Mountains to the sea: Exploring integration and collaboration in the Motueka River catchment -
a collaboration of scientists and artists
The Mountains to the Sea initiative is a collaboration of scientists and artists drawn together to find new ways of understanding and conveying ideas about the environmental and social interconnections that shape the Motueka Catchment. Mountains to the sea: Exploring integration and collaboration in the Motueka River catchment -
a collaboration of scientists and artists
The Mountains to the Sea initiative is a collaboration of scientists and artists drawn together to find new ways of understanding and conveying ideas about the environmental and social interconnections that shape the Motueka Catchment.It is being carried out in conjunction with the Integrated Catchment Management research programme led by Landcare Research - for details, see the Motueka ICM website Landcare Research
Such "SciArt" initiatives are a relatively new phenomenon and an extension of growing interest in bringing divergent disciplines together to encourage new insights and discoveries.
The genesis of the project was in October 2002 with a Landcare Research sponsored workshop of artists and scientists looking for common ground and ways of collaborating using talents in research, environmental understanding and creativity. Following this workshop, the Mountains to the Sea proposal was put to the pilot "Smash Palace" arts and science dialogue fund supported by the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology and Creative New Zealand, and was part-funded along with two others from a pool of 23 applications.
Mountains to the Sea involves biophysical and social science researchers from Landcare Research and two Nelson-based independent artists. It has drawn on environmental research undertaken in the Motueka River Catchment to pose the questions: What is integration and how does our understanding of integration influence the management of a catchment?
The aims of this project are twofold: (1) to better understand how those from different disciplines can successfully work together, but foremost (2) to produce a collaborative work that conveys and promotes an understanding of the integrated nature of the Motueka Catchment environment. Project details can be found at icm.landcareresearch.co.nz/ArtScience/.
Web-based Dialogue
The first part of this project has been to find common ground between the artists and scientists involved. We have further developed this common ground by talking to one another about the catchment, exploring the different ways we think about it and discussing what joint projects could be worked on to achieve our second goal. To do this we have used a shared web-based workspace where all group members can drop in with their ideas and comments. An important part of our work is to develop some understanding of the way nature and culture form our environment and to learn about the catchment, its communities and its history. We propose to publish sections of the web-based dialogue.
The SciArt Work
The second phase of the collaboration hopes to take the understandings gained through this dialogue to a wide and participating community audience through a 'Travelling River' exhibition. The exhibition is proposed to be held in two locations during 2004 - possibly the Suter Gallery in Nelson and in the Motueka catchment itself, probably at Ngatimoti and/or Tapawera. Funding permitting, it will involve visual, audio and tactile, static and mobile media. We would like the exhibition to incorporate both community-based interpretations of the river catchment environment and a range of interrelating scientific knowledge. The aim of the exhibition is to unite understandings of the river environment, and to challenge, provoke and engage a wide community regarding their interpretations of how a place influences and is influenced by the streams of social and natural pressures upon it.
The exhibition will incorporate the skills of two nationally respected artists and an internationally acknowledged research programme. The wide local contacts offered by collaborating partners will be used to generate and incorporate participation by the community.
Participants
The people involved in Mountains to the Sea are:
Andrew Fenemor Leader of Landcare Research's Integrated Catchment Management Programme in Nelson, with a background in hydrology and resource management - and brought up in the Motueka catchment.
Maggie Atkinson Landscape architect, artist and formerly involved in environmental science.
Suzie Peacock Artist, Art & Design Programme Leader, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology.
Chris Phillips Scientist, Landcare Research with interests in knowledge management, erosion processes and slope stability and sediment delivery to streams.
Chrys Horn Scientist, Landcare Research with interests in participatory processes, participatory evaluation, and resource management.
Margaret Kilvington Scientist, Landcare Research with interests in participatory processes, participatory evaluation, and integrated catchment management.
'We make landscapes according to the political system in which we operate, the economic use we see for the land, our aesthetic preferences, our social conventions - all of these summarised under the label of culture" (Joan Nassauer, 1995).