Research Mission
Who & What:
Curated from a range of artists working in collaboration with scientists, science-based humanities scholars, and community members, Unseen California invites us all to learn about ways in which the arts play an urgent role in addressing issues of access, equality, social, and environmental justice.
The artists are invited to collaborate with the natural world, scholars, and local community members to conduct their personal field studies and create new art works that engages with the topics and themes that emerge from their research relating to the California landscape(s.) Each artist researcher prioritizes on-site exploration and engagement with the unique ecology and scientific research at their chosen site(s).
2021-2023 Inaugural Research Cohort:
Karolina Karlic, Dionne Lee. Mercedes Dorame, Tarrah Krajnak, Aspen Mays. Five women artists took part as the inaugural group of Artist Researchers working across the California landscape on public land that has largely been used for scientific research, the UC Natural Reserves. Together on this journey they create their own new artworks set out to reframe California’s cultural histories and ecological landscapes beyond canonical perspectives. The (42) UC Natural Reserve System (UCNRS) sites are locations stewarded by the University of California. The impact of the Artists -in- Residence engaging with the UCNRS generates novel opportunities for art-making and pedagogy as well as knowledge exchange for seeing new ways to engage the natural world as it relates to environmental and social justice.
SFMoMA Archives visit with photography curator Dr. Shana Lopes and artist researchers Dionne Lee and Mercedes Dorame. 2022
Each Artist Researcher’s approach is unique and open-ended, thus creating a place for personal projects that freely diverge while challenging overarching concepts, such as “nature” and “landscape,” and address urgent discourse around California land. This long-term research initiative gives these cultural producers opportunities to carve out novel conceptual and interdisciplinary approaches to propose new understandings of the pressing issues that face California’s terrain, its ecological economies, and its bio-cultural diversities.
Artist Researchers: Aspen Mays and Mercedes Dorame viewing a bald eagle nest.
Four major research themes:
1) the Decolonization of Western Arts Canons,
2) the Interpretation of Land as Nature, Wilderness, Reserve,
3) the notion of Sensing Place & Environment,
4) Imaging and SensingTechnologies relating to Earth Ecologies.
To address our research questions:
— How do we communicate Arts + Science-inspired stories to diverse 21st-Century audiences?
— How can Interdisciplinary Arts, Ecology, and Humanities teams address complex California problems?
— In what ways can Artists engage with the natural world in contemporary intriguing ways?
— What is the benefit of producing bodies of works which synthesize the Arts, Ecology, and the Humanities; and what can this synthesis accomplish ?
UC Natural Reserve Sites:
