NAVIGATING THE UNCERTAINTIES OF ART AND SCIENCE COLLABORATION: A SERIES OF PROJECTS FOCUSSED ON CLIMATE CHANGE (original) (raw)

For many decades, contrasting opinions regarding the value of collaboration between the arts and sciences have been voiced. Some commentators have argued that the fundamental differences between art and science makes interdisciplinary practice untenable, while others suggest that many potential benefits are achievable through dialogue and mutual work in areas of shared interest. Against this backdrop, this thesis examines the contention that climate change, as well as being the subject of scientific research, can also be examined through art, and that by working collaboratively across art and science, new understanding may be reached. The thesis documents a series of interdisciplinary projects that were established with scientists working in areas of climate change, geomorphology and palaeoanthropology, and critically examines the resultant strategies, practices and artistic outputs. The creative approaches that were employed included working with science teams in field contexts, (re-) interpreting acquired science imagery, and organising exhibitions and symposia. Each approach involved different modes of collaboration, and each raised key discussion points, including the use of science images and material within fine art and the structuring of the collaborative relationship. Findings from earlier interdisciplinary projects provided the conceptual, theoretical and practical framework for a concluding art and science collaboration with an international team of researchers, the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP), who are investigating the relationship between human evolution and climate change. In developing and exhibiting art that emerged from the HSPDP project within the gallery context, the curatorial aspects of hybridised displays of art and science images, objects and contextual documentation are examined. New approaches within the artscience and climate change discourse are identified, including the insights that can be gained by bringing divergent practices together to enable audiences to encounter larger narratives of humanities relationship with a changing climate.