2nd February 2022: This event provided an opportunity for artists and scientists working on climate change and related environmental issues to meet each other and make connections. The event started with a panel of speakers before moving into space for one-on-one conversations between attendees. This event was organised in collaboration with Metta Theatre.

Speakers

The three speakers for this event were:

• Will Reynolds, stage and lighting designers and co-founder of Metta Theatre
• Dr Emily Taylor, general manager of the Crichton Carbon Centre
• Eve Mosher, artist working on the climate crisis since 2007

Our three speakers provided an introduction to arts/sciences collaborations from their own perspectives. You can watch a video of their three presentations here with a summary provided below.

Will Reynolds discussed his experiences of bringing in scientists to advise on their work and a project pairing up creatives and researchers. He found that these situations tended to work as a two-way exchange where artists benefited from research input and researchers appreciated the opportunity to consider their research in new ways.

One project involved creating a contemporary dance piece about arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh, which required scientific expert input to get a fuller understanding of the issues. The scientist was ultimately recorded speaking and the recording was integrated into the final piece. Another project, Mouthful, involved commissioning six playwrights paired up with six scientists to produce a new short creative work about global food crisis. The collaboration process tended to begin with open discussion with the following collaboration process going in different directions depending on the needs of the people involved. They also worked with a seventh scientist to produce the final production and design of the six pieces so that it would draw out shared themes the most effectively.

Will emphasised how inspiring the project was and how speaking to scientists directly was utterly different from simply reading research. The development of personal connections allowed totally different ways of thinking to develop.

Dr Emily Taylor discussed the projects Peat Cultures and Peatland Connections, which involve close collaboration with artists. Crichton Carbon Centre work with landowners, managers and policymakers to restore peatlands and have good communication with people involved in the process of restoration but have found it harder to reach the general public despite the fact that the work is publicly funded.

Artist Kate Foster made contact with the Crichton Carbon Centre and they co-developed the project Peat Cultures, which sought to build public understanding of peat bogs through activities like taking people out onto the peat bogs for drawing sessions. One of Emily’s key learnings from this was that she can’t prescribe the way that they engage with people and needed to bring in someone with different expertise who would understand how to do this effectively. She emphasised that they could not plan in advance the way things would go and had to respond to changing circumstances, which was dependent on having funding that was sensitive to this need.

Their current project Peatland Connections is being managed by artist Kerry Morrison, crucially someone with cultural rather than scientific expertise. A key aim for the project is to establish good communication between people coming from many different fields and perspectives and bring more people into decision making about landscapes.

Eve Mosher introduced a number of her projects that involved working with scientists. She began by emphasising that there is no right way to do arts-sciences collaboration and that a degree of messiness is often part of the process. The projects she instigates are sparked by curiosity but rooted in science with advice sought from scientists to determine whether they are comfortable with the way research is being represented. The projects are also participant-led with the opportunity for people to provide new information back to researchers in turn.

HighWaterLine is a project that drew flood-zones across cities including New York, Miami and Bristol that would result from sea level rise. She worked with scientists to map where the lines should be drawn but also brought the scientists with them for the process of drawing. Scientists commented on how the process of physically drawing the line and seeing the neighbourhoods affected refocused the issues for them. Another project, Holding the Ocean, aimed to create a more intimate experience of the science on warming in the Arctic for people in Scotland, connecting it to their linked experience.

Heat Response was a project in Philadelphia working with the Trust for Public Land that connected people’s lived experience to scientific data mapping on heatwaves in the city on health. An ongoing project in the village in Aberdeenshire where she now lives involves talking to the community to understand how a historic fishing village can respond to climate change, instigating a dialogue with scientists for the village to operate as a testing ground and produce mutual learning for all involved.

Discussion

This was followed by some questions for our speakers and open discussion time. Points raised included the importance of embodied, physical experience for gaining a fuller understanding of research, the difficulties in instigating contact between different fields and networks as well as how to fund this kind of collaborative work. Some useful resources were shared at this point including:

• For expressing the value of arts/sciences collaborations: Library of Creative Sustainability, Valuing Arts and Arts Research Report, Paper on integrating cultural heritage into ecosystem services, EcoArtScotland Blog
• For finding collaborators: Green Tease Database, ResearchGate, Academia.edu

This was followed by time for one-to-one conversations between artists and scientists using the platform Glimpse. After the event, a shared Slack group was created to allow attendees from the event to keep in touch and share useful resources. To be added to this group, please contact lewis.coenen-rowe@creativecarbonscotland.com.

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About Green Tease

The Green Tease events series and network is a project organised by Creative Carbon Scotland, bringing together people from arts and environmental backgrounds to discuss, share expertise, and collaborate. Green Tease forms part of our culture/SHIFT programme. 

The post Green Tease Reflections: Artist/Scientist Networking appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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