[ISEA2010] Panel: Jill Scott, Angelika Hilbeck, Andrea Polli & Juanita Schläpfer-Miller – Networking in the Margins of Eco-Activism

Panel Statement

The following is a co-authored paper about Networking in the Margins of Eco-Activism for the panel in ISEA2010 of the same name. The speakers will show that a responsible attitude towards the definition of nature can be embodied within the margins of art and science. Networking between ecoactivists from both fields also tends to create a more robust level of knowhow transfer about the environment. The authors in this text will expand on the idea that both fields of art and science can no longer deny the state of the very world in which it exists.

This panel blurs the boundaries between artistic and scientific research. While artists have become more involved in ethical and social debates about scientific discovery, scientists have been exposed to the processes and contexts of art. Thus, networking tends to expand the borders of the exact sciences and to cause a more robust level of dialogue from the humanities and the arts.

  1. Angelika Hilbeck – Environmental Scientist: The GMO Debate and Documentary Media
  2. Andrea Polli – Community Weather Stations and Environmental Knowing
  3. Juanita Schläpfer-Miller – New Correlations: Art/Science Approaches to the Energy Crisis!
  • Jill Scott (AU/CH) is a professor for research in the Institute Cultural Studies in the Arts, at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZhdK) in Zürich and Co-Director of the Artists-in-Labs Program (a collaboration with the Ministry for Culture, Switzerland). She is also Vice Director of the Z-Node PHD program on art and science at the University of Plymouth, UK. Her recent publications include: Artists-in-labs Processes of Inquiry: 2006 Springer/Vienna/New York, and Coded Characters Hatje Cantz 2002, Ed. Marille Hahne. She has exhibited video artworks, conceptual performances and interactive environments in USA, Japan, Australia and Europe all based on the human body and the environment.
  • Angelika Hilbeck (DE/CH) is a senior scientist at the Institute of Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich and serves as Co-Director of Studies, for the Z-Node – Ph.D. program University of the Arts, Zurich. Her studies and research focused on agro-ecology and biodiversity, including bio control, sustainable farming practices, and insect-plant interactions. Since 1994, her research centres on bio-safety issues of GMOs. She is also co-founder and acting chairperson of the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER).
  • Andrea Polli (US) is an artist, Associate Professor in Fine Arts and Engineering and Mesa Del Sol Chair of Digital Media at The University of New Mexico. Polli’s work has been presented widely in venues including the Whitney Museum’s Artport and The Field Museum and has been reviewed by the LA Times, Art in America, Art News and others. andreapolli.com
  • Juanita Schläpfer-Miller (UK/CH), MSc. is a research associate at the University of the Arts in Zurich (ZHdK). She is an artist and science communicator and has developed interactive exhibits for science centres and museums. She was an exhibit developer and artist-inresidence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco and she has shown in galleries and museums in the U.S. and Switzerland.

Full text (PDF) p.  181-186