Founder and Research Director Citizen Artist Tucson, AZ, United States
Abstract: Much discussion and effort go into developing solutions to meet the critical ecological issues we face in the 21st century. Yet, more could be done to yield transformative outcomes if holistic, integrative approaches to scientific practice and thinking were included.
Art-based perceptual ecology (ABPE), a transdisciplinary research methodology, is framed within ecological and biological principles and grounded in multimodal knowledge systems and sensory-based learning. ABPE methods are used to study changes in ecological systems with application to researching loss of habitat, biodiversity decline and the impacts of climate change.
ABPE methods engage the researcher in art-based inquiry through an embodied exploration and kinesthetic act of “making with the hands” in which neural connections are established and knowledge is constructed. The process becomes transformative, offering a springboard for new insight and questions to arise, one’s that had not been considered previously because the information was not yet available. The art product (data) concretizes original knowledge, gives it meaning, and provides context and frames of reference. ABPE data communicates the land’s story through multiple “languages” including visual and narrative, symbol and metaphor. Using the visual language at the inquiry stage of scientific thinking has historical ties: consider these connections to important discoveries, such as Galileo’s moon drawings, or Maria Sibylla Merian’s paintings of insect metamorphosis.
An ABPE method used to study biodiversity in terrestrial plants—the ABPE shadow drawing protocol, causes a shift in perspective. The researcher transfers her focus from the plants identifying characteristics—leaf shape and size to the plant’s shadow, a de-familiarization act, disengaging from what is predictable and recognizable to perceive new discoveries.
The ABPE deconstruction protocol, when used to study freshwater stream flow, involves a five-step generative process, reducing and subtracting extraneous features and secondary information from the conversation, allowing the researcher to form new connections, new understandings and new ways to come at questions differently.
At Citizen Artist, a participatory science research platform, we honor multiple ways of knowing and investigating differently. We employ ABPE in field research, teach ABPE methods and work in tandem with conventional science. Results from two-years of empirical data collected from over 120 students who completed the online course, ‘Introduction to Citizen Artist and Art-Based Research Methods’ show integrative approaches to both scientific practice and thinking result in a shift in perspective, generate new knowledge and questions, and a deeper understanding of levels of complexity at multiple scales.
