Mixing Art, Science and Social Science to Learn about a River

I've been reflecting back on an amazing experience that I had a few years ago when I worked on a project aimed at mixing art and science. Two artists, two scientists and two social scientists worked together over a year or two to learn about our different perspectives and to apply our learning to a project centred around the Motueka River and its associated community in New Zealand. Check out the information about the project at: the project website.

There were a number of outputs from the project. The most obvious was an installation that brought together stories and images from artists scientists and community members. There was also a book containing some of the conversations that the group had through the process of getting to know each other and an evaluation of the collaboration process that drew out the learning we all did about working with people from such radically different perspectives - all available from the website above.

For me personally, this project opened up some new ways of thinking and engaging with people and the environment. It also reinforced my interest in learning from those in other areas of endeavour and with different experiences, and helping them to do the same.

I'd like to be doing something more with this experience and I haven't quite worked out how but I am thinking that perhaps it cannot be done working from within the limitations of the New Zealand Science system and or perhaps within the organisational framework within which I work.