EOS7.4

This research considers the educational role of art in finding pathways towards accessing mathematics and science, particularly those abstract concepts usually only accessible to people with an advanced algebraic vocabulary.

In the light of the narrowing of the school curriculum in recent decades, and particularly the reduction in timetabling of art and music in English schools, this research actively explores the use of topic overlap between sciences and art to investigate how abstract concepts can be made tangible through visual and aural stimulation.

Kinetic sculpture is employed that visibly and audibly demonstrates particular phenomena, e.g. wavelike behaviour, harmonic ratios or resonance. The sculpture encompasses two or more tangible aspects such as shape, pattern, scale, sound, resonant frequencies, motion, recorded film that illuminates differences in different latitudes, and reversed or translated perspectives.

Feedback is sought through exhibitions of the sculpture. Through observation, survey and interview, key metrics are captured and analysed. These include the degree to which interest has been captured, curiosity aroused, and particularly comprehension aided by the art designed to maximise observation, questioning, critical thinking and learning.

The longer term goal of the research is to initiate a conversation in the wider public domain as to the value of art in accessing abstract concepts. It will bring to the broadest forum the value of art in its uniqueness, breadth of language, immediacy and power of communication by visibly and audibly shedding light on physical phenomena and enabling people the potential for greater success and enjoyment in learning.

How to cite: Smith, L. E.: Making the Conceptual Tangible: The Role of Art in Understanding Mathematics and Physics, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-960, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-960, 2021.

It is difficult to educate the public about geoscience and to create a message that will be heard in a noisy world. Coastal geoscience in particular—despite its growing importance as sea-level rises and storminess increases—has not penetrated effectively into the public sphere. High-energy coasts attract increasing numbers of visitors, most unaware of hazards related to stochastic wave behaviour. Photo-seekers in the Instagram era are driving up accidents in extreme environments, and it’s increasingly common for people to be caught off guard and dragged into the ocean by rogue waves. Creative ways are needed to build awareness of the hazards, as well as the beauty, of high-energy coasts.

"Drumming the Waves", a musical representation of wave interactions with boulder beaches, is an NSF-funded musician-geoscientist collaboration. Informed by the shared physics of sound and water waves, the composition will showcase how mutual interference among wave sets gives rise to chaotic seas, rogue waves, and ocean swell; and how waves can be amplified unpredictably in the coastal zone. Minimalist compositional techniques are employed to overlap and superimpose multiple series of small and seemingly inconsequential rhythmic and melodic musical events, leading to composite results that are unpredictable, sometimes chaotic, and occasionally extreme.

A visceral artistic approach helps capture the ‘feeling’ of coastal waves and the impact of their interaction with boulder beaches, conveying sea states from serene calm to extreme chaos. Audio samples recorded at coastal locations in Ireland and the UK, both in air and beneath the ocean surface, are interwoven in the soundscape. We use wave sounds both in their natural audio state and in processed form. Creating new sounds by interacting field recordings of waves with electronic audio processers provides an artistic representation of the ubiquitous power and energy present in coastal environments. The temporal and erratic nature of coastal waves informs the musical structures on a macro level, exploring the contrast between the simple rhythm of tides and swell, and the irregular ephemerality of turbulent sea conditions. On a micro level, parallels between ocean and audio waves shapes are exploited to create novel musical events by shaping LFO (low frequency oscillator) and noise gates to mimic two-dimensional coastal wave models. Periodic emergence of unexpectedly large sound events mimics hazardous rogue wave generation.

We will build educational content around the music, to contextualise and explain it, and to draw attention specifically to boulder beaches, wave hazards, and the science of high-energy coasts. Simple worksheets showing wave spectra will be paired with percussion rhythms and melody that can be layered by students, either drumming and singing together, or mixing audio loops within a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) such as GarageBand. This will permit students to build complex spectra from simple underlying wave forms. PowerPoint slides and explanatory text, pitched at the appropriate level, will be distributed to teachers for combined music/science learning. Using music to convey the science of wave interactions and wave amplification opens new doors and prospects for engaging and educating the public.

How to cite: Byrne, C. and Cox, R.: Drumming the waves: conveying coastal geoscience with rhythm, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-1405, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1405, 2021.

Earth Sciences are booming in social media, an unexampled scenario a few years ago. In the last year, these numbers have increased because of the COVID-19, citizens are consuming even more digital information, at the same time they are looking for more simplified and easy-understanding scientific concepts. It is very important to remark the value of entertainment, humor, and visual contents, which have a light universal language to approach Earth Sciences to citizens and experts beyond the pure academic frontiers. In this work, we share some successful examples through the use of illustration, comic, and infographic content between two Instagram accounts (@ohmagmamia and @salirconunageologa) which addend more than 13,000 followers and have a potential reach up to 37.1k (based on their account insights). The audience for this content is international although it has gained great popularity among the Spanish-speaking public (the initial target audience), little by little creating an interesting and growing movement. Countries such as Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Spain have the greatest impact according to statistics. Age range is between 18-34 years for 87% of the audience, with a clearly female predominance (55% in @Ohmagmamia and 60% in @Salirconunageologa).

One of the principal goals of these accounts is to develop visual, artistic and easy-understanding content that fits the audience. On one hand @Ohmagmamia uses photographic material (e.g. landscapes, outcrops, hand specimen samples or micro-photographies), simple geological sketches and infographic content along with small descriptions in the post captions. This approach has been well received by both Earth Science students and non-professional enthusiasts, as well as biology-geology teachers and public examination trainers. On the other hand, @Salirconunageologa (Dating a geologist) uses cartoons, humour and comics to approach Earth Sciences to professionals and the general public. Its visual material focuses on storytelling to explain what it means to be a geologist using all its universe of friendly characters. In the first season of “Dating a Geologist Universe” (with 17 episodes), the main character, Nia Stone, is involved in different hilarious situations related to Earth Sciences, like volcanoes, trilobites, or Dr. Gems (the main Villain). This “geocomics” have been very well received, being the first chapter the one which records the best audience data, with 10k accounts reached on Instagram. 

Social media statistics data provide interesting information about the success of these scientific dissemination’s new methods. In the last 6 months of the 2020 both accounts reached an average of 11,000 Instagram accounts with an average more than 1,000 “likes” per post and with an engagement rate that varies from 9 to 12%. In addition, the use of other social media such as Twitter or YouTube able us to reach more people and/or accounts by using Twitter “threads” or sharing videos of invite talks or “webinars”, whose popularity grew during the quarantine period. All these results show the importance of a perfect relation between visuals, art and Earth Science and its capability to reach people from all around the globe.

How to cite: Schamuells, S., Dorado, O., Hopfenblatt, J., Aulinas, M., and Geyer, A.: Earth Scientist and Social Media: approaching our planet to young people and general public using comics and illustration., EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-2868, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2868, 2021.

Much like many crafted items, research must be functional and fit for purpose, but there's no reason why it can't also be beautiful, creative, and expressive.

In working with teenagers and young people on geoscience education and climate literacy, it became increasingly important to me to find ways to express my research that would connect with people who didn't have a foundation (yet, or at all) in academic discourse. My PhD thesis is therefore written as a creative semi-fictional epistolary; a collection of documents that tell the story of the research from the first tentative proposal to my would-be supervisor, to the final submission. I made the choice to produce a creative thesis for my student co-researchers and other readers, but the person who benefitted most from it was me. The creative process in designing my thesis was fulfilling, fun, and facilitated a deeper and more meaningful engagement with my own research. 

In discussing my thesis with another researcher, trying to explain how and why I was writing geoscience education research through annotations and poems and chatlogs, I suggested the metaphor of a quilt. A quilt is inherently a functional object that must meet certain qualifying standards in order to be accepted and used. But also, a quilt can be an intricately crafted artwork, reflective not just of its use, but of the person who makes it; their choices, their joys, their cares. As a quilt is an artwork with a specific useful function of keeping someone warm at night, so too a thesis (or paper or project) can be artistic and creative while also still having useful functions of building knowledge, generating data, or developing theory. 

So, long story short, I also sewed a thesis quilt, to express both the process and outcome of my doctoral research as a piece of fabric art!

How to cite: Neenan, E. E.: Expert Perspectives & Methodological Excerpts: Stitching a thesis quilt, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-12773, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12773, 2021.

Our natural world presents many fascinating and often bizarre phenomena to us. The way primary producers convert sunlight with nutrients as part of the existence of life is simply amazing. This gives rise to phytoplankton communities in the oceans and the growth of trees across the world. The signals of our dynamic world, its chronology and patterns of how this life grows are indelibly written into these trees as well as in mineral and oceanic floor strata. In this session I’d like to symbolically ask a generic tree “what were the choices made 150 years ago that led to our current warming?” As interdisciplinary scientists – the thinking process we use whilst embedded in logic and reason – is also closely related to our personal creative and imagining aptitudes. Our social norms also reflect the scope of decisions that we choose to talk about and identify with. By enabling a platform that frames the co-existence of contemporary scientific reasoning together with the artistic expression we re-imagine and further create possibilities, through stories, drawing, metaphor, sound and dance. With this, a wider community of scientists can engage with topics that previously seem technically obscure. A deeper public understanding of geosciences also develops. In the first part of this session I’ll narrate a story of climate change choices see by the generic tree seen over the last 500 years linking this to tree ring records, personal geoscience learning and the EGU photo archive. In the second part – I invite the audience to share their creative points of view about these climatic era’s and to further explore what stories this generic tree may be telling us about our world. The aim of this work is to enable group participation and share creative ideas. My hope is that we may envisage new combinations of opportunities about climatic futures that can enable a more resilient future for us all.

How to cite: Bruun, J.: The story of a tree and what its tells us about our life, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-6417, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6417, 2021.

As part of its 125^th Anniversary in 2013, the Geological Society of America commissioned Symphony No. 1: Formations from composer Jeffrey Nytch and premiered the work, performed by the Boulder Philharmonic, and the GSA’s annual meeting in Denver. The project attracted national and international attention for its mix of music and geology: unlike most musical works inspired by landscapes, Formations was inspired by geological processes themselves—specifically, those that shaped the Rocky Mountains. Nytch, who holds undergraduate degrees in both geology and music, will discuss how the project educated laypersons in the basics of Rocky Mountain geology while simultaneously building an audience for the orchestra. The Formations project is a type example of how the arts can be used to increase understanding within communities of the science happening all around them, provide the scientific community with a new lens through which to see their work, and establish a new channel for arts organizations to engage their community and build their audience. This complementary dynamic results in increased knowledge, understanding, and community amongst and between groups of people who might not otherwise experience each other’s worlds, and suggests that the arts can play a significant role in increasing scientific literacy and understanding.

How to cite: Nytch, J.: A Geologic Symphony: A Model for Scientific Engagement through the Arts, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-6639, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6639, 2021.

The urban subsurface is key to developing sustainable urban futures (SDG 11). Yet, as is well acknowledged, geoscientists face many challenges in engaging stakeholders and communities with the urban subsurface, as well as the challenges associated wtih fragmented data sources, knowledge gaps, citizen ‘oversight,’ and challenging subsurface cultural associations (Bricker et al. 2017, 2019). In this paper we present a case for the value of the intersections between geoscience and creative practices (from visual methods to participatory arts) in helping to address some of these challenges. To make our case we present preliminary findings from a collaboration between geoscientists and science communicators based at the British Geological Survey, and a cultural geographer experienced in researching and creating art-science collaborations. We explore three things:

We close our discussion with an invitation to join us in forming a network exploring the potential of art-geoscience collaborations for understanding, using and preserving the urban subsurface. 

How to cite: Hawkins, H., Bricker, S., Cotteril, C., Dunnet, E., Hicks, A., and Napier, H.: Artful-Geoscience: Co-Creating Urban Subsurface Futures? A discussion and an invitation., EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-6512, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6512, 2021.

Anthropogenic contamination of the atmosphere is causing both climate change and air pollution, which respectively represent the greatest long term and short term environmental risks to human and planetary health. The contamination is largely invisible and hence difficult to contextualise for non-expert audiences. This can lead to the problem being ignored; or where it is acknowledged, leading to feelings of helplessness and a lack of agency.

This project uses digital light painting to visualise and explore responses to particulate matter (PM) air pollution, in a variety of global locations, as a method for both public engagement and campaign work. This photographic technique combines long exposure with light sources digitally controlled by sensors, it builds upon the prior work of electronic pioneer Steve Mann (e.g. Mann et al. 2019) and more recent work visualising wifi strength (Arnall et al. 2013).

The five year art-science collaboration between Price and Pope has been highly successful. The Air of the Anthropocene project resulted in multiple gallery shows (including Los Angeles, Belfast and Birmingham). The media publicized it heavily, including Source Magazine, New Scientist and the Guardian. The physical art works were acquired by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s public collection.

In this presentation, we will highlight the scientific and aesthetic underpinnings of the use of low cost air pollution sensors for data visualisation through light painting. Locations for visualizations were guided by expert advice from environmental scientists in global locations, including those in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. In this sense the science informed the art. Also, since the code from the project ended being used by scientists, the art informed the science (e.g. Crilley et al. 2018).

We will highlight the efficacy of this image making approach as an engagement and advocacy tool, through case studies of its use in field campaigns in Ethiopia (2020) and Kampala (2018), investigating both indoor and outdoor air pollution.  Future possibilities of the approach to air pollution visualization will be discussed. This will include expanding the approach through open sourcing the project and its adaptation beyond lens based techniques into augmented reality camera phone use.

The projected next phase of the collaboration will work towards empowering interested citizens of the world to make their own creative, aesthetic representations of their environment and use these images as citizen activists to affect transformational change in their own localities. Through adopting open source methodologies it is hoped that sustainability beyond the timescale and budget of the initial project with lasting legacy will be achieved.

Arnall et al, 2013. Immaterials: light painting WiFi. Significance, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2013.00683.x 

Crilley et al, 2018. Evaluation of a low-cost optical particle counter (Alphasense OPC-N2) for ambient air monitoring. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-709-2018 

Mann et al 2019, June. Making Sensors Tangible with Long-exposure Photography. In The 5th ACM Workshop on Wearable Systems and Applications. https://doi.org/10.1145/3325424.3329668

How to cite: Pope, F. and Price, R.: Air of the Anthropocene, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-2255, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2255, 2021.

Dr Naomi Bailey-Cooper, a fashion textiles designer, and Dr Fiona Gill, a geochemist and palaeontologist, are exploring ways of communicating changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentration through geological time and in the future, and its relationship to life on Earth, visually and haptically through beadwork installations.

This collaboration, initially enabled through the Leeds Creative Labs programme at the University of Leeds, draws on the scientist’s research into chemical signatures preserved in fossils to contextualise the scale and effect of carbon cycling in the Earth system. The artist’s expertise in embellishment, combined with her focus on the environmental impact of fashion and textile production, has driven the physical structure of the proposed works, as well as the focus on future scenarios of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Working with geological materials and yarn representative of CO₂, variations of knitting and weaving techniques are explored in combination with embellishment. The aim is that the first artefact for installation will depict changing CO₂ levels through the Phanerozoic eon, as well as reflecting key species at different time periods and their interactions with changing atmospheric conditions. The second artefact will explore in more depth the Quaternary period, including human history and the Anthropocene, as well as incorporating predictions for future atmospheric CO₂ concentrations and linking those to comparable geological times. Together, these artefacts will invite the audience to consider humans’ impact on Earth, including their use and exploitation of natural resources, within a geological context.

How to cite: Gill, F. and Bailey-Cooper, N.: The carbon story: A textile-geoscience collaboration to represent changing atmospheric CO2 concentrations through time, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-6245, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6245, 2021.

As the Anthropocene progresses into more and more dire territory, research continues to refine quantifiable, predictive narratives about the changes that will unfold in the very near future — heat waves, droughts, rising seas, and other shifts in climate that threaten aspects of human life worldwide, from agriculture and industry to medicine and human quality of life as a whole.  This evolving, cross-referenced narrative should create a perfect warning to correct our course on carbon emissions, our ongoing ecosystem damage from modern agriculture, and other effects tied to current unsustainable practices such as overuse of fossil fuels and reliance on plastic materials.  

However, when these science narratives are placed directly in the spotlight of press and social media, they often merge into a large uncompelling whole, much as many unique and attractive bricks together might combine to create a uniform and ominous wall. The end result is audience disengagement in the face of daunting information. 

This effect is so substantiated that studies now recommend that science communicators should avoid “intimidating” and “demoralizing” global audiences with vivid Anthropocene scenarios, and instead focus on creating less-threatening “feel-good” engagement that can serve as a bridge to positive public action that supports renewable energy, organic agriculture, and other corrective changes to the societal footprint.  

As a professional science communicator, I reject the advice to avoid painting an ever more clear portrait of the Anthropocene: I believe the problem that “demoralizes” the public is not Anthropocene content, but poor presentation, often driven by journalistic trends to sensationalize future apocalyptic scenarios that create titillating fear.  Through my work, I rely not so much on creating a fascination with doomsday scenarios but instead create a fascination with the detailed mechanisms by which the Anthropocene is forcing change: by thawing permafrost, threatening forests, destroying biodiversity, all the while showing how these processes fit within the context of deep time.  With a rich deep time perspective, viewers can see why the Anthropocene is such a distortion of natural ecosystem services, and how human technology and habits could instead be changed to work within the carrying capacity of earth systems.

In this presentation, I share my science illustration portfolio to explain my unique approach that fuses the charisma of “fine art” approaches using metaphor, hyper-realism, and didactic compositions with new research findings to reach beyond sensationalist Anthropocene imagery and create a new visual vocabulary for ecosystem research that unites experts and lay public with a common scientific worldview. I have given this personal philosophy of creative science illustration the name “Accurate Passion” and employ it for a range of topics and clients, including my in-house colleagues at a university research center focusing on ecosystem science, and graduate-level students of my university-level science illustration courses for the past three years.
 

How to cite: Leshyk, V.: The Importance of an Artistic Lens to Assess the Anthropocene, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-7652, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7652, 2021.

The Gaia hypothesis as an ecological hypothesis is proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth (atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere) are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis. Although successful within the current scientific paradigm the explanation of „planetary sentience, or sensitivity“ becomes extremely difficult. As Hegel said, pure truth about nature is only perceivable by a poetic method.

Therefor we are proclaiming Gaia, the Earth as a female artist -- as advocated by 16th century scholar Giordano Bruno. This would imply to include such nonscientific categories as beauty, creativity and cosmic consciousness. Hence a unified Gaia theory would require a new scientific paradigm.

Based on a previously proposed higher dimensional spacial model  (Gaia 5.0) as „pattern that connects“ that explains the Earth’ intrinsic dynamics we aim to extend  our concept to the question of cognition and planetary sentience, or sensitivity. 

Hence we claim that  Gaia theory needs an extension of categories in order to understand the full scope of this spectacular place of livelihood and beauty.

Therefor we examine he prevalent relational biology that tries to overcome Newtonian point mechanics by relying on Aristotle’s „formal causes“ of the autopoietic organization and (M,R)-system as conceptualized by R. Rosen who refers to a mathematical structure, e.g. mapping of functions. Distinct to differential geometry we suggest as previously introduced higher dimensional geometrical framework (Gaia 5.0) a hyper-Euclidean geometry that allows to understand complex systems based on group theory providing all kinds of symmetries in nature based on a spacial continuum.

As a consequence we must not rely on thermodynamic premisses and life and tornados don’t belong to the same class of naturally complex systems. Instead we refer to Schrödinger’s description of a living cell as 4-dimensional entity. Based on complex number spaces we may seek  for further distinctions of processes and define ordered structures based on number theory.

Based on this we try to understand anticipatory systems by assigning Bayesian networks to (hyper-) complex number spaces. -- Hence Gaia is not playing dice but takes a random walk in Monte Carlo.

How to cite: C.-Z.-Quehenberger, R.: Gaia the artist --  towards a unified higher-dimensional paradigm of life and beauty, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-7709, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7709, 2021.

Eric Sloane was a 20th century artist who created a unique style and provided interesting, idiosyncratic, and informative images of clouds. He was the author of many books, but also created massive cloud murals, including one on an entire wall at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. Sloane became interested in clouds when he flew as a passenger with some of the pioneers of aviation, including Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post. He also became weatherwise through his early employment as a painter of advertisements on yje sides of  barns, allowing him to observe many aspects of weather. Sloane received many awards for his contributions to science, including a special award from the American Meteorological Society in 185 for  “for pioneering contributions to public awareness of clouds, their beauty, complexity, and scientific importnace; for an artistic legacy to all who feel a sense of wonder when they look at a cloud filled sky.”

How to cite: Passow, M.: "Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather"  The art and science of Eric Cloane, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-9247, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9247, 2021.

Landscapes of the Mind

Anna Hicks¹

Carol Cotterill^{2, 1}

Nicole Archer^{1, 3}

¹British Geological Survey, Edinburgh, UK

²Columbia University, New York, USA

³Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK

What comes to mind when you think of landscape? Do you imagine sweeping mountain vistas and picturesque scenery? Or perhaps a bustling urban scene simultaneously concealing and revealing its present and historical narratives? Of course, both are logical, as would be any number of visualisations in between. The landscapes we inhabit are constantly recording both man-made and natural changes occurring in it, and on it, and so on us.

Therefore, our beliefs and emotions framing our worldview are shaped by landscape in many ways, and so play a powerful role in making decisions and judgements about how a landscape should be used. Creative expression through art and narrative can influence decision-making by bringing those emotional responses to a landscape to the fore.

In this paper, we share our experiences to date from collaborations through the AHRC-funded network “Landscapes of the Mind”. The network aims to develop understanding and communication of landscape challenges in Scotland, with a view to informing decision making about landscape change. Network participants are from diverse backgrounds: musicians to metalworkers, archaeologists to anthropologists; our commonality is in how we bear witness to the evolution of Scotland's landscape from our different perspectives, particularly the balance between landscape conservation and adaptation to changing culture, communities and societal needs.

The network was established shortly before the onset of the COVID-19 crisis so network participants, many of whom are new to working together, are exploring how the virtual space can influence and bolster the process of interdisciplinarity in-action, and bring new insights to the fore. Our attempt to flourish under current conditions has seen us adapt the visual-matrix - a psycho-social method with arts-practice - to the virtual space. This adapted approach brings together participants to engage in creative expressions online; expressions created by participants in relation to a particular theme. The creations, from photos, to poetry, to music, build the frame for the matrix, and act as a stimulus for participants to bring their associations to the material. 

We will report on the findings from the first two matrices on Landscape and Water, and Landscape and Time, showing how the methodology allowed us to explore fluidity and place, time and space, as well as the benefits and challenges of communicating thoughts through digital means.

How to cite: Hicks, A., Cotterill, C., and Manley, N.: Landscapes of the Mind, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-13523, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13523, 2021.

Effective and engaging science communication with the wider public is a growing need worldwide, particularly regarding pressing environmental issues. As over half of the population are visual learners, it can be argued that visual arts have an important role to play in science communication (scicomm), when supplemented with clear, understandable writing. Scientists seldom have the opportunity to share their backgrounds and personal perspectives in academic publications, or to share their particular study niches outside of academia. A similar communication gap is also experienced by independent artists seeking to share their ideas and creations with a wider audience.

NatureVolve is a digital magazine that was launched in 2018 to bridge the gaps between science, the arts and worldwide audiences. It was founded by Clarissa Wright after her BSc and MSc studies in geology, and her previous role as an Assistant Editor at Springer Nature. The publication is divided into the sections: Science, Conservation, Scicomm, Art and Written Word. Diverse subjects, ideas and creations, all adhering to the common theme of nature, are artistically presented across these sections. By merging these different subjects on the one platform, the project is encouraging the fusion of (usually segregated) disciplines across the arts and the sciences. By also presenting the researchers behind the studies, and the artists behind the artwork, readers access a more personalised perspective of the subjects being shared.

NatureVolve occupies a unique place within both scientific and arts publishing. Articles take on a journalistic press release format or interview article, which allows greater depth to be drawn from the subject being discussed and the ideas of the interviewees. Prominent subjects highlighted are on the pressing matters of the times: including wildlife conservation, plastic pollution, marine conservation, climate change and medical science. Geology and the earth sciences have often featured in the Science section and even the Scicomm section where palaeoart is a popular topic.

The emphasis on the people behind the discipline brings out a more personalised touch to the magazine, previously not often seen in other publications. Creativity is what links the scientists and artists, exploring their thought processes, inspirations, all fuelled by an interest in the natural world its connection to human society. With high impact visual content, it is aimed to increase the awareness of science studies and creative artwork, while celebrating nature. Magazine pages are presented with a concise and colourful aesthetic with the aim of showing the art of the sciences and the science of the arts.

As the Earth is the key theme for NatureVolve – encompassing the natural world, human society and the impact we have on the planet, it is hoped we can raise awareness of key global issues through science, art and the written word. The motivations and perspectives of the creative individuals and research groups involved in this quest are brought into the spotlight, to inspire others.

How to cite: Wright, C. and Wright, R. J.: Uniting science and art to appreciate the Earth with NatureVolve magazine, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-16065, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16065, 2021.