Dave Murray-Rust

art-science: reflections on the interface between arts and sciences

dave@mo-seph.com www.mo-seph.com

Musical Agents
Modelling musical communication with interactive software agents
http://www.mo-seph.com/academic/agentbox

InteracTable
Playful multitouch, multimodal search aggregation

://www.mo-seph.com/projects/interactable

http://www.mo-seph.com/projects/chaodependant with Agelos Papadakis (http://www.agelospapadakis.com/) and Owen Green (http://owengreen.net/)

ChaoDependant

Harmonic motion, magnets, sensors, handblown glass, interactive soundscape

Mobecule s
http://www.mobecules.org

Virtual, geolocated molecules

Why? (for me)

For the joy! Bring out hidden relationships and processes People and technology are fascinating Putting them together helps understand both

David Dunn acoustic ecology, The Sound of Light in Trees

The first [genesis] was creative. For the past several years, David Dunn has been developing innovative, low-cost microphones encouraging an appreciation of the vast spectrum of sounds in our world that are outside of our normal human experience The second genesis [was] the use of acoustics in ecology research his recordings were often able to identify [bark beetle] population booms before pheromone traps, the previously accepted best method
http://www.acousticecology.org/dunn/solit.html

Art, Science, Technology

Trajectories, Dialogues

Agent Based Modelling of Land Use

Social surveys to understand human behaviour Stakeholder engagement Integrate different models Models as knowledge integration tools Cant assume stationarity; uncertain future Develop scenarios
Rounsevell, M. D. A. & Metzger, M. J. Developing qualitative scenario storylines for environmental change assessment Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2010

Thinking about the future

Modelling now, projecting current trends Scenario analysis Narratives and models, Kahn: the most likely future isnt Foresight, collaborative fiction/serious gaming e.g. IFTF, World without Oil Science Fiction e.g. Paolo Bacigalupi, calorie economy; Charles Stross, AI and behaviour modification

Speculative Spectrum Modeling the future

The future is already here its just not very evenly distributed William Gibson

Latour: science and society

Science vs Research Science produces objectivity by escaping as much as possible from the shackles of ideology, passions, and emotions; research feeds on all of those to render objects of inquiry familiar. Collective experiment: French association for the treatment of muscular dystrophy (AFM) They took over. They tailored a science policy adjusted to what they perceived as their needs. Far from expecting certainty from science, they accepted that they must share risk in research. 3 floors: Patients | Scientists | Admin
Latour, B. (1998). From the world of science to the world of research? Science, 280(5361):208.

Contextualising Science
Notovny et al Rethinking Science (2001) Science needs to be contextualised for society Mode 2 knowledge production Which requires interdisciplinary practice: transcends disciplinary boundaries Connects scientific institutions with publics Soften distinction between making knowledge and using knowledge Allows for tak[ing] subjective experience seriously displacement of a culture of autonomy of science by a culture of accountability

Born and Barry: Logics of Interdisciplinarity

Interdisciplinarity is not novel! And interdisciplines become disciplines But currently in focus demand for more integration with science Look at contemporary rationales about the purposes of interdisciplinarity

Born and Barry, 2010, ART-SCIENCE: from public understanding to public experiment, J. Cultural Econ

Born and Barry: Logics of Interdisciplinarity - Accountability

Making science understandable and hence accountable to society Public engagement, aestheticization Research is a given, public assembled in response to it

Born and Barry, 2010, ART-SCIENCE: from public understanding to public experiment, J. Cultural Econ

Logics of Interdisciplinarity Innovation

Science is expected to contribute to industrial innovation and economic growth Social science fosters links between scientific and technical progress and the market

Barry, A.; Born, G. & Weszkalnys, G. Logics of interdisciplinarity Economy and Society, Taylor & Francis, 2008

Logics of Interdisciplinarity: Ontological

Effecting change in relations between artists and scientists, their objects and publics Public becomes part of the experiment, and can self-select

Born and Barry, 2010, ART-SCIENCE: from public understanding to public experiment, J. Cultural Econ

Crowdsourcing vs Citizen Science

Crowdsourcing:
Large group of public participants Social rewards for participation Generally carrying out a specific, well defined task, or being an experimental subject Mostly used to provide data points

Citizen Science:
Participants more active Less didactic can drive the research more
We prefer to call this [Galaxy Zoo] citizen science because its a better description of what youre doing; youre a regular citizen but youre doing science. Crowd sourcing sounds a bit like, well, youre just a member of the crowd and youre not; youre our collaborator. Youre pro-actively involved in the process of science by participating. (Kevin Schawinski)

Global Change: Big Data, Big Models

How to visualise interactions between a billion agents? How to make sense of global datasets What does it take to make models and their outputs understandable to the public? Interaction? Interfaces? Participatory Simulation? How to convey provenance, linkages, uncertainty Going beyond the visual: tangible and ambient interfaces

Important Things - Process

Clarity, and truthfulness to the science, and the process behind it Not subjugating artists or scientists to each other Reflect on the science and not taking it as a fixed point for creation of pieces, but starting a dialogue Transformative: alter the relations between artist and scientist, and with the public Embracing change

Important Things - Output

Encourage questions fluid hypothesis generation and testing Collective experiments, shared spaces, interaction Playfulness Multilayered, but not complexified

Challenges
Assessment, criteria: novel forms of quality control which undermine disciplinary forms of evaluation Subjectivity: how to engage with personal experience Understanding the rigor of different perspectives Communication Staying relevant

Final Thoughts
Ensuring a dialogue between science and art Public experimentation over public engagement; broadening science rather than communicating it

Thanks for Listening

Dave Murray-Rust dave@mo-seph.com www.mo-seph.com