We are a group of artists and researchers working on cross-discipline projects about marine mammals, with a significant scientific focus. We all use creative expression and different arts in outreach activities, to raise awareness about these beautiful creatures and their conservation.
Our individual stories as artists and researchers are all different and special, as we come from different backgrounds, studies and parts of the world…
The story of how we all came together starts in early 2018, when I got in touch with researchers Luigi Bundone and Volker Smit. Through the MARMAM newsletter, they had launched an abstract call for a Communication Workshop to be held during the ECS (European Cetacean Society) 2018 Conference in La Spezia.
Since months we had all separately been thinking about science-art collaborations: Luigi and Volker wanted to connect with artists interested in marine mammals conservation, and I was looking for a way to bring together my music and my love for these animals. That contact happened just at the right time: we were looking for each other.
Luigi shared marine mammals sound recordings with me, and I created “FIN”, a musical piece I then performed at the ECS Workshop. We three met there for the first time, in April 2018, then kept in touch as much as we could, becoming more and more enthusiastic about this magic link between arts, marine mammals and outreach.
Inspired by this energy, Luigi and Volker decided to propose a workshop about Arts and Communication to the World Marine Mammals Conference 2019, and asked me to co-organize it with them. The workshop proposal was accepted by the conference committee, and a new call for abstracts was sent…
…Many many artists and researchers from all over the place sent proposals, amazing projects, pictures, stories, it was overwhelming and beautiful. We were not alone!!
The Workshop “Art as a tool for communicating marine mammal Science” took place in Barcelona on December 8th 2019, during the WMMC. There is where we all came together: all the artists you find reunited in this website met for the first time in a room of the huge CCIB conference centre, a room which soon became an amazing cross-space between a conference workshop, music hall, art gallery, cinema, theatre backstage… a place of creation where ideas started flowing -let’s say swimming!- around, mixing, playing, and wonderful meetings happened.
At the end of the workshop, I proposed to create a blog to connect all our projects and researches on a same platform: to keep in touch, inspire future collaborations, and to present to the public a wider view on artists working in this cross-field…
..And this is it! You are looking at that idea, slowly taking shape.
Both artists and researchers live busy, hectic lives, so we are building up this space together a bit at the time. It is a big-work-in-progress project, where eventually you’ll find our profiles, contacts, projects descriptions, and updates about new researches, collaborations and events. Stay tuned 😉
We wish this space can be a useful tool, to discover more about arts & marine science collaborations, to find and contact artists and scientists working in the field, and even just to widen up perspectives on how passion and creativity can bring together different people, professions and corners of the world.
Thank you for visiting us & happy readings!!
Altea Narici, Marmart Administrator