Sustainability Science Forum 2022: Shaping Research for our Future / 03.11.2022, Eventfabrik Bern
Workshop: How can the arts touch people, and be an inspiration for the sciences?
In November 2022, we were invited to co-host a parallel session at the Sustainability Science Forum by the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT). This annual event gathers the country’s leading scientists to address the future of research for sustainable development. This year’s theme was: How can science evolve to most effectively support societal change towards sustainability?
In a co-creation between our scientist Eric Pinto (PhD) and artist Alisha Dutt Islam (student MA Fine Arts), we explored together with 25 scientists: How can the arts touch people, and be an inspiration for the sciences? Curiosity, experimentation and interest in transdisciplinary collaboration were the basic principles to engage in the workshop.
As active practicioners in breaking through established silos, we opened an experience-based session to collectively explore the value of soil and our emotional connection to it. Starting out from an individual reflection on one’s own connection to soil as a scientist, we quickly got hands-on to dig into, share a personal message, and care for a healthy pile of soil full of life, which was the central actor throughout.
Soil reflects a society: what it is made of through the food, things it grows and eats from it; it reveals the community of non-human beings, how they connect and how they are meeting the climatic conditions. Reflection by a participant
Through emotions and sensory experiences, the arts create access to complex themes and contents. They make the invisible visible, comprehensible and tangible. We closed the session with the question: Does something only have true value when we as humans add value to it?
Does something only have true value when we as humans add value to it? Alisha Dutt Islam, artist
Thank you
Thank you for the invitation: our hosts Karin Zindel from re-source, the sustainability Dossier of ZHdK, and Bianca Vienne-Baptista from USYS TdLab at ETH Zürich
Engaging opportunities like this one are an important part of our mission to re:connect humans with the value of nature, starting from the soil up. Curious how this might fit into your world? Please reach out to explore how Terrabiom could support you in putting soil health on your organization and your people’s radar. We love to get creative.