Smash Palace project to feature in Seattle conference
Landcare Research scientist Andrew Fenemor and Nelson artist Maggie Atkinson have been invited to speak about their science-art collaborative project Mountains to the Sea at a conference focussed on building sustainable eco-cultures, to be held in Seattle from 19-21 May.
Hosted by the University of Washington, the Earth Rites: Imagination and Practice in Sci-Arts Eco-Cultures conference will examine ways of achieving environmental sustainability by exploring linkages between the arts, sciences and the environment.Conference organisers approached the New Zealand team after learning about its work on the internet.
"Mountains to the Sea" was one of three projects supported in 2003 by the Smash Palace Collaborations Fund, part of a partnership between Creative New Zealand and the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology that aims to foster an environment where the arts and sciences can connect, collide and collaborate.
The project, which also involved Landcare Research scientists Chris Phillips, Chrys Horn and Margaret Kilvington, and Nelson artist Suzie Peacock, sought to find new ways of understanding and communicating ideas about the environmental and social interconnections that shape the Motueka catchment.
Additional funding through Creative New Zealand's Arts Board supported the presentation of the results of the collaboration. Titled "Travelling River", the exhibition was held last year at The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatu in Nelson and included more than 250 photographs, science images and stories from the Motueka catchment.
Exhibition images are reproduced in the "Travelling River" catalogue, which also includes an essay "On Looking into a River" by Montana New Zealand Book Award-winning poet Cliff Fell.
"It's a fantastic opportunity to take our work to this forum and share the challenges, learning opportunities and outcomes of this project," Atkinson says.
Fenemor says collaboration between artists and scientists can result in "unexpected creative sparks. Scientists tend to work in their own discipline areas. But now we're casting our brush really wide and working with artists whom many perceive as thinking completely differently.
"We wanted to maximise community participation and what better way than an exploration of people's histories, stories and passions in the context of our ridge-tops-to-sea scientific approach?"
The project was also a chance to gain greater exposure for Landcare Research's work and an opportunity to engage the community in putting together and presenting the exhibition.
"It's all about working with communities," Fenemor says. "We need to understand community perspectives about the environment and build a commitment to sustainability."
