Interdisciplinary is one of the most efficient approaches when it comes to disseminating topics related to natural hazards; furthermore, when the leading actor is Mt. Vesuvius, due to its 2000-year history and to the exceptional quantity and quality of information available, the following approach becomes mandatory.

In the presence of natural phenomena responsible for human losses, it is natural to wonder about the causes and whether they can be foreseen. The objective is therefore to move from an awareness of emergency to a culture of prevention and risk mitigation; the key tool is to implement risk education at any social level to overcome the cultural barriers that consider the volcano only as a burden because of the problems it creates, and not as a resource in the name of security and prosperity. In this context, we created the theatrical representation “Dottò, ma quando scoppia il Vesuvio – il Nuovo Grand Tour” (i.e.: “Doc, when does Vesuvius erupt? – The New Grand Tour”) to stage all the aspects that the Vesuvius machine has been able to produce and preserve over time until today.

For the first time, a theatrical performance will allow the audience to learn the eruptive history of Mt. Vesuvius and to fully understand its functioning by means of a journey through time. This itinerant story is drawn up by the interplay between the two protagonists of the show, stuffed with spots of humour to keep high the audience’s attention. Meanwhile, several videos showing appealing images are projected in the background, accompanied by live performances of touching musical pieces.

The show is not limited to the description of the eruptive activity occurred over the centuries, but it is also focused on the cultural growth of the Vesuvian area, from the traditional Grand Tour of the XVIII century up to modern times, highlighting the numerous technological discoveries that were exhibited in Neapolitan lounges over time. The journey not only includes the last eruptive event of 1944 in the city of Naples overwhelmed by barbarities of the II World War, but also the period following the economic boom when, through the implementation of a new regulatory plan, the foundations to complete the wicked urban expansion in the Phlegrean Fields and Vesuvian areas were posed.  This choice has determined the uncontrolled expansion of the urban area of Naples and surroundings, bringing the volcanic risk threshold to today's unacceptable, yet growing, level.

In the final part of the show, an idea for the mitigation of the volcanic risk at Mt. Vesuvius is proposed, highlighting how the volcano itself can become a powerful economic resource for the territorial growth. In fact, while the need for a program to decongest areas at risk is clear, a fundamental and proposed paradigm is to update the tourist offer, connecting Mt. Vesuvius to all the areas of Campania region through low environmental impact transportation. This would trigger a “New Grand Tour” that, in turn, could improve tourist programs with a renewed cultural power.

How to cite: De Novellis, V. and Somma, R.: Vesuvius, from risk to resource? A theatrical representation for the old and new Grand Tour, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-2541, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-2541, 2024.

In the dialogue that the scientific community is called upon to have with society, art becomes an extraordinarily powerful tool for conveying information and knowledge. Through empathy and emotions, it can indeed help introduce and raise awareness among viewers about current challenges, the issues confronting the scientific world, the means it employs, and the results it achieves. It is no coincidence that numerous initiatives are flourishing everywhere, in various research fields, where the scientific message is, at least in part, conveyed through art. Environmental themes lend themselves well to this synergy. Throughout history, humanity has explored nature through its representation, among other methods. Natural phenomena have thus been well represented over time (think of the works of William Turner, Monet's winter landscapes, the Great Wave off Kanagawa, and so on). However, it is more challenging to find examples related to the study of risk management and mitigation.
 This is an incredibly topical field of research, exacerbated by the climate crisis, where floods, wildfires, and droughts are becoming more intense and frequent in various parts of the world, making it more urgent than ever to respond effectively, protecting communities and assets from these challenges.
 As part of its information and awareness-raising activities, CIMA Research Foundation has been addressing these themes through artistic means for several years, turning art into a vehicle for conveying messages and engaging society. Paintings and installations, photographs, and theatrical pieces have become a way to narrate drought, floods, loss of biodiversity, and the climate crisis to a broad audience of both young and adult individuals, transforming science into art and art into science. All initiatives and materials are collected on a website, making them as accessible and user-friendly as possible. Following this approach, we also contributed to the drafting of the guidelines for the development of the Museum of Science and Technology of Addis Ababa, where artistic language and participatory activities do not replace scientific knowledge but become a fundamental support.
 Can art help us engage society on these pressing and complex issues? Can we translate knowledge into awareness and, subsequently, action? Through the activities carried out by our "Art and Science" project, we aim to address these questions.

How to cite: Visigalli, R., Alessandri, B., Mantini, M., Palermo, A., Polo, L., and Romano, A.: Wildfires, floods, droughts, and the climate crisis: can art narrate the risk?, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-8045, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-8045, 2024.

Recycling metals such as iron and lead appears crucial for sustainable development, but metal recycling often results in poor quality of life for people living near recycling sites. Transdisciplinary approaches, involving researchers from the physical, natural, and social sciences and humanities working with non-academic partners, are now recognized as essential for tackling such a challenging Anthropocene issue. However, collaboration and understanding between partners are often hampered by the specific modes of communication and concepts used by each community.

We present here the beneficial role of the arts in a community-based participatory research project addressing the impacts of metal recycling activities in West Africa, particularly in terms of air pollution. In Senegal (Africa), the town of Sébikotane has become a rapidly growing urban center with three recycling plants (steel and lead batteries). The project aims to produce, jointly evaluate, and share knowledge on air quality in this urban area in transition, far from official measurements. The team includes researchers from geosciences, aerology, anthropology, literature, and botany. Artists, the city council, an NGO, and citizens are officially and actively involved in the project as non-academic partners.

We will show how the different artistic productions helped to implement and share knowledge along the project, especially the participatory part, and promoted efficient communication between all partners. Forum theater, live sketching, literature, and design provided effective artistic means to translate concepts and share knowledge. The collaboration between artists and scientists facilitated the elaboration of ethical rules governing the project's stance.

How to cite: Macouin, M., Tastevin, Y.-P., and Dutrait, C.: The role of the arts in a community-based participatory research project, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-20694, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-20694, 2024.

1. Climate Service and Art_portfolio

GERICS is a kind of living lab where natural, social and art scientists work confluently.

With Climate Service and Art at GERICS we dispose of:

• Practical experience

in close collaboration with scientists and artists.

Pilot case: Artist fellows from HIDA’s (Helmholtz Information & Data Science Academy) Art meets Science program, see https://www.helmholtz-hida.de/en/new-horizons/art-meets-science/, worked for 3 months closely together with GERICS’s scientists to carry out their artistic research on a climate-related project.

• A tailor-made network

Collaboration between scientists and artists is only meaningful and effective if both sides are willing to open up to each other and ideally have a common intersection (e.g. data affinity). On both sides, we have extensive contacts that meet this requirement. To make these contacts available to a wider audience and, not least, to promote cooperation between the arts and sciences, we are considering setting up a customized database.

• Our research interest

is in measuring the impact of arts and culture towards the sustainable climate transition (“behavioural change for systemic transformations towards climate resilience”).

2. Project-based art-science collaborations

With this portfolio of experience and research interest, we embark on projects such as The Human-Tech Nexus (The HuT), funded by the European Union, https://thehut-nexus.eu

Pilot cases

2.1 ECCA

Together with Full Circle Playback Theatre Dublin (PT) and partners from the project (UNISA, CMCC, GWP-CEE) we developed "Staging EWS Stories" at ECCA 2023, see https://thehut-nexus.eu/the-hut-is-going-to-take-part-to-ecca-conference/.

Using the interactive and improvisational format of PT, participants of the session told their personal stories about extreme weather events and Early Warning Systems (EWS) they had experienced, which were then mirrored by the PT performers on stage.

The objective has been to build a community of "climate scientists, artists and activists" and using personal stories to change behavioural patterns in the long run.

A publication under the provisional working title "Pinning the butterfly" by the scientists and artists involved (Smetanova, Van Laake, Rianna, Pietruszka, Calvello, Schluensen-Rico) is in planning.

2.2 The HuT’s General Assembly in Valencia

For the last consortium meeting, we linked this year's organiser and The HuT partner UPV (University of Valencia) with its department of Industrial Design and co-curated an art-science project. One of the results, a greenhouse art installation by local artist Salva Mascarell decorated with scientific warnings and filled with heat is open to the public in the Botanical Garden of Valencia until January 2024, see https://thehut-nexus.eu/find-out-interesting-insights-after-the-last-general-assembly-of-the-hut/.

Ultimately, the aim was to raise awareness among the citizens of Valencia: droughts and heatwaves will shape the future of this city if the right measures are not taken.

Further art-science collaborations within this European project are foreseen on a regional level. The objective is always to involve the local community, where the fusion of art and science is a prerequisite from the very beginning.

How to cite: Schlünsen-Rico, A.: Art-science cross-fertilisation. The Human-Tech Nexus: good practice of project-based collaboration, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-17110, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-17110, 2024.

Art and artists, alongside the science and good leadership, are essential to the process of helping society find its way towards solutions to our greatest challenges. In past periods of crisis, from the Renaissance to the wars of the 20^th century, art has been crucial to shifting public engagement and the views of decision makers. Yet the scale of artistic response to climate change, the greatest crisis of all, has been limited by the barriers faced by many artists to accessing data, imagery and evidence to inspire and be directly used in their artistic responses. New tools and services are needed to bring artists and environmental data closer together. A new not-for-profit initiative, ArtEO, has been established, by Imperative Space in conjunction with ESA and other partners in environmental science and the arts, to facilitate easier access to satellite Earth observation imagery and data, and to enable dialogue and expert support from climate scientists. Our presentation will outline the techniques and tools deployed by ArtEO showcase emerging artworks from the first phase of the initiative, and share research insights from the pilot-phase which can be scaled to support future art-science collaborations in the environmental sphere. 

How to cite: Kapur, R. and Tan, F.: ArtEO – connecting artists with data and experts to tell Earth’s story, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-21540, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-21540, 2024.

The study of the geological processes associated with the formation of the ocean floor is fundamental to understand hydrothermal systems in terms of genesis, evolution, duration, cyclicity and spatial distribution as well as the colonization of these systems by living beings. In this project, we will use music to communicate about these processes to the public.

The ocean floor is constructed by the interaction in time and space of three major processes: volcanism, tectonics and hydrothermalism. This last process is fundamental in the cooling and transformation, through the alteration of rocks, of the oceanic floor. Finally, sedimentation gradually covers the floor constructed by these three processes. Instabilities and landslides will affect the sedimentary cover and volcanoes and thus modify the underwater landscape. Time is fundamental when studying these processes. The ocean floor is constantly changing. Eruptions occur suddenly, last a few hours or extend over several days. A fault can rupture, producing earthquakes which may cause major landslides. All of these processes have a direct impact on the distribution and dynamics of hydrothermal circulations. An earthquake can open new fractures allowing seawater to penetrate into the crust, creating new vents. Another earthquake or volcanic eruption can seal these circulation paths, leading to the cessation of the outflow of fluids and the death of the associated ecosystem. The lifespan of a hydrothermal site is therefore strongly dependent on this dynamic. In this dynamic landscape, organisms evolve, move, colonize chimneys, multiply and eventually disappear when the fluid output stops. It is this constant mutation, on variable time scales, ranging from a few years to a few tens of thousands of years, that we wish to transcribe into music.

Over the years, our team built an immense collection of images of the ocean floor and hydrothermal vents. These documents are rarely released to the general public. When exposed, they often speak little because even if the images are beautiful and impressive, the processes and time scales behind them are difficult to grasp. The idea of this project is to create a musical piece telling the stories of the formation of the ocean floor and of hydrothermal fields, on different time scales. We will tell a story of a changing landscape, of the creation of oases of life, from their beginning until the death of the colonies. We will interact with the composer through videos and images, accompanied by explanations of the processes. The exchanges allow the composer to explain his musical choices which will be his way of perceiving these complex developments. The production of this piece will be entrusted to the orchestra of the University of Brest. Here too, the interaction between researchers and the musicians is at the heart of the project. Discussions and scientific explanations of the images will accompany the musical work. The work will therefore be the result of group construction. It will be presented during the university Art & Science festival and during scientific events or maritime festivals.

How to cite: Maia, M., Pignot, Y., Peleter, E., Rospabe, M., Bickert, M., Cambon, M.-A., Raumer, P.-Y., Lalonde, S., Hamelin, C., Rouxel, O., Cathalot, C., Cannat, M., and Perbandt, S.: The Harmony of the Abyss – Revealing the aesthetics and tempo of the mutation of deep ocean geological processes and their links to hydrothermal vents and associated life, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-16393, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-16393, 2024.

The ocean is at the heart of our climate system and understanding its role as a driver and modulator is critical in times of a changing climate, posing serious threats to our ecosystem and societies. This increases the need to communicate science in novel ways. Here we present outcomes, lessons-learned and future plans of artist-scientist collaborations as part of the Synergy II project – a collaboration between the Art League Rhode Island and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Self-selected pairs of scientists and artists collaborate with the goal to create a ‘common language’ using the arts to illustrate and communicate science. Through extensive conversations we examined the scientific and artistic process, and were surprised and delighted at the similarity of so many aspects of our work. We spoke in-depth about the challenges of communicating big ideas and numbers in meaningful ways and how we all had to be compelling storytellers. Produced artwork comprises a set of 3D kinetic sculptures created out of printed canvas, introducing the audience to a warming ocean and impacts of extreme temperatures on ecosystems and society more broadly. While the form captures the constantly moving and swirling motions of the ocean, the printed layers on the canvas also aim to convey the thrill of discovery and the complexity of our research, from data acquisition (now and in the past), coding to visualization and ultimately conveying a message. Other artwork highlights the role of ocean salinity in digitally layered 2D prints, capturing the central, yet underappreciated, role of the oceans for the global water cycle and ocean dynamics: the artwork conveys salinity as a critical metric tracking moisture export at the ocean’s surface, as well as different water masses being defined by different temperature and salinity compositions – and how new salinity sensing capabilities from space provide new insights into ocean dynamics and predictive capabilities for rainfall on land. As new collaborations begin, we strive to learn from our past experiences and venture into new exciting art projects that come together with existing artwork under the umbrella of Synergy II and expand on community engagement and outreach to involve K-12 education. These collaborations have added a new enriching dimension to all our work, both scientifically and artistically.

How to cite: Ryan, S., Ummenhofer, C. C., Ehrens, D., Xu, H., Megathlin, L., and Getsinger, M.: Synergy in art-science collaborations: Finding a common language to convey ocean research through art, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-20592, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-20592, 2024.

Illustrations of field outcrops are a fundamental tool for scientists in both research and learning as an important method of documenting interpretations. Whether field sketches, photos, concept diagrams or virtual outcrops, researchers through time have used a variety of different ways to visualise outcrops. What do the views and annotations a researcher chooses to represent a field outcrop tell us about the evolution of understanding and uncertainty in geology?

Here we investigate a variety of illustrations of a well-studied outcrop in the Helvetic Alps of Switzerland, at the Col de Sanetsch. The Urgonian limestone is folded into a 500m high NW-facing fold pair, exposed in the South face of Spitzhorn (2807m). The fold has a complicated structural history, as it contains an array of SE-dipping normal faults which have been onlapped by Cenozoic turbidites before folding. Views of the outcrop are very accessible, by cable car or road, but the entire outcrop is a cliff and almost completely inaccessible.

During field mapping in 2022, watercolour sketches of the outcrop were completed from different viewpoints, along with photos and GPS points. We compare these with historical illustrations of the outcrop by other researchers, from sketches in field notebooks to photographs and figures in published papers. By analysing how the outcrop has been drawn and therefore how the researcher has percieved the geology, we can better understand how they have worked and where they fit in the evolution of ideas. This has implications for our own work, finding the right tools and the best perspective to clearly illustrate our work, understand the science and communicate interpretations.

How to cite: Sleath, P., Butler, R., and Bond, C.: Linking geology and art: observations to interpretations of the Sanetsch Fold, Helvetic Alps, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-11416, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-11416, 2024.

The word «art» can be interpreted in very different ways. Institutions such as museums, galleries and art schools, and art critics are the pinnacle of contemporary art and set certain «trends», which are easily spotted in contemporary galleries. Conceptual artworks presented in these exhibitions often go on to generate thousands-to-millions of pounds at art auctions therefore creating an elitist art world.

How can contemporary visual arts (and can they) offer different ways of imag(in)ing the problem of climate change, which would create an experience beyond visual (i.e. emotive and behavioral)? Here, I review «historical» climate art and propose that climate art can be split into three categories: representations (emphasizing visualization and communication of climate change); performance and conceptual art (engagement through immersion and experience); and interventions such as public engagement and activism (invoking motivation to take action). What are the challenges associated with these categories?

According to the art world, the good art, i.e. the conceptual art, or “art for art’s sake” as originally described by Clement Greenberg in 1940, appeals and creates a desired experience for a limited amount of people with an attained cultural capital, and thus, I argue that it ultimately fails to communicate climate change to the wider public; yet it’s the preferred category of the art institutions. In the meantime, the bad art, which is more illustrative and communicates the climate message clearly, disinterests artistic institutions and critics. This slowed the development, and led to a decline of climate art produced, or displayed in galleries in the late 2000s and early 2010s; however an explosion of climate art popularity has since occurred in the last five years, likely because the issue of climate change has been brought to the forefront of political debate and contemporary culture. Therefore, it remains an open question how to best portray, communicate and create an “ultimate” experience of climate change through art and how to assess the success of these pieces (eg. art critics opinions, public opinions/ interpretations, amount of income generated); but it is clear that collaboration between scientists and artists is desperately needed to develop climate art.

How to cite: Radionovskaya, S.: Exploring the capacity of climate art to communicate climate change from a cultural perspective , EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-19426, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-19426, 2024.

The Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB) is the longest-standing environmental non-profit in New Brunswick Canada, whose mission is to create awareness of environmental problems and advocate solutions through research, education, and interventions in collaboration with others. CCNB has developed an innovative program "From Harm to Harmony," which harnesses the potent capabilities of community-engaged climate art. This program has emerged as a transformative force, effectively bridging the gap between the scientific intricacies of climate change and the broader public through artistic expression. By translating complex data into emotionally compelling narratives, this approach taps into the core of human emotions, inspiring awareness, empathy, and actionable responses.

This program represents a collaborative effort, bringing together artists, social institutions, environmental organizations, and community members to actively participate in the creative process. Through these collective endeavors, the program seeks to engage diverse audiences across various communities within New Brunswick, Canada aiming to create accessible and meaningful opportunities for learning and understanding the complexities of climate change.

The program's insights from our pilot initiatives highlight the potency of unconventional engagement methods in climate action. Unlike conventional strategies, which rely on factual arguments, this program harnesses the emotional resonance of creative processes, crucial for inspiring and sustaining personal changes, particularly in the realm of climate action. Recognizing the mounting eco-anxiety, especially among younger demographics, and the associated feelings of inefficacy, the program responds by exploring innovative avenues like community-engaged art. By prioritizing emotions as an entry point, this approach addresses eco-anxiety and establishes a robust foundation for deeper involvement in climate action, leveraging art's transformative potential across multiple fronts: simplifying complexities, fostering emotional connections, amplifying messages, inspiring action, engaging the public, and instigating cultural shifts.

Throughout my presentation, I will speak to the various avenues of engagement and education that we have employed, the indicators of the success of the program,  learning lessons, and plans for the future growth of the program. In conclusion, the pathway of community-engaged art for climate action resonates with individuals, offering a positive, love-based, collaborative, and community-building approach. It emerges as a promising and impactful avenue for engaging diverse communities in meaningful climate change dialogue and action.

How to cite: Smith, D.: The Power of Art to Engage People in Climate Action , EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-12225, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-12225, 2024.

Water is life. Water-related challenges, such as droughts, floods, water quality degradation, permafrost thaw and glacier melt, exacerbated by climate change, affect everyone. Yet, it is challenging to communicate science on complex and highly volatile topics such as water and climate change. Conceptualizing water-related environmental and social issues in novel ways, for example using art, with engagement between diverse audiences may lead to comprehensive solutions to these complex challenges.

The Virtual Water Gallery (VWG) project, launched as part of the Global Water Futures (GWF) program in 2020 as a collaborative space merging science and art to address water challenges. Thirteen artists, representing diverse voices, teamed up with GWF scientists to explore specific challenges across Canada. The resulting artworks were exhibited on the VWG website (www.virtualwatergallery.ca) in 2021, with a first in-person exhibition in Canmore in 2022. Surveys were concurrently conducted to capture perspectives on climate change and water challenges, as well as on the role of art as a tool for engagement, from project participants, online and in-person gallery visitors.

Join us as we share key findings and lessons learned on the SciArt collaborations and exhibition. Participant survey results highlight the participating artists and scientists’ experiences during the co-creation process. Visitor survey results help clarify the impact of art on people's understanding of climate change and its effects on water resources, alongside insights into behaviour changes (e.g., energy conservation, recycling, dietary choices) as a result of visiting the exhibition.

How to cite: Arnal, L. and Schuster-Wallace, C.: The Virtual Water Gallery: Measuring attitude changes towards climate and water through art, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-13963, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-13963, 2024.

Artists, sometimes within activism, have produced work engaging with the timescales of glaciers, the environmental records stored inside them, their apparent remoteness, melting and its connection to human activities, as well as using the medium of ice in symbolic ways. By considering examples of how artists have worked with the theme of the ongoing deglaciation of Earth and its consequences, I showcase some ways in which artistic interventions have the power to raise awareness and translate scientific knowledge into graspable reality.

Thereafter, I provide a personal reflection of working at the interface of science and art in my own work as a glaciologist and as a practicing artist exploring properties of natural ice: I show a selection of my projects from recent years, in which I attempted to tackle the topics of human responsibility and choices; potential misplacement of ecological grief; and irreversibility through the lens of natural ice on Earth. Using these works as examples I discuss the extent to which integrating artistic and scientific research influences my practice of both. 

How to cite: Nicholson, L.: Artistic engagement with a deglaciating world, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-10215, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-10215, 2024.

Humans often struggle to intuitively grasp probabilities, which challenges the effective communication of climate risk. Here, I want to explore the potential of (video) art to intuitively translate probability and other abstract mathematical concepts in the context of climate change.

Created as part of an interdisciplinary university course on Ecological Aesthetics, ‘Almost Surely’ is a video art piece bridging the probabilistic nature of scientific climate projections with their factual manifestation in the real world. The piece contrasts the technical language of statistics-based knowledge generation used by reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with scenes of nature and everyday life, where probabilities are translated into reality. In line with my Ph.D. research and the local context of making this piece in California, I focused on the impact of wildfire on familiar terrestrial landscapes such as Joshua Tree or Big Basin National Park.

I aim to reflect on my experience creating this film, navigating the intersection of art, art discourse, and science as a climate scientist, and discuss some of the challenges and questions I came across when translating precise scientific concepts into intuitively felt visuals and storylines.

How to cite: Layritz, L. S.: ‘Almost Surely’ – Exploring the potential of (video) art to communicate probabilities and climate risk, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-10516, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-10516, 2024.

Connecting science and art, presenting climate change from an unusual perspective, initiating dialogue, and offering alternative viewpoints were the main goals of the art exhibition “Of Each Absence” organized by ETH Zurich in collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the ETH outreach event “Klimarunde”. ETH-Klimarunde is a flagship public event organized annually by the Center for Climate Systems Modeling (C2SM) of ETH Zurich. It serves as a vital platform that fosters direct dialogue between scientific experts and the Swiss public on critical climate change issues. The artworks were created especially for this occasion by eight students of the Master of Fine Arts program at ZHdK. The artists were given creative autonomy while receiving guidance from ETH climate scientists, facilitating a symbiotic relationship that enhanced the connection between the artworks and climate change concepts.

The presentation addresses the successes and challenges of navigating the uncharted territory of this interdisciplinary collaboration between C2SM and ZHdK. It underscores the importance of open communication, mutual respect, and the harnessing of diverse perspectives to create – besides the artwork itself - a  joint language of science and art to address the topic of climate change in a truly extraordinary way.

How to cite: Bandikova, T., Schnadt Poberaj, C., Welter, J., and Genovese, N.: Navigating the Art-Science Interface: Lessons from the "Of Each Absence" Art Exhibition, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-12172, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-12172, 2024.

Over 18.5M ha of forests have burnt in Canada in 2023 far surpassing the previous record of 7.6 M ha set in 1989. How do we engage the public with the enormity of this natural disturbance on our landscapes and it possible causes? As a scientist and an artist, I was in a unique position to explore the possibilities of creating new ways of doing research in these landscapes. Almost 15 years ago a wildfire burnt my research plot and destroyed my monitoring equipment in northern Canada. As I examined the damaged equipment, charcoal imprints were made on my clothing which led to exploring how to capture charcoal markings in burnt forests. That fire changed my perceptions of research and art and began the journey of how I might use science and art to address environmental issues. On a sabbatical to Berlin, I was challenged to think about how science might inform art and how my art might inform my science.  My charcoal artwork the past 14 years has been a unique opportunity to look at wildfires and understanding the movement of charcoal in these burnt forests and how my artwork has revealed some of these transfers. This presentation will discuss how my charcoal artworks in burnt forests has driven my ideas about science and art with regards to natural disturbances and the communication of these disturbance events to the public.

How to cite: Van Rees, K.: Wildfire Art: Lessons in Science and Art, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-14001, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-14001, 2024.

We propose a multimedia work structured with the scientific and artistic consultancy of a volcanology expert (who also plays the role of interpreter as an actor and narrator) and the creation of high-resolution visual content generated with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Our goal is to describe science through art and simultaneously create art using the language of science. This multimedia project aims to narrate the fear of humans in the face of the dangers of a volcanic eruption, and we have chosen the location of the Phlegraean Fields with the continuously evolving phenomenon of bradyseism. The Phlegraean Fields are a land with a millennia-old history, rich in culture and mythology, and among these myths is that of the Cumaean Sibyl, to whom people turned to know their future and find answers to their problems. In this modern era, with its fears, humanity seeks answers from a new sibyl, an AI created by humans, which in our show is indeed the "NewSibyl." Scientific data on bradyseismic activity in the Phlegraean Fields have also been used for the generation of scores, sounds, and images through both traditional and non-traditional compositional processes. Furthermore, the musical component involves the fusion of sounds generated by traditional acoustic instruments, electronic instruments, and synthetic sounds generated by algorithms for sound synthesis.

Finally, this multimedia work that combines past and present, mythology and technology, science, and art through an interdisciplinary approach and the creative use of technology promises to offer the audience a memorable and stimulating experience. We want to emphasize that our performance is not just a regular report of a past event but represents an authentic artistic event to which we invite participation. Moreover, the proposed event serves as an example of how it is possible to unite art and scientific dissemination simultaneously. In fact, among the objectives of our participation in the conference, we intend to seek new scientific collaborations, dissemination opportunities, and the possibility of developing new projects within the realm of this artistic-scientific form, regardless of the theme.

How to cite: Zoccola, M., Ascione, V., and De Novellis, V.: Phlegraean Fields: Mankind, Fear and New Sibyl, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-6531, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-6531, 2024.