Collaborative research practices between ArtSci for aestheticization of environmental education.
The aim is to establish an Envi_Art Lab – the laboratory which is supposed to provide a space for SciArt and tech. research, interdisciplinary cooperation to offer alternative forms of environmental education, training and wider public implementation. The goal is to create an interdisciplinary space of environmental and artistic knowledge and collaborative practices by using DIY AI, and mix media tools to create aesthetical emotional manifestation of actual environmental problems.
National
Slovakia
Ionian University, Corfu, Greece ,The Sanctuary for Independent Media, New York, i3S Porto, Ectopia Lab, Lisbon, Alma Mater Ljubliana, STEMarts LAB Taos / New Mexico,...
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As individual(s) in partnership with organisation(s)
First name: Andrea Last name: Gogova Gender: Female Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: A FEMeeting network of individuals of women and men who represent an academic space of EU and American Universities, together with nonprofit organizations such as: The Sanctuary for Independent Media, New York, i3S Porto, Cultivamos Cultura Sao Luis, Ectopia Lisbon, STEMarts LAB Taos / New Mexico,… etc. The project is supported by a partnership with Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Dept. Environmental of Ecology and Landscape Management. Nationality: Slovakia Function: Leader of the project, ArtSci and technology, supervisor. Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Šándorova 4 Town: Bratislava - Ružinov Postal code: 82103 Country: Slovakia Direct Tel:+421 908 133 069 E-mail:andgogo@nextra.sk Website:https://adagogo.myportfolio.com/interfaces-and-patterns-of-communication-2021
First name: Diana Last name: Cencer-Garafova Gender: Female Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: Femeeting network Women in Art, Science and Technology
It represents an academic space of EU and American Universities, and nonprofit organizatins and individual artists as: The Sanctuary for Independent Media, New York, i3S Porto, Cultivamos Cultura Sao Luis, Ectopia Lisbon, Art Laboratory Berlin, STEMarts LAB Taos / New Mexico,...etc. Nationality: Slovakia Function: cooperator, supervisor Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Račianska 1528/87 Town: Bratislava Postal code: 83102 Country: Slovakia Direct Tel:+421 904 843 284 E-mail:diana.garafova@gmail.com Website:http://diana.garafova.com
First name: Marta Last name: Nevrelova Gender: Female Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: Dep. Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management of the Comenius University in Bratislava Nationality: Slovakia Function: collaborator, supervisor Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Mlynská dolina B2, Ilkovičova 6 Town: Bratislava Postal code: 842 15 Country: Slovakia Direct Tel:+421 908 610 998 E-mail:marta.nevrelova@uniba.sk Website:https://fns.uniba.sk/pracoviska/environmentalna-sekcia/kem/zamestnanci/marta-nevrelova/
First name: Blanka Last name: Lehotska Gender: Female Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: Dep. Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management of the Comenius University in Bratislava Nationality: Slovakia Function: collaborator, supervisor Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Mlynská dolina B2, Ilkovičova 6 Town: Bratislava Postal code: 842 15 Country: Slovakia Direct Tel:+421 908 956 445 E-mail:blanka.lehotska@uniba.sk Website:https://fns.uniba.sk/pracoviska/environmentalna-sekcia/kem/zamestnanci/blanka-lehotska/
The aim is to establish and open an Envi_Art Lab – the laboratory which is supposed to provide a space for scientific-artistic research, interdisciplinary cooperation and to offer an alternative form of environmental education, training and sharing information. The goal of the project is to create an interdisciplinary space where are intertwined environmental and artistic and technology knowledge, and collaborative practices. By using the advantages of DIY AI and mix media tools to create emotional aesthetical manifestation of actual environmental problems to support environmental education and create equal informational space for wider public. The lab will provide the space for: searching, learning, creating, and mapping heterotopias focused on the intersection between man-made and natural spaces (Foucault, 1967) to increase biodiversity and support the survival of biota species in an urbanized and hybrid environment; The searching for hypothetical forms of communication between species as a metaphor of understanding other species and relationships in nature/culture. (Understanding of niches -cycles of water, food, oxygen...etc.) Outputs of interdisciplinary projects from the Envi_Art Lab will be presented on conferences, audio-visual presentations up to the implementation and participation of wider public in a form of interactive educational exhibitions, workshops or digital DIY educational tools prototypes (e.g. geo-locative digital game workshop, …etc.). The Envi_Art Lab is based on Posthuman approach and principles of open science, all kind of equalities, acceptation of equal right of life. In the Lab we will focus on the projects of hybrid biotopes-heterotopias - urban/natural and-rural/natural as a space of human and more-than-human cohabitation and human care about sustainable symbiosis of all, but mostly an aesthetical presentation idea of sympoiesis (Haraway, 2016).
ArtSci and technology lab.
interdisciplinary colaboration
emotional and aesthetical support to environmental education
interactivity
sympoiesis
The project is based on the cooperation of artists and environmental experts Andrea.Gogová PhD., Diana Cencer Garafová ArtD., Marta Nevřelová PhD. and Blanka Lehotská PhD. This team will manage the activities of the Envi_Art Lab and cooperation within the FEMeeting network and programmers from Inventum at FEI STU. Since the project is at its initiative stage, the Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management of the CU in Bratislava is committed to support those initiatives and offers a laboratory space, an institutional support and an internal network cooperation (see attachment). The long-term ambition is to build an interdisciplinary collaborative research center of natural sciences, humanities, technology, and arts to offer with an alternative environmental education, sharing knowledge and implementation of public. Institutional partnership and collaboration manifested by letters (see attachment), will help support this idea.The language of art opens possibilities of aesthetic transformation of scientific knowledge about our environment.
The laboratory involves the public in environmental issues.
- The ambition is creating a training collaborative center for students and experts from the academic and nonacademic field. It enriches the creative outlook, knowledge and skills of each of participants.
- It also mediates cooperation of experts from the private and academic sectors in presentation and popularizing their envi projects.
- It is a space for interdisciplinary university education in optional subjects of science, art and technology, as well as intensive cooperation between students of natural sciences, technical and art universities.
- Transferring envi education to the University of the Third Age and the organizing public lectures, workshops, exhibitions.
- Space for visual education, prototyping intelligent DIY for ArtSci and technology outputs.
These objectives are promises for sustainable long-term project and its evolving.
In the lab we will be provided series of lectures, conferences, educational exhibitions, workshops, space and knowledge for design of visual education and using and developing DIY hybrid (AI and mechanical) tools. We will support public education of children, teenage, adults and students at university of Third Age.
The Lab will relate to ArtSci Labs in the worldwide FEMeeting network. It brings a series of public lectures and workshops leeds by invited experts, artists, and theoreticians of ArtSci and technology from abroad institutions, as Marta de Menezes PhD, prof. Maria Manuela Lopez PhD prof.Kathy High PhD., assoc. prof. Dalila Honorato Ph.D. Agnes Chavez, prof. Vladimir Buzek, DrSc. from Researcher Center of Quantum Information SAS (see attached support letters).
Envi_Art Lab reflects on the inevitability of education and communication of actual environmental problems in the form of sharing aesthetically mediated knowledge to other professionals and the public in the form of art exhibition, workshop, performancies, DIY design products. It is an aesthetic emotional interactive form of environmental education, because we believe that only cultural approach can qualitatively and quantitatively reach wide public. The establishing of the Lab follows the emerging trend of connecting art and science directly on the grounds of a natural science institution, thus guaranteeing the professional quality of environmental education (Lehotska see attached link https://fns.uniba.sk/en/contact/zamestnanci-nova-verzia/lehotska2/ and Nevrelova, see attached link https://uniba.sk/en/nc/people/nevrelova1/). The aesthetical and cultural guaranty is provided by the supervised experts (Gogova and Garafova, see attached CV) and invited guests. The emotional and cultural value of environmental education contributes to the popularization and better understanding of actual environmental problems.
The Lab offers a posthuman approach, considering the principles of Open science, fair science, gender, racial, religion and professional equality, and the principle of design accessible to all. The Lab will be interconnected with ArtSci Labs in a worldwide academic and nonacademic network and will follow EU academic and design for all principles.
Envi_Art Lab open projects follow current environmental problems and the necessity of environmental education; it can be built on the professional knowledge and financial covering of projects managing. Material and labor costs will be covered from the budget of each project by a capitation grant of cultural governing system, donation from external partners and alternative educational financial covering. Also the financial price from New European Bauhaus initiative could financially cover every personal compensation and travel expenditures and projects material for one year - the initial mode of establishing and existence of Envi_Art Lab to be filed the principle of free accessible education, design for everyone and free and open sharing information. .
The support of the Academic Institutional Partnership of the department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management of the Comenius University in Bratislava opens the possibility of successful continuation of the project in the following period. Being part of the international ArtSci and tech network brings a high aesthetic and professional level of cultural messages and educational qualities. Our long-term goal and ambition are to build an ArtSci and Technology research center as an interdisciplinary collaborative space where art, humanities and natural sciences intertwine to solve environmental problems on the department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management of the Comenius University in Bratislava.
The goal of the project is to transfer knowledge of environmental sustainability through the approach of aesthetic emotional metaphors and implemented analyzed data so that they are comprehensible to civil society. It is necessary to improve environmental education by the current aesthetic approach and interactively involve public interest. In the approach methodology is used the principle of Homo Ludens (the principle of game in education) and beneficial cultural influences. But at the beginning it is necessary to create the physical space of collaboration, where in interdisciplinary approach will create a high aesthetic and informative quality of environmental education and format in which will be shared knowledge specified for each target group. (Public lectures and workshops, lectures, and workshops for children and elder…,) and specific forms of art exhibition and design tools. Trained professionals are a part of educational rhizome helping to create aesthetically understandable messages to civil society. Environmental education has a key role in understanding the importance of biodiversity. Our job as professionals is to find a way to educate the other professional and public beginning from bases of ‘sympoietic principle of living system’, as an inevitable part of environmental education, to problems of biodiversity (but also energy and waste problems, water, air and soil pollution… are on the list of resolving issues) . We "humans" are not just one single, the most important species on the planet, without "others" we will die. Benefits are equal for everyone – to understandable learn how to live sustainable life and how to apply it to the own personal living credo, easily, positively, culturally.
The inspiration came from the collaboration and training at Cultivamos Cultura, Sao Luis, Portugal, dating from 2017. Through the Summer School workshops, artist residencies, conferences, presentations, and exhibitions realization Marta de Menezes trained the participants to aesthetically knowledge share, to find a balance between scientific and artistic approach, to obtain aesthetically and informationally richness of artistic and technical representations of a certain idea.
Another important support in the implementation is the commitment of the department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management of the Comenius University in Bratislava. Part of my professional life was related to environmental studies, because of that the idea of establishing the Envi_Art Lab is in the line with my long-term interest to interrelation of environmental studies and an artistic aesthetic approach. This resonates with the interest of the department's staff, but mainly with the personal interest of both experts - Marta Nevřelová and Blanka Lehotská - who help to initiate the project of alternative environmental education where real data meets with the emotion and empathy. The Institutional supports of home University and the international academic network empowered the preparation of sustainable, long-term lasting, successful project.
The background of the project initiative is based on the interdisciplinary ArtSci and Technology approach, where knowledge of environmental studies, philosophy and theory of art and science, sociology, ecosozology, biosemiotics, visual communication, graphic design, multimedia, intermedia, programing, installation and project management are met. The long-term interest, experiences and environmental approaches are declared by examples of works and in our professional CV from Art and Science disciplines: PhD of multimedia and design, ArtD of painting, PhD of environmental studies at Slavak and Czech Universities (see attachments) and collaboration with programmer Tomas Ludwig PhD from Inventum at FEI STU Bratislava, who is invited as a long-term guest at Envi_Art Lab. The establishment of Envi_Art Lab is supposed to provide space for scientific and artistic research, for interdisciplinary cooperation and will offer an alternative form of environmental education and training and intertwining of the knowledge. All demonstrated disciplines are important for the successful mastering of alternative environmental education and the transfer of environmental, artistic and technology knowledge and cooperative procedures to create an understandable path for civic perception. By the AI, digital and combined media tools, an emotional aesthetic manifestation of solving current environmental problems is created, supporting environmental education and the creation of the equally valuable knowledge sharing space for academic researchers and for wider public as well. The theoretical foundations of the humanities are necessary to achieve a high level of quality outputs and research project methodology.
Throughout the project the first ArtSci and technology Lab in Slovakia will be established. It will introduce an alternative way of environmental education, provided by the ArtSci and technology approach and methodology. The initiative will lead to establish Art, Science, Humanities and Technology Center, the first center of the constitution. The project has support of the Faculty of Natural Sciences COMENIUS UNIVERSITY BRATISLAVA because was recognized as innovative.
The project relates to the inevitability to increase a public environmental awareness where environmental education plays a decisive role. The innovative nature of the project is also the inclusion of environmental/science issues and its research with artistic research and artistic expression. Artistic expression must have influential character instead of an illustration. The interrelation of signs mediates the meaning. The manifestation of the mutual relationship of both approaches must provoke a positive movement of human thinking about environmental issues. This is the most important task of our laboratory in the Slovak context. Bringing the Slovak Envi_ART Lab into the international context will improve our expertise and cooperation between research and practice of ArtSci professional collectives.
The posthuman approach, and elements of open science, informational and educational equality, the interactive principle of Homo Ludens are naturally included in the transdisciplinary approach of ArtSci and technology. Not only the environmental education must have aesthetic value to educate wide audience, but every part of scientific research can be linked with the artistic approach to bring an inspiration, communication of a problem, sharing a knowledge and novelty. In this way the project can be applicable to the wider collaboration of Art and Science to educate and share knowledge. For example, genetic modification can shape our future for better or for worse. Education in this topic, but also in other topics of scientific research, needs to be communicated to the public in the understandable way. Biotechnology is an example of further implementation of the project. But also, topics such as sustainable energy, water for life... as a part of a broad environmental issue, has follow the principle of a well-informed and educated society in its great importance. Our collaboration with MAT LAB programmers which are based in Inventum at FEI STU is also an inspiration of their practices and enriches their own projects of a part of aesthetical and environmental level. The same aspects could improve practices of every of partners in our collaboration and can be implement in their own practices.
Envi_ART Lab is a research, educational and development workplace. The founding is based on the gradual steps of building an interdisciplinary space. We are building a functional background based on the idea of implementing the ArtSci methodology into the current methodology of environmental education. The interdisciplinary approach is manifested by the cooperation of an established management entity (Gogová, Garafová, Nevřelová, Lehotská). Our experiences working in global network labs was the inspiration for our own model.
The first step is based on the establishing of the "Laboratory" with space and the institutional background of Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management. The 2nd step is the creation of a directory of cooperating entities. (see collaboration). The connection of artists with scientists and their research project and adapt it to information sharing and environmental education. The 3rd step includes project management, implementation expenditures and financial covering (based on capitation grants, donations, and scholarships). The 4th step Event management and performances. The 5th step is project evaluation.
Each project will consist from a qualitative and quantitative analysis of scientific approach, qualitative analysis and synthesis leading to preparation of visual representation (diagram…) of ArtSci research, preparation of creative artistic ideas, implementation of data into the ArtSci concept, approval of the concept, financial coverage of the project, presentation and event management, generating of an interactive ArtSci output to increase implementation of public to increase the awareness and knowledge of environmental issues; teaching and improving individuals critical thinking; enhancing individuals' problem-solving and decision-making skills. Project evaluation details are relating to the each project individually.
The solution of local problems of intensive and alternative approaches of environmental education, especially in the field of biodiversity in urban and rural areas, relates to the global challenges of the:
UNESCO initiative "Man and Biosphere Program (MAB)".
Namely providing the knowledge base needed to solve current decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services. A better understanding of the life sympoietic system in a holistic principle and the development of living conditions on our planet are a multidisciplinary mandate in education, where natural and social sciences, culture and communication are interconnected. Environmental Education, which implements the current multidisciplinary approach of ArtSci and technology, is a local implementation of UN Environment's vision for Environmental Education & Training for Sustainable Development (EETSD). Namely the environmental education as continuous lifelong learning and calls for the use of different and innovative educational approaches to teaching and learning, based on interdisciplinary approaches, active participation, and individual and group responsibility for the environment, makes environmental education important for everyone, includes the different educational sectors, namely formal, non-formal and informal. This also enables processes of empowerment of young and old to enhance greater public participation in decision-making processes. In the line with EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) environmental education principles as to increase public awareness and knowledge of environmental issues; to teach and improve individuals critical thinking; to enhance individuals' problem-solving and decision-making skills.
The initiative is in its initial phase based on the long-term experience in environmental education on the one hand and the practice of communication through artistic language on the other. However, the tools of interdisciplinary ArtSci and technology offer a holistic principle of solving environmental education problem and spreading knowledge in a public understandable way.
In the first step, the Envi_Art Lab will directly create environmental education projects.
Subsequent steps lead to the management of the collaborative practices in training and education of the interdisciplinary team approach, and within the framework of the inter-faculty program, interdisciplinary education for students and the implementation of collaborative educational projects. This approach embracing complexity in sustainability.
In outputs of projects are embodied environmentally sustainable values, communicated in artistic way. The outputs of these activities are, lectures, trainings, workshops, educational exhibitions, designing visual educational and info-design tools, academic conferences which are enriched with aesthetic artistic elements as a part that increases the observation and memorization of knowledge. ArtSci and technological approach is the first implementation on the territory of the Slovak Republic to such an extent. The long-term goal of the project is the establishment of an ArtSci and technology center at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the CU, which will propose ArtSci outputs, the language of scientific knowledge and its artistic representation as part of the successful operation of environmental education with a vision of a sustainable future for the purposes of: increase public awareness and knowledge of environmental issues; teach and improve individuals in critical thinking; improve individuals' problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
We hope that the project will initiate similar initiatives at other universities at a highest possible impact.
In our Envi Art Lab project we follow GreenComp references. Envi_Art Lab is a space of environmental education which is based on an alternative, experimental interdisciplinary collaboration of art, science, and technology in education. Environmental education is part of the education and training of people to improve and develop knowledge, skills and attitudes towards sustainable life, work, and behavior. Envi_Art Lab in its final stage of development 'as an environmental education center' is intended to support the lifelong education of the public - within informal and non-formal education and as formal inter-faculty education of graduates of B.Sc., Master's and Doctor's degrees and other postgraduate degrees as part of their own professional focus. Sustainability competencies can help students become systemic and critical thinkers, as well as shape and share professional knowledge enriched with an element of environmental sustainability to the professional and public.
