Lisa Roberts

Living Data: Art from climate science at the Muse

Image: ‘When I Was Buoyant’, Josh Wodak

Image: ‘When I Was Buoyant’, Josh Wodak

A dramatic art exhibition inspired by climate science.

See through icy veils of mesh as art and data come together to create past, present and future forms of life. Wonder at physical and virtual models of life forms as they evolve. Discover your genetic ancestors in the algae that photosynthesise light to make the energy that sustains us.

Immerse yourself in an exhibition that challenges your senses with artworks that combine scientific and sensory knowledge of climate change.

Curated by Dr Lisa Roberts, Living Data program leader and Visiting Fellow at the University of Technology,Sydney, you’ll have a chance to take part in ground-breaking art and science talks, see dramatic climate-inspired dance and hear primal music.

Dr Roberts is a multimedia visual artist whose work combines scientific and sensory knowledge of climate change. Her formal studies include dance, visual arts, animation, Indigenous perspectives and Antarctic perceptions. Lisa Roberts is the great grand daughter of the prominent Australian painter Tom Roberts.

Living Data program for the 2013 Ultimo Science Festival, Sydney, September 12-21.

What do we know about climate change and how are we responding to it?

There’s a lot of talk about the need for collaboration between cultures, disciplines and institutions, to develop a sustainable future, but not a lot of time to build trust to share the data, stories, hypotheses and images to inspire and enable action for change. For the 2013 Ultimo Science Festival, scientists, artists and designers come to Sydney from as far away as Antarctica to contribute what they know about climate change and how they are responding to it.

Contributors: Kirralee Baker, Jennifer Clark, Martina Doblin, Christina Evans, Paul Flecther, William Gladstone, Peter Jones, Rose McGreevy, Madison Haywood, So Kawaguchi, Eveline Kolijn, Anthony Larkum, Carina Lee, Andrea Leigh, Brad Miller, Caterina Mocciola, Steve Nicol, Simon Pockley, Antonia Posada, Vikki Quill, Daniel Ramp, Lisa Roberts, Juanita Sherwood, Melissa Smith, Paul Sutton, Takuya Suzuki, Leanne Thompson, Dean Walsh, Shona Wilson, Josh Wodak, Malou Zuidema

EXHIBITIONS

Living Data: Art from climate science The Muse, Ultimo TAFE, Harris Street Ultimo (opposite ABC Studios)
Sex in the sea Living Data Atrium level 3, Building 4 (Science), University of Technology, Sydney (UTS)

9-5pm Monday-Sunday, 12-21 September 2013

Curator: Lisa Roberts,Artist, Living Data program leader, Visiting Fellow, Science, Design, Arts & Social Sciences (UTS)
Shadow curator: Paul Sutton, Photographer, Associate lecturer in Design (UTS)
Exhibition designer: John Cabello, Designer, Lecturer in Design (UTS)

EVENTS

Food: Relationships with things we eat

At The Muse 12-21 September 2013 - Opening, Thursday 12 Sept. 4-6 pm

  • Professor William GladstoneHead, School of the Environment, Science (UTS) leads a Discussion with:
  • Professor Juanita Sherwood Indigenous Australian scholar from the Transforming Cultures Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (UTS)
  • Dr Steve NicolAdjunct Professor at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and an Honorary Fellow at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania
  • Dr So KawaguchiPrincipal Research Scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and Manager of the AAD Krill Research Program.
  • Dr Daniel Ramp,Senior Lecturer, School of the Environment, Science (UTS) and Co-founder of THINKK – the think tank for kangaroos, an academic forum that fosters greater understanding among Australians of kangaroos

How we know things: Understanding through art and science

Forum, Sunday 15th Sept. 2-3pm

Presentations and Discussions

 

Data for action: How we act on what we count, weigh and measure

Forum, Wed 18th. Sept. 6-7pm

  • Dr Simon Pockley, Designer, Activist and former Business Analyst for the Australian National Data Service (ANDS)
  • Dr. Martina Doblin, Senior Research Fellow and Kirralee Baker, PhD candidate, both C3 (UTS)
  • Brad Miller,Researcher and Design Senior Lecturer at the The College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
  • Dr Josh Wodak,Artist, Researcher, Creative Director 350.org Australia

Artists and Scientists

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Artist Lisa Roberts worked with scientists investigating the life of Krill deep in the ocean.  Lisa Roberts’ drawings, based on a very blurry video from the bottom of the ocean, articulates what she could see.  She focused on understanding the ‘dance’ to the point that she could draw and then animate it.  Lisa was not illustrating something scientists already knew.  Rather by working with scientists, her drawing and animation skills enabled everyone to understand something no-one hitherto knew.  She ended up as co-author of a paper in the Journal of Plankton Research.  The web site Antarctic Animation also demonstrates the to-and-fro of dialogue between artist and scientist working out what’s going on.

 

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.

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