October 29th, 2015 | RESEARCH
The art/science nexus has historically been approached through a challenge of aesthetics versus mathematics, and processes of knowledge production. Notably absent in this debate are the social sciences that explore human experience and perception. In particular, what has not been addressed clearly in the literature is how reasoning about the human experience can be provoked when people encounter content that does not assert itself as neatly defined in either an art or science discourse. By reflecting on one case study of a public art/science installation, we explore new fields of knowledge production. Our exploration found that the broader function of memory, metaphor, juxtaposition, and hypothesis generation were key to advancing public reasoning with science information. This study of the lived experience with an ambiguous installation that did not declare itself as either art or science provoked reasoning processes that required viewers to consider their relationship to the parts and the whole, to both question what they knew and understood from the work, and to question how science information is part of their lives. In doing so, we uncovered distinct paths of science reasoning once the viewer defined the stimulus as art. We were also led to reflect on the history of informal science learning pedagogy.
Document
(no document provided)
Team Members
John Fraser, Co-Principal Investigator, New Knowledge Organization Ltd.Fiona MacDonald, Project Staff, New Knowledge Organization Ltd.
Nezam Ardalan, Project Staff, New Knowledge Organization Ltd.
Citation
Identifier Type: ISSN
Identifier: 14443775
Publication: Transformations
Volume: 26
Number: 4
Page(s): 1
Funders
Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: AISL
Award Number: 1323117
Related URLs
Reflections on Public Art + Science Reasoning
Indianapolis as a Living Laboratory: Science Learning for Resilient Cities
Tags
Access and Inclusion: Urban
Audience: General Public | Museum | ISE Professionals | Scientists
Discipline: Ecology | forestry | agriculture | Geoscience and geography
Resource Type: Peer-reviewed article | Research Products
Environment Type: Community Outreach Programs | Exhibitions | Parks | Outdoor | Garden Exhibits | Public Programs