Science + art: 'We have a lot we can learn from each other'
Rebecca Duclos: “We wanted our faculty to have the opportunity to actually spend time in the labs.”
Concordia’s fine arts faculty members are on tour this spring, visiting engineers, scientists and social scientists, and looking to put down roots in a lab for the summer.
It’s all part of the Embedded Faculty Initiative (EFI), a program started by the Faculty of Fine Arts last fall.
The goal is to establish an informal framework for Concordia faculty interested in strengthening bonds between the arts and sciences. The EFI provides the initial opportunity to be embedded in a lab, while the participating faculty and host determine long-term outcomes.
Spring tours are the starting point of this match-making process. The next ones are April 10 and 18. Fine arts faculty can RSVP for a tour spot by emailing the initiative’s coordinator, Peter Flemming.
Connections are already in the works after the first spring lab tour which took place March 31.
‘How do we share our discoveries with other people?’
Rebecca Duclos, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts:
The EFI is something we’ve been thinking about for over a year now. We wanted to find a way for full- and part-time faculty members in all fine arts departments to have the opportunity to not only find out what other laboratories are doing, but to actually spend time in them.
Some of the crossovers exist in the arena of material processes, material sciences and new materials. Another area where we can find interesting links is with sustainability and resilient processes. Thirdly, I think a really wonderful opportunity is to look at interpretive methods. How is it that we share our discoveries and research with other people?
‘A chance to meet and build rapport’
Peter Flemming, part-time instructor of studio arts and coordinator of the EFI:
I’ve been going on lab tours for almost a year, everywhere from neurobiology to genomics to materials and composites. Pretty much everywhere I’ve been, I’ve seen potential for artistic projects.
It’s hard to say what an embedment could be because of the diversity of the different labs and centres. A place like Rolf Wuthrich’s lab is very concrete. It specifically appeals to someone who is looking for materials, like a sculptor, but somewhere else could require an entirely different approach that is more process-driven or conceptual.
The potential of this is not even based on a particular project. It’s just something where people can meet and exchange vocabularies and build some kind of chemistry or rapport. So often we are thrown into interdisciplinary situations where we don’t know each other beforehand.
‘Growing knowledge is so important’
Dan Juras, technical officer in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering:
I know we have a lot we can learn from each other. It’s important to have good communication between our different departments and faculties to explore new avenues of research and creativity. That way we can engage in or discover new ideas to improve our own research and get a different perspective.
Growing knowledge is so important. It’s an invitation to get together, talk and explore ideas.
‘I am so happy to have this opportunity’
Florence Figols, part-time instructor of theatre and contemporary dance:
It was a very nice coincidence that we happened to go to the Vehicular Ergonomics Lab where they had that vibrating platform. I always wanted to have a stage that was moving and unstable. It then becomes about how the body of the dancer will compose with that.
How do we organize ourselves when the ground is not stable? It’s a metaphor, and that’s the idea. I am so happy to have this opportunity to go into the lab and work with the vibratory platform.
Contact Peter Flemming to reserve a spot in one of Concordia’s Embedded Faculty Initiative spring tours or to offer your lab as a potential host.