2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

This presentation will explore the ways student artists and external scientific organizations have collaborated to create more inclusive dialogue around ecological concerns that incorporates multiple disciplines, methodologies and participants in framing and investigating social and scientific issues. The projects that will be discussed will draw from the body of work of Pacific Northwest College of Art’s Art + Science Initiative in partnership with national and regional scientific organizations including NOAA Fisheries, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Aquarium of the Pacific, and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. visual work generated through artist-in-residency programs, and grant awards to realize specific science communication goals will be described and examined in terms of audience impact. These collaborative projects have become vehicles to integrate scientific information into the cultural sphere through visual language, creating opportunity for art students to participate in science and policy discourse through applied learning and creative research. The work will be discussed both as a pedagogical tool for art-sic integrated learning, and also as mutually impactful exchanges between cultural institutions and partner scientific organizations. The projects will illustrate ways artists, scientist, educators and policy makers can appreciate and explore ways we can understand complex information and legitimize both creative practices and scientific methodologies as contributing to deeper understanding of complex social and ecological interactions, as well as support an examined interrogation of assumptions and patterns of practice.