Toolbox Dialogue Initiative

"The Toolbox Dialogue Initiative provides a philosophical yet practical enhancement to cross-disciplinary, collaborative science. This enhancement comes primarily in the form of a dialogue-based “Toolbox workshop”, and it is intended for interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams of collaborators. Rooted in philosophical analysis, Toolbox workshops enable cross-disciplinary collaborators to engage in a structured dialogue about their research assumptions. This yields both self-awareness and mutual understanding, supplying cross-disciplinary research (CDR) collaborators with the robust foundation needed for effective collaborative research and practice."

Art, Science and Democracy...and FSMLs

"Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage." -- H. L. Mencken

 

  Democracy and Science...

"The relation of science and democracy is an ancient conundrum that continues to generate public controversy. Whenever science produces an “inconvenient truth”—as Al Gore famously calls the science of climate change—democratic governments may be tempted to ignore or suppress it. And as scientists like to remind us, 'You can’t vote on the laws of physics!'

Natural scientists and their advocates often argue that the power of science in democracy depends on it remaining insulated from politics. Seen in this light, it is no wonder that many believe science and democracy tend to undermine each other. But another long tradition sees science and democracy as mutually reinforcing. Democracies depend on science for effectively addressing public problems, and many argue that science provides a model of rational democratic deliberation.

These two conflicting interpretations each capture part of the story, but they neglect some of the most interesting questions, which concern changes in the meaning and purpose of science and democracy and how they shape each other in particular contexts. With regard to science, most scholars who study science and democracy now reject the long dominant “positivist” view of science as a formal, logical, socially insulated method for producing value-free knowledge. The ideal of value-free science remains popular in public life, but extensive research in the social sciences and humanities has shown how science is intertwined with social values, commercial pressures, and political decisions.

That does not mean science merely reflects dominant interests, as caricatures of “social constructivism” assert, but it does open up difficult questions about how democratic citizens might shape the science that shapes their lives. With regard to democracy, mid-20th-century political scientists tended to conceive democracy narrowly in terms of popular elections and formal state institutions. Recent scholarship, in contrast, shows how social institutions and material practices of all kinds may become sites of democratic politics. Indeed, as democracy has increased in global popularity, its meaning has become increasingly diffuse and ambiguous; democracy offers both a rallying cry for social justice movements and a marketing slogan for global corporations.

Picasso's Guernica

The relation of science and democracy involves a wide range of disparate phenomena, including science advice, science policy, public engagement in sociotechnical controversies, lay-expert relations, and the technical constitution of democratic citizens, not to mention the many specific concerns associated with issues like climate change, genetic engineering, or nanotechnology."

If science is not value-neutral, who decides how it is politicized?

Democracy and Art...

"Our leaders and institutions appear to be ill-equipped to deal with the most pressing global challenges because of particular interests that make global governance institutions weak [despite clear science]. There is a mismatch between the fragmentation of specialized institutions and the interconnectedness and complexity of today’s world.

Arts and culture have a direct bearing on our capacity to face today’s complex issues. Art safeguards a long-term view; not only does it provide a counterweight to the fast evolving world of technology, but it also helps to make sense of this world. Art invites participation and thus transcends the division between observation and activism. Art inspires insights that resonate across disciplines. Art helps to situate science and technology in public space by symbolically and reflexively representing their roles in society. Art fosters imagination and creativity, capacities that are crucial in its impact on the individual and the community."

Science, Art and Social Change...

Schubel 2015.

We need artists to bridge the gap between science's data and knowledge, to the policy that leads to cultural change. For FSMLs, this typically swirls around the Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences.

"...unlike political consensus--once scientific consensus is reached and knowledge has been created from data, that doesn't mean there has actually been any connection made to public opinion, nor to the mechanisms of social change. Art can fill this disconnect, and has frequently been used by politicians as a tool to effect change in the working of the world."

Powerful artists

Here are some artists currently doing remarkable work at the intersection of art, environment and science. Thanks to Josh Harrison for the suggestions:

David Haley

"Ecological artist, David Haley, believes our ability to survive Climate Change is the enactment of a complex evolutionary narrative. As the dance of creation and destruction, also, demands new opportunities and meanings for the other side of collapse, his inquiries into the nature of water, whole systems ecology, complexity, and integral critical futures thinking inform his arts practice, academic research, education and community developments."

Tim Collins & Reiko Goto

"Tim Collins is an artist, author and planner, working across art, science and philosophy for over twenty years. He has worked within a wide range of communities developing research, methods and practices that take best advantage of art and aesthetics in the public interest...Over the last decade, Collins and his partner Reiko Goto have been developing artwork, tools and technologies that attend to the silent, the invisible and the different temporal relationships that occur at the scale of forests and gardens."

Jonathan Baxter

"Jonathan Baxter is an ‘artist and …’ He works across disciplines – both art and non-art related – using psychoanalytic methodologies and performative practices to variously open up, challenge and propose what is."

 

 

Lucas Ihlein 

"Ihlein is an award-winning Australian artist whose work explores the relationship between socially engaged art, agriculture and environmental management."

=================

Recommendations for artists who are compatible with field station science

Take a look at these artist's websites to see if their work resonates with yours:

"...I promised to send along the list of artists I know of who would be a great fit for a residency at a field station (and/or they may have already done something like this in the past)

Carolina Aragon
Cathleen Faubert
Helen Glazer
Ryan Griffis
Sarah Kanouse
Brian Knep
Mikhail Mansion
Jane Marsching
Lize Mogel
Teri Rueb
Brooke Singer
Joseph Smolinski
Andi Sutton

These are some that are at the top of mind at the moment, but I could certainly come up with more if folks are interested.

Best wishes,

Catherine D'Ignazio

Assistant Professor, Emerson College
Senior Fellow, Emerson Engagement Lab
Research Affiliate, MIT Center for Civic Media
@kanarinka | www.kanarinka.com | 617-501-2441"

System Drawing

To connect art and science process, photographer Andrea Frank of SUNY-New Paltz developed a program called System Drawing.

These sessions are "experimental trans-disciplinary four-day think tanks. The research is thematically framed by pressing environmental concerns, which are addressed through a creative systems thinking lens and resonate with social, historical, economic, and psychological factors"

The program involves, "group-based creative processes that support new ways of conscientiously connecting with our environment and each other. A System Drawing session usually starts with experiential body work to expand multi-sensory awareness, which is followed by a slow walk through the chosen site and environment. For each session, a set of site specific tools and materials is provided. Participants intuitively interact with the material, while also fluidly responding to each other’s interventions."

Festival for the Earth

 

ABOUT FESTIVAL FOR THE EARTH

Festival for the Earth is a 2-day international gathering proposing...transformations, reflections and alternative modalities to reframe environmental issues.

Knowledge access and information flows are highly important as actual environmental emergencies urge a radical change of perspective and practices. To this end, the Festival for the Earth is conceived by the artist Maria Rebecca Ballestra as an art project for social transformation that aims to instigate creativeness directed at positive transformation processes in science, humanities, economy, ecology and art.

The conference’s location alternates between Venice and the Principality of Monaco, two cities that are already linked by strong historical ties, two symbolic places where the relationship between “water” and land (characterized by its scarcity) has shaped both the minds of their citizens and their history. In December 2018 the Festival’s third edition will return to Venice and will be hosted in the prestigious locations of Ca’ Foscari University Venice, Ateneo Veneto, the Natural History Museum of Venice and the Botanical Garden of Padova.

For more information about the Festival and requests for interviews:

Stefania Pensabene
+39 335 724 94 29
press@festivalfortheearth.com
www.festivalfortheearth.com
twitter: @Ffortheearth – istagram: ffortheearth – facebook: Festivalfortheearth

Monaco, 04 October 2018 – Festival for the Earth comes back to the most famous lagoon in the world for its 2018 edition, with a wide range of conferences, workshops, artist talks and events to be held in different locations around Venice on December 3 and 4.  In its third edition, however, the Festival will also expand its reach to the Botanical Garden of Padua, one of the most ancient and beautiful in the world, which will host film projections and discussions at its Auditorium.

Once again, Festival’s guest speakers will come from the top of the academia and professional world (Nobel, Pulitzer and Goldman Prize Winners will join us in Venice), but also members of influential international organizations. We are honored to announce that HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and Mr. Youba Sokona, UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Vice-Chair will give the opening speeches of the Festival, followed among others by world renowned climatologist Nigel Tapper, who contributed to the IPCC study that resulted in the joint award of the Nobel Prize to Al Gore and the IPCC, by Pulitzer Prize Daniel Fagin and by Goldman Prize Rossano Ercolini.

Jean Painlevé documentaries

"Jean Painlevé was a film director, critic, theorist, and animator, yet his interests and studies also extended to mathematics, medicine, and zoology. Amazingly, all these disparate strands came together in a groundbreaking, decades-spanning artistic career. Operating under the credo: Science is fiction, Painlevé forged his own unique cinematic path, creating countless short films for both the viewing public and the scientific community. Moreover, he was also one of the first filmmakers to take his camera underwater. Surreal, otherworldly documents of marine life, these films transformed sea horses, octopi, and mollusks into delicate dancers in their own floating ballets." 

On Amazon.com

Land Art Generator Initiative

"The Land Art Generator provides a platform for artists, architects, landscape architects, and other creatives working with engineers and scientists to bring forward solutions for sustainable energy infrastructures that enhance the city as works of public art while cleanly powering thousands of homes...

The goal of the Land Art Generator is to accelerate the transition to post-carbon economies by providing models of renewable energy infrastructure that add value to public space, inspire, and educate—while providing equitable power to thousands of homes around the world."

Common Ground Art, Data, and Ecology at New York State Field Stations

"This report assesses the potential for collaboration in New York State between the arts and field stations: places and programs where scientific researchers conduct long-term studies of diverse ecosystems. It provides an overview of how and where this transdisciplinary work is currently taking place, and makes recommendations to advance this effort across the state. It seeks to encourage further opportunities for artists that, when combined with environmental research, can aid community development and quality of life by advancing awareness of social-ecological systems: how people use, perceive, and shape our environment."

The report finds that art/science collaboration at field stations is powerful, and advances a series if recommendations in 3 emphasis areas:

1). Advance existing art residencies at field stations: These programs would benefit from support for planning and implementation of programs; evaluation; and connection to national gatherings and conversations.

2). Share information and best practices from across the field: a centralized and accessible information resource—including case studies, best practices, documentation, and a directory of representative artists—would help field stations conceptualize programs and make the case for support within their institutions and externally, and in NYS and beyond, spread documentation of the transformative outcomes of this work.

3). Create formal and informal opportunities for crosssector networking: Our convening demonstrated the value of cross-sector dialogue, and underscored the need for more such opportunities including facilitated conversations between field stations, regional art and science salons, a statewide conference, and a data, art, and environment working group.

Read the entire report here. 

Advancing "One Water" Through Arts and Culture: A Blueprint for Action

"The US Water Alliance believes that arts and culture can move the needle for One Water management—an approach to water management that is inclusive and integrated to ensure a sustainable water future for future generations...

The urgent and multifaceted nature of our water challenges calls for new ways of thinking, acting, and investing. Water leaders across the nation are embracing the One Water approach—managing water resources in a more integrated, inclusive, and sustainable manner in order to secure a bright and prosperous future for our children, communities, and country.

ArtPlace America and the US Water Alliance believe there is tremendous opportunity to utilize arts and culture strategies to advance One Water. As creative thinkers and doers, artists can be powerful partners for water leaders seeking to reimagine traditional approaches to water planning and management and connect with communities in new ways.

Our partnership has been a collaboration in the finest sense of the word. Together we learned about each other’s sectors, challenged assumptions, and have developed a powerful framework for how to use arts and culture to forge One Water progress. We are so inspired by the creative ways that utilities, environmental groups, public agencies, and other water practitioners are collaborating with artists and cultural leaders. But it is only the beginning."

Read the full report here. 

Map of FSMLs and Artist-Residencies

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.


View Potential Partners in ArtSciConverge in a full screen map

The Cross-Pollination Experiment

Jeff Lockwood

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.

Michael Dillon

Michael E. Dillon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology and Physiology & Program in Ecology at the University of Wyoming. Dillon also serves as Director of the University of Wyoming - National Park Service Research Station.

Brochure, explaining the project and some of its outcomes.

-----------------------------

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.

More videos.

Leonardo RFPs

Leonardo was founded in 1968 in Paris by kinetic artist and astronautical pioneer Frank Malina who saw the need for a journal to serve as an international channel of communication among artists, with emphasis on the writings of artists who use science and developing technologies in their work. Published by The MIT Press and led by executive editor Roger Malina, Leonardo has become the leading international peer-reviewed journal on the use of contemporary science and technology in the arts and music and, increasingly, the application and influence of the arts and humanities on science and technology.

Leonardo is interested in work that crosses the artificial boundaries separating contemporary arts and sciences. Featuring illustrated articles written by artists about their own work as well as articles by historians, theoreticians, philosophers and other researchers, the journal is particularly concerned with issues related to the interaction of the arts, sciences and technology.

Leonardo focuses on the visual arts and also addresses music, video, performance, language, environmental and conceptual arts—especially as they relate to the visual arts or make use of the tools, materials and ideas of contemporary science and technology. New concepts, materials and techniques and other subjects of general artistic interest are covered, as are legal, economic and political aspects of art.

The following are the current calls for Special Section papers for Leonardo journal. Please see each for information on solicited topics, paper types, and submission processes.

• Art and Atoms, guest editor Tami Spector
• Art and Cancer, guest editor Dhruba Deb
• Artists and War, guest editor Michele Emmer
• ArtScience: The Essential Connection, guest editor Robert Root-Bernstein
• Environment 2.0, guest editor Drew Hemment
• PhD in Art and Design, guest editors Ken Friedman and Jack Ox
• Pioneers and Pathbreakers, to coincide with Leonardo's 50th anniversary
• Pioneers and Pathbreakers/Narratives in Dark Culture memoir series
• Smart Textiles: Science and Technology of Textile Art, supported by the Marjorie Duckworth Malina Fund
• Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS), editor-in-chief Sheila Pinkel

Now announcing The Leonardo STEAM Initiative on Education with guest editors Robert Root-Bernstein and Tracie Costantino.

UPDATE 25 May 2018: Please see the call for papers for a new special section Science and Art: The Essential Connection with guest editors Catherine Baker and Iain Gilchrist.

Danielle Siembieda
Managing Director

Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences

I keep having to look these up, so I thought I'd make a post for everyone's future reference!

---

Environmental science often refers to the Grand Challenges. These are the key issues facing humans in the 21st century, and there is some back and forth discussion about what they are, of course. But a report from the National Academy of Sciences in 2001--"Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences"--synthesized the results of a prestigious working group exploring this issue over several years, capturing the concept in 8 challenges:

1. BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES: The challenge is to understand how the Earth's major biogeochemical cycles are being perturbed by human activities; to be able to predict the impact of these perturbations on local, regional, and global scales; and to determine how these cycles may be restored to more natural states should such restoration be deemed desirable.
2. BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING: The challenge is to understand the regulation and functional consequences of biological diversity, and to develop approaches for sustaining this diversity and the ecosystem functioning that depends on it.
3. CLIMATE VARIABILITY: The challenge is to increase our ability to predict climate variability, from extreme events to decadal time scales; to understand how this variability may change in the future; and to assess its impact on natural and human systems.
4. HYDROLOGIC FORECASTING: The challenge is to predict changes in freshwater resources and the environment caused by floods, droughts, sedimentation, and contamination in a context of growing demand on water resources.
5. INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND THE ENVIRONMENT: The challenge is to understand the ecological and evolutionary aspects of infectious diseases; to develop an understanding of the interactions among pathogens, hosts/receptors, and the environment; and thus to make it possible to prevent changes in the infectivity and virulence of organisms that threaten plant, animal, and human health at the population level.
6. INSTITUTIONS AND RESOURCE USE: The challenge is to develop a systematic understanding of the role of institutions—markets, hierarchies, legal structures, regulatory arrangements, international conventions, and other formal and informal sets of rules—in shaping systems for natural resource use, extraction, waste disposal, and other environmentally important activities.
7. LAND-USE DYNAMICS: The challenge is to develop a systematic understanding of changes in land uses and land covers that are critical to biogeochemical cycling, ecosystem functioning and services, and human welfare.
8. REINVENTING THE USE OF MATERIALS: The challenge is to develop a quantitative understanding of the global budgets and cycles of key materials used by humanity and of how the life cycles of these materials may be modified. Among the materials of particular interest for this grand challenge are those with documented or potential environmental impacts, those whose long-term availability is in some question, and those with a high potential for recycling and reuse. Examples include copper, silver, and zinc (reusable metals); cadmium, mercury, and lead (hazardous metals); plastics and alloys (reusable substances); and CFCs, pesticides, and many organic solvents (environmentally hazardous substances).

You'll note that "Climate Change" is not listed, but it drives and aggravates all of the other challenges. There is much more to say about why these particular issues are so critical. You can read more about it in the report.

Long-awaited paper now out

The Integration of the Humanities and Artswith Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine inHigher Education: Branches from the Same Tree (read online, or order a hard copy).

The National Academy of Sciences commissioned this report on the value of STEMM integration in higher education. From a highlights document:

"This study examined an important trend in higher education: integration of the humanities and arts with sciences, engineering, and medicine at the undergraduate and graduate level—which proponents argue will better prepare students for work, life, and citizenship...This movement in higher education raises an important question: what impact do these curricular approaches have on students? 

To address this question, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine formed a 22-member committee to examine 'the evidence behind the assertion that educational programs that mutually integrate learning experiences in the humanities and arts with science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) lead to improved educational and career outcomes for undergraduate and graduate students.' The committee conducted an in-depth review and analysis of the state of knowledge on the impact of integrative approaches on students."

 The results are encouraging:

"Aggregate evidence indicates that some approaches that integrate the humanities and arts with STEMM are associated with positive learning outcomes. Among the outcomes reported are increased critical thinking abilities, higher-order thinking and deeper learning, content mastery, problem solving, teamwork and communication skills, improved visuospatial reasoning, and general engagement and enjoyment of learning. 

An important observation was that the kinds of outcomes associated with certain integrative approaches in higher education are the educational outcomes that many employers presently seek. Employer surveys consistently show that employers want well-rounded individuals with a holistic education who can take on complex problems and understand the needs, desires, and motivations of others. Importantly, these learning goals and competences are similarly valued by institutions of higher education. The committee considered multiple forms of evidence as it developed the following recommendations for institutions, faculty, administrators, scholars of higher education, and federal and private funders. The recommendations fall under four main areas:"

1. Support for Integrative Approaches
2. Evaluating Integrative Courses and Programs
3. Enhancing Inclusivity Through Integrative Courses and Programs
4. Removing the Barriers to Integrative Approaches 

The paper concludes that:

"Higher education should strive to offer all students—regardless of degree or area of concentration—an education that exposes them to diverse forms of human knowledge and inquiry and that impresses upon them the fact that all disciplines are 'branches of the same tree.' Such an education should empower students to understand the fundamental connections among the diverse branches of human inquiry—the arts, humanities, sciences, social sciences, mathematics, engineering, technology, and medicine."

Classic book in the art/sci genre

A Cultural History of Physics, by Karoly Simonyi.

"While the physical sciences are a continuously evolving source of technology and of understanding about our world, they have become so specialized and rely on so much prerequisite knowledge that for many people today the divide between the sciences and the humanities seems even greater than it was when C. P. Snow delivered his famous 1959 lecture, "The Two Cultures."

In A Cultural History of Physics, Hungarian scientist and educator Karoly Simonyi succeeds in bridging this chasm by describing the experimental methods and theoretical interpretations that created scientific knowledge, from ancient times to the present day, within the cultural environment in which it was formed. Unlike any other work of its kind, Simonyi's seminal opus explores the interplay of science and the humanities to convey the wonder and excitement of scientific development throughout the ages.

These pages contain an abundance of excerpts from original resources, a wide array of clear and straightforward explanations, and an astonishing wealth of insight, revealing the historical progress of science and inviting readers into a dialogue with the great scientific minds that shaped our current understanding of physics.

Beautifully illustrated, accurate in its scientific content and broad in its historical and cultural perspective, this book will be a valuable reference for scholars and an inspiration to aspiring scientists and humanists who believe that science is an integral part of our culture."

Download an excerpt here. If you happen to have a real copy, consider scanning it for us--it's impossible to find (except for hundreds of dollars--or more--from scalpers on Amazon). It's even expensive on Kindle!

Read another review.

“What would power look like if it were art?”

Jim Mason is a Burning Man and San Francisco Bay area artist. Asking that question led Mason down a path that led to All Power Labs (APL), a $5M a year energy start up sustained entirely by sales.

APL creates biomass gasifiers that produce heat, electricity and biochar from organic debris, creating negative carbon balance in the equation. The company actually aims to reverse the planetary damage done by burning fossil fuels over the past 150 years, moving atmospheric carbon into the soil in a stable form that enhances soil productivity over millennia. The technology is small scale for distributed production at the source of the feedstock, rather than requiring trucking of material to a large megawatt generator, as is our current cultural model...which is only better because some company can make billions that way.

Though APL's aims seem grandiose to the point of delusion, the artists are onto what may be the only solution out there, and the company is growing rapidly both domestically and world-wide.

APL's gasifiers are small, arriving on a pallet, and relatively affordable (if you have $50K and a handy source of biomass to feed it). But now, anyone can get in on the action, and improve their garden (or someone else's) at the same time: the company has borrowed the Community Supported Agriculture model and is offering biochar subscriptions through their new Local Carbon Network. You (or your designees) get periodic bags of this special charcoal shipped to your home (or farm), where you mix it with compost and till it into your soil. Your effort improves the soil productivity, reduces water needs, and banks carbon. It's worth the $25 Indie-Go-Go subscription just to support these visionaries!

Read article.



APL is not the only visionary, artist-led, Burning Man-inspired energy initiative underway.

"Black Rock Solar began its sun-capturing mission at Burning Man 2007, installing a 30-kilowatt solar power array on the playa in keeping with that year’s Green Man theme. After the event, the team donated and moved the installation to Gerlach’s Ernest Johnson Elementary School. The original array was later expanded to 90 kilowatts, providing the school with a third of its power and saving more than $15,000 per year, money that goes toward enrichment programs for the kids.  

Black Rock Solar’s financial model was innovative: use donations and grants to fund solar installations, receive significant solar rebates from Nevada’s electric utility, and use that money to fund more installations. Today, through Black Rock Solar’s efforts, more than 100 schools, non-profits and tribal community buildings, including the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribes schools and facilities along the Route 447 stretch between Fernley and Gerlach are now powered by the sun’s rays."

In 9 years, BRS installed 7.6 megawatts worth of solar systems to generate clean, cheap power in Washoe County, Nevada, and points beyond. So much power, in fact, that the State of Nevada proclaimed Hwy 447 as America's Solar Highway, with more watts of distributed solar per mile than anywhere in the USA (451kW along 75 miles of highway, 17 watts per mile).

With the drop in solar hardware costs and the end of Nevada's incentive programs, Black Rock Solar's financing model was no longer effective; the company recently transitioned into Black Rock Labs, an accelerator for "best-in-class clean-tech innovations particularly suited to the Burning Man culture and in alignment with Burning Man principles. It will select projects that may start by bettering life in Black Rock City, but which can be scaled to serve the whole world."

One of their first efforts is the hexayurt: a simplified disaster relief shelter designed by artists and tested thoroughly on the harsh playa at Burning Man. The structures are simple, cheap, portable, and robust for use in disaster areas and other temporary communities.

More info.

River Restoration Courses

Artists like Daniel McCormick and Mary O'Brien (Watershed Sculpture), and Patricia Johanson construct land art projects engineered to engage with hydrological forces in degraded environments in order to restore ecological function and connect the community with their waterways.

You, too, can learn technical river restoration skills required to effect this kind of land art:

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Dear Friends,

A reminder about a conference and shortcourses in integrated science for river management and restoration, as well as more specialized training in sediment transport as applied to river restoration. The ‘early-bird’ rate has been extended until 22 April for the June shortcourse in Beaumont du Ventoux, France, and is available until 31 May for the July-August courses in Logan, Utah, and near Lake Tahoe, California.

ISRivers: Integrative Sciences and Sustainable Development of Rivers
4-8 June, Lyon FR

Held every three years, IS Rivers brings together researchers and practitioners from across Europe and around the world, encouraging conversations across disciplinary and national boundaries. This year conference includes special sessions on river-city interactions, floodplain restoration, dams and sediments, extreme events, and water governance. (in French and English, with simultaneous translation)

River Restoration: Fluvial-Geomorphic and Ecological Tools
11-15 June 2018, Beaumont du Ventoux, Provence FR

This shortcourse/workshop emphasizes understanding geomorphic process as a sound basis for planning and designing river restoration projects and programs, with specific applications and field visits to Mediterranean and mountain environments. The course draws on innovative process-based river restoration and management experiences in France and elsewhere in the EU, complemented by experiences in North America. Instruction includes lectures, field exercises, and workshops on approaches to planning and implementing process-based restoration. Instructors are drawn from multiple disciplines, and from academia and practice, on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s a great opportunity to make connections with others working on similar issues in different geographic and institutional settings. Held the week after ISRivers, it offers a great opportunity to combine two professional and education experiences in a compelling setting. (in English)

Sediment Transport in Stream Assessment and Design
30 July - 03 Aug 2018, Logan, Utah USA

This course is intended for those who wish to understand and apply the principles of sediment transport to alluvial channel assessment and design. Principles of open channel flow and sediment transport are combined with watershed-scale, hydrologic and sediment source analysis to place channel assessment and design in context. The course balances advance reading, lecture, field work, and hands-on exercises for estimating sediment supply, calculating sediment transport rates, forecasting channel response to water and sediment supply, and channel design. Intended for participants familiar with basic principles of river geomorphology (such as from the Beaumont or Sagehen courses). Instructors are drawn from both research and practice. Continuing Education Units for the course offered by Utah State University.

Geomorphic and Ecological Fundamentals for River and Stream Restoration
6-10 August 2018, Truckee, California USA

This five-day introductory course emphasizes understanding geomorphic and ecological process as a sound basis for planning and designing river restoration, covering general principles and case studies from a wide range of environments, and includes field measurements, mapping, interpretation, field trips to the Truckee River and streams in the Lake Tahoe Basin, and workshops on stream restoration problems faced by participants. Now in its 24th successful year, the course is held at Sagehen Creek Field Station, combining a beautiful natural setting with excellent research and facilities, such as an outdoor classroom, stream table to demonstrate channel adjustments, on-site laboratory, and Sagehen Creek itself, with its rich history of research in fluvial geomorphology and ecology. Instructors are drawn from multiple disciplines, and from both research and practice.

If you have questions, please contact us at river.restoration.sagehen@gmail.com

What's really wrong with Facebook?

Apologies for diverging toward politics, but recent events illuminate how desperately we need to re-engage the arts with science, and how few of the people running things are clued into this need. So get out there and explain it to them, people!



Mark Zuckerberg's performance before Congress this week makes me want to punch him right in the forehead. Again and again, he crashes through our culture like a bull in a china shop, offering nothing but tepid apologies and weak, floral pronouncements about how all he really wants to do is Buy The World A Coke (TM). He has literally nothing else to offer every time his company finds itself at the center of yet another unprecedented cultural calamity. He has proven himself utterly incompetent to deal with the forces he is messing with, but won't get out of the way, either.

Unfortunately, Congress isn't much better and doesn't seem to know what to think about the whole mess, either. They weakly wring their hands and tell Zuckerberg he needs to do better, hoping the willful infant somehow figures out a way to control himself and his company, in spite of zero incentive to stop the wrecking ball swinging.

You know what I desperately wanted to hear someone ask during these hearings?

"Mr. Zuckerberg, how many humanists and philosophers does your company employ? Is there anyone on your staff even remotely qualified to explore the moral issues surrounding the technology you continue to fling out into the world without apparent thought or consideration? 

And, aside from that benefit, wouldn't hiring some people from the arts and humanities go a long way toward addressing the Silicon Valley diversity crisis you acknowledge, but refuse to actually address?"

/soapbox 

Ohio River water quality/art project

As an artist I entered the project with the hopes of being inspired by something that would lead to a visual expression. I wanted my "research" to be creative and I allowed it to unfold as a series of related but diverse information gathering excursions.

Electrofishing with Chris [Lorentz, Professor of Biology, Thomas More College] gave me an understanding of the amazing ecosystem of the river itself. Next I met with the Ohio River foundation and talked about the main causes of pollution in the river. In 2015 there was a 500 mile long algae bloom on the river, and this phenomena captured my creative imagination as a subject to focus my goals. I did research about the documented history of industrial pollution on the river, and at the public library found an especially amazing photograph of the Cincinnati river bank from the 19th century.

In the photo you can clearly see the sewage run off exiting buildings at the rivers edge. In this small section of the photo you can see the open sewer ditch. The photo was taken in 1848 and the next year a cholera epidemic swept the city.

In my design courses, I try to get students to become more sensitive to color and shape as tools to shape an environment. For the algal bloom project, I met with a select group of talented students and we talked about the algal bloom as an experience, something immersive and expressive, so that we might find a way to personify it visually.

First we decided on a shape quality and the beginning of a color system. These decisions were based on principles of good design married to the specific attributes of the algal bloom. Here is a first small hand painted design. In this painting, we stuck to the literal blue green color scheme and used a botanical motif. The rectangle itself is a golden rectangle and the shapes are interacting with further golden ratio divisions within the larger rectangle.

Although this initial design is very interesting to look at, it does not embody the voracious life cycle and disruptive quality of the bloom. We took the initial painting and spent a long time working with it on the computer, mirroring and multiplying the design across a larger expanse. We changed the color to be more perceptually intense, and further intensified the relationship between the botanical shapes and the internal geometry of the design. The final design is here:

We hosted the NCBDS conference on the beginning design student here at UC a couple weeks ago, and I presented the project and printed the poster at a large scale.

I would love to display it more, either virtually or physically, Do you know of any opportunities? I have a file that can be printed at various scales, and it is a really exciting/immersive visual experience.

Cheers!

Emil Robinson
emil.robinson@gmail.com

ps I can send better quality files if needed

The Art of Ecology: Interlochen Center for the Arts

"In the fall of 2017, Interlochen Arts Academy launched an initiative that explores the nexus of art and ecology, as a collaboration between the Visual Arts and R.B. Annis Math and Science Divisions."

More info here.