of creating an artist colony or working with an established institution that is developing a new residency program, the Emerging Program Institute will offer models for success, a community of peers, and access to residency leaders, funders, and connectors.
#aac18epi
Topics include:
community engagement and the relevance of place
building a support base and funding your program
equity and access in artist outreach, engagement and selection
business planning for artist residencies
"ask an expert" panels of residency leaders, artists and government funders
case studies, site visits - and more!
PLEASE NOTE: We cap attendance at 50 people to keep the program participatory and accessible. This Institute sells out every year, so we encourage you to register early to secure your spot! Registration opens in June."
Additionally, the training is held just before the 2018 Alliance of Artist Communities annual conference in Philadelphia, so you can plan to attend that event as well, to make connections that will benefit your program.
"The Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) is a unique collaboration between the University of Cambridge and leading internationally-focused biodiversity conservation organisations clustered in and around Cambridge, UK.
CCI seeks to transform the global understanding and conservation of biodiversity and the natural capital it represents and, through this, secure a sustainable future for all life on Earth. The CCI partners together combine and integrate research, education, policy and practice to create innovative solutions for society and to foster conservation learning and leadership."
Matt works in Fundraising for the RSPB Eastern England team. He will be spending his month of sabbatical time at CCI as our first poet in residence, starting on Monday 14 August.
Part of Matt’s role with RSPB is to explore engagement with the arts and he is the lead on the RSPB / The Rialto Nature and Place poetry competition which now additionally partners with CCI and BirdLife.
Matt’s poetry has been published in leading international magazines and journals such as The Poetry Review, New Statesman and The Dark Horse. His debut pamphlet, The Organ Box, was published in 2014.
Throughout his sabbatical, Matt will be based in the Artist in Residence studio (floor 2M of the East Tower). He will break his time up into one week a month, and he will also be at CCI some Fridays over the next few months.
In addition to providing Matt with time to write and network at CCI, the residency has a number of ambitions, all with the aim to gain a deeper understanding of how creative writing can help provide public engagement opportunities and deliver conservation objectives. Matt will be working to:
Host poetry events at CCI with leading poets
Develop the Nature and Place competition to increase its fundraising potential
Work with Modern Poetry in Translation magazine on an issue of international environmental poetry
Facilitate opportunities for other early career poets to engage with CCI to produce new work for publication and performance.
Matt will also offer colleagues from CCI member organisations opportunities to engage with the residency. Opportunities include:
One to ones with people interested in developing their own writing and reading
Establish a workshop group for those interested in writing new poems
Joining a mailing list to receive a fortnightly poem from the existing canon on a nature / conservation theme, with an explanatory note by him.
Matt is contactable on matt.howard@rspb.org.uk, please do get in touch if you are interested in getting involved.
Information on the intranet can be found here.
The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS) is dedicated to fostering and supporting integrative scholarship addressing ultimate questions at the intersection of the arts, engineering, the humanities, law, and the formal, natural, and social sciences, especially those that transcend disciplinary boundaries. http://ndias.nd.edu/fellowships/residential/
Research Support The NDIAS offers residential fellowships for periods ranging from three weeks to a full academic year (fall and spring semesters, August through May). Fellowships range up to a maximum of $60,000 (gross amount) per academic year (up to a maximum of $30,000 [gross amount] per semester) or pro-rated amounts for shorter periods. In addition, fellows who do not reside in the greater Michiana area are provided with subsidized visiting faculty housing located adjacent to the University during their fellowship. Applicants who require additional support beyond the fellowship stipend should seek supplementary funding in the form of external grants or sabbatical and other contributions from their home institutions. When preferable due to reasons such as faculty retirement contributions, ongoing employment, or the tracking of external funding, the NDIAS will pay a fellowship stipend directly to a Fellow’s home institution.
January 17 – May 14, 2017
Roger W. Rogers Gallery
Willamette University
Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center
900 State Street Salem, OR 97301
Hours: Monday – Friday 8am to 6pm
Winter Solstice, Leah Wilson.
In its measured and diligent investigation of minute, incremental changes in light levels at a specific site in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest over time, this series of paintings represents a seamless merger of art and science as it throws into high relief the pivotal role of change in ecosystems. It also examines the nature of perception, and the idea that by studying phenomena, we change them.
The genesis of the project lies in Wilson’s experience as an artist-in-residence at H.J. Andrews, a 16,000 acre long-term research site which is located in the Western Cascades east of Springfield, Oregon. During her residency, Wilson had the opportunity to observe scientists from Oregon State University’s Department of Forestry, who are currently in the 30th year of a 100-year log decomposition study.
The study involves deliberately placing a number of tagged logs in a wide variety of locations in and around the streams that run through the forest in order to test the effect species and size of logs have on decomposition and nutrient cycling processes.
Wilson’s interaction with this research led her to realize that science in general, and ecology in particular, seeks to identify patterns (and changes in patterns) over time. It is therefore fitting that both in terms of process and product, the most evident element of the work would be repetition, rhythm, and pattern.
The selection of the solstices and equinoxes of a specific year for the collection of her “data points” connects the cycles in a specific place and ecosystem with much larger and more powerful astronomical cycles. In comparing the barely perceptible, incremental chromatic changes that occur over the course of a day with the large seasonal changes that occur during the course of the earth’s orbit around the sun, Wilson’s work underlines the universality of the forces and phenomena that affect her specific, chosen site.
While the careful, and even clinical attention to methodology, process, and detail might lead us to think that Wilson’s work is purely scientific, there is much more at work here than only a concern with science. Her work is also a symbolic and meaningful examination of the philosophical idea that change is the only true constant.
Wilson points out that the nature of our senses and perception influences and changes the thing we study. She also demonstrates that the very act of studying something changes it. She explains her realizations in this regard as follows,
“Not only do our senses and brains edit information, and therefore the patterns and rhythms we perceive, but we have affected every environment and ecosystem on the earth, directly or indirectly, which also affects the way that we experience the patterns of change in the environment. Looking upstream from my location on the creek, the wild ruggedness of the old growth forest is apparent. But looking downstream is an abrupt intersection of wildness and human construction, a reminder of the way we alter our environment to fit our specific needs of that place.”
Wilson was able to observe human interventions occurring at her site during the course of her one-year process. She explains that these human interventions affected the patterns and rhythms of chromatic change in the creek, and subsequently in her paintings. She elaborates as follows:
“Even environments that appear wild and untouched are still affected by human intervention: a road can change the speed and redirect water during a storm; national parks are highly managed to control plant and animal populations; fires are suppressed or started to achieve a desired environmental effect; and climate change affects ecosystems across the globe. I chose to observe this location on the creek because of the juxtaposition of wildness and the constructed environment created to observe and understand it. The act of observation changes the patterns that we observe, whether it is though what we construct, the instruments we use to perceive, or our own physical perceptions. …..”
Leah Wilson is a Eugene resident and practicing artist. She obtained her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.
-Andries Fourie (Curator, Roger W. Rogers Gallery)
Ars Biotica is a long term art and science collaboration between the Finnish society of Bioart, and Kilpisjarvi Biological Station which belongs of the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences of the University of Helsinki. It has fostered interdisciplinary work since 2008, hosting arts and science activities as well as an artist in residency programme. The focus of the work is on Arctic nature, biology and ecology, with a special interested in the biology of war, snow and ice, environmental and climate change, and the relations between nature and culture perceived
through the lens of art and science.
Since 2010, around 40 artists from Finland and abroad have participated in the Ars-Bioarctica artist residency programme.
They have also hosted a biennial art and science field lab called Field_Notes that took place in 2011 and 2013. These labs were about supporting artistic fieldwork as a catalyst for other environmental
investigations.
Currently the majority of collaborations between the artists and the scientists have been initiated by the artists.
Stephen Tonsor at the Carnegie Natural History Museum directed us to this 2013 document produced by The Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University.
It's a set of recommendations for artist in residence programs at universities, based on a survey of 14 universities, and paying special attention to the IP issues. The recommendations could also be very helpful to FSML art programs, as well.
"A Non-Profit Foundation offering Artist in Residence Programs, Museum In-Loan Programs, and Workshops in conjunction with our National Parks."
There are a few field stations in, or adjacent to National Parks. This program might be an opportunity to connect a scientific researcher to an artist for a project.
Culture and Climate Change is a new UK effort that links art and science to influence society. Their projects include Narratives, Recordings, and Scenarios, like artist residencies.
"Climate change is urgent and important, but also, for many, boring, difficult and confusing. What kinds of stories and other artworks are being created in response to ‘the greatest challenge facing humanity’ — a challenge that is also apparently forgettable?"
"We convene workshops and events that invite contributions from leading researchers, artists, producers, journalists and policymakers."
We've also put out a CFP for a spring symposium considering land use and ethics from the perspective of poetics. and I'm working on a project interpreting historic field notes from the Huntington Forest as poetry. I think both of these projects fit with the convergence of art and science that we're concerned with, if you think so, I'll keep you and the group posted!
Some artist residencies that welcome scientists. View larger map.
Hosting artists at field research sites is one way to encourage fertile collaboration and cross-pollination. But some artist residency programs also host scientists for the same reasons. Requirements for these residencies vary from no expectations, to participation in the community, to presentation of work.
Scientists often visit field research stations to write and reflect in an inspiring environment, rather than to conduct actual science. Artist residency programs might offer a similar option that also provides a potentially valuable connection to a different community.
The Alliance of Artist Communities maintains a page of ecologically-oriented artist residency programs (that may be amenable to scientists). And here is a list of scientist-friendly artist residencies:
"We perceive a world where artists and scientists collaborate directly with each other to create innovative interdisciplinary work and projects that have a positive impact on society, technology and culture."
"The residency environment is also particularly well-suited for collaboration and synergy between often disparate-seeming disciplines...In this spirit, many multidisciplinary organizations are forming creative residencies as a way of addressing ecological and scientific issues."
"Art and imagery are inherent in the creative process in science and integral to the communication of its discoveries. For theoretical physics, images can be powerful expressions of elegant mathematical equations that are otherwise inaccessible to many."
"Artists often investigate ideas differently than scientists, and communicating this way of seeing can move the science forward."
"The artists were also surprised to find that some of the most innovative art was already being created at [CERN] by the engineers and lab technicians, who were crafting machines that combined state-of-the-art technology and some of the world's finest craftsmanship. The resulting dialogue explored the question of whether sculptural objects that were created without the intention of being art--but rather as scientific tools--were in fact art."
"While science dominates restoration thought, it seems increasingly clear that science is necessary, but not sufficient...and neither is art. I think this project can help establish a clear role for artists and humanists, not as solitary visionaries, but as participants; not as some mystical or magical process, but as an important, critical perspective; not as arbitrator, but as co-worker, one among many disciplines equally necessary to the recovery and revitalization of this whole place."
Read more at greenmuseum.org, a nonprofit online resource to support and advance the environmental art movement
Here's one clever and simple idea: give artists a dedicated place to stay while on site. This is a cool project proposal from Stanford, forwarded by Philippe Cohen. The funding was an internal Stanford competitive grant program under the auspices of the Stanford Art Institute.
"What really excites me about this is that it will have the effect of normalizing the presence of artists and art students at Jasper Ridge [Biological Preserve] and set the stage for interactions and collaborations between artists and researchers."
The Clore Leadership Programme is a UK-based organization that offers a range of programs for outstanding individuals who wish to develop as cultural leaders.
By investing in individuals, we aim to strengthen leadership across a wide range of creative and cultural activities.
The annual Clore Fellowship award provides support to Brits and a few internationals who "...may be working freelance or within cultural organisations, of all types and sizes, in areas ranging from archives to theatre production, and including visual and performing arts, film and digital media, heritage, creative industries, museums, libraries and cultural policy."
While Americans probably don't qualify for the awards, there may be opportunities to do interesting projects with Clore Fellows.
"The programme blends real-life examples with practical skills and tools.
You will be expected to challenge and stretch yourself. Peer learning is a key element of the programme. It is not a taught course and there are no exams or qualifications. Instead you will learn from experience, your own and others, by sharing and reflecting and by putting your new-found skills into practice through workshops, a secondment and collaborative enquiry.
You will be encouraged to be curious, to question, to discuss and to write about cultural leadership."
Another recommended resource is CaFÉ™, a web-based service that "allows organizations and administrators to easily and cost-effectively manage artist-application and jury processes related to calls for entry and other events."
CaFE is a program of The Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), a regional nonprofit arts service organization based in Denver, CO, whose mission is "to strengthen the financial, organizational, and policy infrastructure of the arts in the West."
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Update:
"The Alliance of Artists Communities is an international association of artists' residencies — a diverse field of more than 1,500 programs worldwide that support artists of any discipline in the development of new creative work."
Stephanie Lie was awarded a UCIRA Artist Residency at UC San Diego's Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve in summer of 2014. Isabelle Kay provided these photos from the project.
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