LASER Talks in BERGEN: Art, Science, and the Threat of Extinction: Who lives and who dies on tropical mountains?

Digital artist Donna Davis and ecologist Darren Crayn come together to the Tropical Mountain Plant Science Project, that saw Darren's team, with artist-in-resident Donna, working together in extreme tropical Australian mountain ranges to document, and potentially save, endangered plant species found nowhere else on earth.

Chaired/Moderated by: Alinta Krauth

EVENT INFO

• When: 10th April at 7pm Brisbane, 11am Oslo

• Where: Online via Zoom

• Access Info: Join Zoom Room: https://uib.zoom.us/j/69190772783?pwd=7skYjvAamwkiZkBcG2nbPKN9Qg4aGo.1 Meeting ID: 691 9077 2783, Password: D125bU3y
• Website: https://www4.uib.no/forskning/forskningssentre/senter-for-digitale-fortellinger/aktuelt/leonardo-laser-talks-bergen

Digital artist Donna Davis and ecologist Darren Crayn come together to discuss how artists and scientists can work together in the field. Their research and practices raise important questions around species extinction, the role of artists in the future of endangered species, and who decides which species get scientific focus and which are forgotten to time. They will focus predominantly on their collaborative project the Tropical Mountain Plant Science Project, that saw Darren's team, with artist-in-resident Donna, working together in extreme tropical Australian mountain ranges to document, and potentially save, endangered plant species found nowhere else on earth. Join us to explore the same concepts through two parallel lenses: the scientist's aims and the artist's eye. 

Speakers Bios

Donna Davis is a multi-disciplinary artist who examines human and non-human relationships with respect to ecological health. Exploring the intersections between art and science, she is often embedded within ecological research projects. Her work tells stories that examine the science through a creative lens; exploring imagined futures and constructing new ways of ‘seeing’ complex natural systems and the role of humans within them. To do so she has undertaken a number of residencies with scientific institutions such as the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Science and the Australian Tropical Herbarium to name a few.

Dr. Darren Crayn is a professor at James Cook University and the director of the Australian Tropical Herbariam. Along with his team, his research is in the field of plant systematics and evolution and deals broadly with questions such as how many plant species are there in tropical Australia, how are they related, and how have they evolved? They use a range of traditional and cutting edge techniques, ranging from field surveys and herbarium taxonomy to scanning electron microscopy, DNA-barcoding and genomics. Through this they discover name and classify new plant species, determine the evolutionary relationships among these species, and map their distribution. They also develop DNA based tools for species identification, and oncover deep-time origins and ancient migration parhways of tropical plant groups.

SPONSORS:

LASER Bergen largely operates under the pressing themes of 'Posthuman Communication', 'Narratives of Interspecies Care', 'Animals and AI', 'Animal-Computer Interactions' and 'Climate Storytelling' - each contributing to an overall theme of SciArt Interventions for Ecological Survival. We provide panel talks and artistic engagements that discuss emergent epistemologies and technologies for communication, narratives, meaning-building, and the potential roles played by artists and storytellers in multispecies futures.

The Center for Digital Narrative (CDN) is a Norwegian Centre of Excellence at the University of Bergen, funded by the Research Council of Norway for 2023–2033 to establish a new, interdisciplinary field focused on digital storytelling. Working across arts, humanities, media studies, game studies, and informatics, CDN explores how narratives shaped by computation such as electronic literature, interactive games, social-media conspiracies, and AI-generated stories are transforming culture. The center operates through six research nodes and organizes rich academic activities including exhibitions and podcasts. In particular, the LASERs are hosted by the CDN's Artistic Integrated Research node: The Artistic Integrated Research node serves as a vital experimental hub where digital technologies are leveraged to create, interpret, and contextualize digital narratives. AIR champions groundbreaking artistic research that materializes in digital art, creative writing, interactive installations, and site-specific works, often showcased in galleries, libraries, and museums to engage diverse cultural audiences.