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Art as agent of change for our institutions

Today, the world of scientific research and innovation is asked to connect more closely to society, embracing the concept of responsibility and working towards models of cooperation and interrelation.

Consequently, science engagement organisations are also forced to challenge their traditional role and their communication methodologies. Can the arts play a role in this process? Can they help curators to better convey complex messages? Can they foster a more open and personal approach to scientific issues? Can they become tools of inclusion, allowing diverse audiences to join the scientific debate? Can they provide scientists with unusual and influential perspectives?

Facilitator

Camilla Rossi-Linnemann
Development - International Partnership Coordinator
Milan
Italy
Independent researcher
SPARK - Science and Art

Session speakers

Director, MIT Museum
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The MIT Museum Studio is a maker space for MIT students to work on art-science projects for public display. In recent years, students have created: individual kinetic sculptures; a roller-coaster and a kinetic graphic about the MIT student experience; and a mixed media exhibit about the discovery of gravity waves. The talk will show this work clarifying how art-science can be both a learning and a communicative process.
Director, The Tinkering Studio
San Francisco
United States
Artists are an essential part of the Tinkering Studio and the Exploratorium. The talk will build on a publication from the Exploratorium called 'A Curious Alliance' about the approach to working with artists over the years in a science center and the way this has shaped through time the institution itself.
CEO
Singapore Science Centre
Singapore
Singapore
Science can be effectively communicated using drama and music, especially when the scientific process can be narrated as a story that is relatable to the audience. At the Science Centre Singapore, the process of fertilization bringing together the successful union of two cells—an egg and a sperm, was presented to a general audience in the format of a science musical entitled ‘Sex Cells’. The talk will explain how this artistic performance became a powerful educational tool for visitors as well as engaging staff in a completely new way.
Milano
Italy
The talk will focus on a recent co-creation project bringing together the Museum, a groups of high-school students and artist Nicola Toffolini, reflecting on the outcomes of this collaborative work in terms of educational contents, methodologies, professional development of staff and deeper audience involvement.
Founder and Director of AlElieh for Science Environment and Art Science and Maker Educator / consultant
AlElieh for Science Environment and Art
East Jerusalem
Palestinian Territory
Science-art forms of interaction are integral to the Science Studio’s approach to communicating science. They impact exhibits, festivals, events and content development. Public activities designed to engage visitors with science concepts and issues are woven with conceptual visual art expressions. The participatory, collaborative nature of the engagements empowers inquiry, learning and forming position. The approach emphasizes the Studio as a contributory platform for all audiences
Senior Curator & Researcher
Ars Electronica Futurelab
Linz
Austria
The talk will focus on the potential of art as a communicator of future science and technologies and their impact on society. The Futurelab - as the R&D department of Ars Electronica - has a very interdisciplinary team. The results of these interdisciplinary collaborations are sketches of possible scenarios to come, artistic prototypes or speculative design studies that show how developments in science and technology could impact society. Creating such tangible objects and visualisations of future scenarios allows us to access a variety of audiences and have an influence on how our society comes to terms with these future innovations.The artistic approach offers a shift of perspective, a way to target problems and ask questions.
Program manager
TOULOUSE
France
The Quai des Savoirs opened its doors less than 2 years ago with the main objective of sharing scientific knowledge with everyone. A special attention is paid on helping people to develop their critical mind. Art & science, through various examples created for the establishment, have clearly permitted to do so. Let’s have a quick look on those… #Emotion #performance #installation #digitalArt #research #creation #festival #exhibition #happening
Head of Audience Development
Trento
Italy
At Muse in Trento, art and science are used together and treated at the same level. We will talk about the project "Wolf in the city" and a connected evaluation project that investigates the reaction of artists and scientists after a common work process.
INFN Communication Office
Roma
Italy
Two scientific Institutions, the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), an outstanding contemporary art Museum in Rome, MAXXI and some important artists: Thomás Saraceno, Laurent Grasso, Allora & Calzadilla… What kind exhibition may come out from such an explosive blend? How has this experience engaged and changed the outreach attitude of the involved institutions? A brief report and some lessons from the exhibition "Gravity. Imaging the Universe after Einstein".