This is a collaborative project between Zach Smith, Program Coordinator of the Wright Center for Innovative science education at Tufts University, Medford, MA, and Scott Battaion, Media Coordinator of the Wright Center for science Education
( www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/), and myself, Nathalie Miebach, as the artist. Together we are building data collecting devices that are being used to collect science data from a coastal environment on Cape Cod (Provincetown, MA), which are then used to examine larger environmental changes. These data is being collected using 3-D quadrats, which are essentially 1 m3 cubes, made of PVC pipes, containing scientific instruments for data collection. Functioning as mini-environments, these 3-D quadrats collect real life science data, from which certain variables are selected and examined in the context of larger environmental changes (e.g.: ice on/off dates, faunal migration patterns, floral changes, temperature anomalies, CO2 concentration, and others). These data are then translated into woven sculptures that examine linkages between these locally recorded environmental changes and broader regional and global climate change.

many people have asked me what art and science have in common? I am more interested in what they don’t have in common I think. Of course there are shared subjects (climate change, the Arctic, glaciers, etc.) and shared investment in a process of inquiry, research, and analysis. But even each of those things can be broken down and found to share only the most gross of efforts. But that seems less useful than contemplating where their differences lie, or more aptly, how they might come together to create a greater whole? I am interested in focusing on the role of research that both artists and scientists share an active engagement with.

That friend is the Arctic, or so it seem to residents of the Arctic. The third point of focus for this project, this forum on the radiating effects of climate change, is the Arctic. The arctic is the very cold canary that tell us what is happening with our climate before we feel it in more temperate zones. The changes, as we have heard here from Larry Merculieff, are more drastic and hit home not just to the large community of people who live above the imaginary line that describes the arctic Circle, but also the the rest of the world’s land and people. Changes include the much reported: spring thaws are earlier. Fall freeze-ups are later. Sea ice is shrinking. Unfamiliar species of plants and animals are appearing. Intense storms are more frequent.

I am a sculptor who is currently working on a collaborative project on climate change. With the help of Zach Smith and Scott Battaion from the Wright Center for science education at Tufts University, I have been building very low-tech data-collecting devices that extract climate data from a particular coastal environment. This device consists of a simple, 3-D cube made out of PVC pipes that is filled with cheap science instruments through which I record daily changes in the physical environment. I strap this cube onto my back every morning and bike out to the beach, where I measure temperature (air, water, soil), wind speed and direction, wave direction and speed as well as make notes of any flora and fauna changes I may see. I also make note of the daily erosion changes that seem to constantly sculpt the sand into new formations everyday.

Preemptive Media, a new media collaborative art group, have a great project right now called AIR, which distributes small sensor units to calculate the carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide levels in the surrounding air–the data collected from these sensors can be seen on their website, the sensors, and in exhibitions.

Check out a good description of it here.

Hi, I’m a biological oceanographer by training and most of my research is focused on zooplankton, the little tiny animals in the ocean. Much of my work is done in the Arctic. Two years ago, I was working in the Beaufort Sea and I had the opportunity to develop an education and outreach program. While I was trying to think of what to develop I thought about my feeling, Knowledge and impressions of the arctic and I thought about what people say when they hear I am traveling there. This ranges from wonder and excitement to pity. While I can tell people about the light in the arctic at midnight in the summer or blue twilight at noon in the winter or the golden glow in the fall, it’s hard to understand unless you see it. I wanted to develop a program that would let people see the arctic and give children a chance to learn about polar regions and how they are similar and different to other regions. In seeing this, the children would begin to see and learn about the connections between regions. With this in mind, my husband Jim Rich and I developed the Windows Around the World program (www.WindowsAroundTheWorld.org ), that lets children, teachers, parents and anyone come and see what it looks like in different areas.