Reflections on Public Art + Science Reasoning
Abstract
This paper explores informal science learning in public spaces by exploring theoretical arguments about the role of public artworks that incorporate “subjugated knowledges” as a way of thinking about the public construction of knowledge and engagement with science through art experience. This article challenges the disciplinary solitudes that characterize art discourse versus science pedagogy by exploring common understandings that emerge from the nexus of art and science (art/science). The authors critically examine two threads that cohere first at the intersection of understanding the nature of science (NOS), and secondly in the literature related to informal science learning (ISL) that prioritizes public engagement with science (PES) through transdisciplinary perspectives. The paper offers this perspective as revealed through the authors’ reflections on results from a case study of a public art/science installation. The installation set out to provoke public engagement in scientific issues related to urban sustainability without declaring itself as an art or science initiative. By considering their findings in ahistorical context, the authors suggest that disciplinary discourses shape public expectations, silo content in either a science or art sphere, and dictate a learner’s focus. The authors suggest that limitations to advancing science literacy in public spaces are largely due to an overemphasis on prescriptive outcomes rather than embracing more open processes for learning. They suggest that to truly explore the art/science nexus, it is important to extend beyond how the two disciplines inform one another at an elite level of discourse, and instead situate the work in the lived experience of public reasoning.
Author Biography
John Fraser
John Fraser, PhD AIA is a conservation psychologist, architect, and educator. He is the CEO and President of New Knowledge Organization Ltd., a non-profit research think tank based in NYC. His research focuses on how our experience with media and community influences learning, attitudes, and motivations for engagement with solving the problems that face society. He holds adjunct faculty positions at Hunter College (CUNY), Columbia University, Canisius College, and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He holds the California Academy of Sciences appointment as Associate Editor - Operations for Curator: The Museum Journal, and serves as a founding editorial board member for Museums & Social Issues. He is also a Research Scientist with Columbia University's Earth Institute.
Fiona McDonald
Fiona P. McDonald, PhD is an anthropologist and researcher with New Knowledge Organization Ltd., a non-profit research think tank based in NYC. She is also a Research Fellow at University College London (UCL). She is also a founding member of the Ethnographic Terminalia Curatorial Collective. Her research as a visual anthropologist with a specialization in material culture informs her work on cultural research and project development. Her mixed-methods and multi-sited research approaches enable her to offer comparative research strategies. Dr. McDonald’s broad experience includes curating exhibitions at the intersection(s) of art & anthropology. She is also trained in ethnographic object analysis within museum collections. Her broader areas of interest are Indigenous material and visual culture, repatriation, oral histories, contemporary Indigenous art, sensory ethnography, and museum studies.
Nezam Ardalan
Nezam Ardalan, MA, is a conservation biologist, who joined New Knowledge as researcher, project manager, and editor in 2013. He has an interest in the intersections between art and science, with a special focus on how artists and scientists can work together to raise awareness, educate, and create interventions to prevent biodiversity loss.