About the SciArt project
SciArt mission
SciArt was established in January 2016, with the objective of triggering innovation in research and bringing together science, art and society. Hosted by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s in-house science and knowledge service providing independent scientific advice to inform EU policy, the programme enables scientists, artists and policymakers to meet and work together.
We discuss, investigate and explore the wide intersecting plains between art and science, with a shared drive to generate insights that can meaningfully influence our collective life and policymaking.
SciArt process
We broker, curate, and communicate transdisciplinary exchanges among scientists, artists, and policymakers around topics of shared interest. Every two years, these actors meet to explore, dialogue, and sometimes disagree, yet through this process, they discover unexpected affinities in intent, method, and scope despite their differing approaches. Together, they experiment with ways of questioning, investigating, and representing reality.
SciArt outputs
SciArt outpts include a wide range of activities, artefacts, and experiences emerging from collaborations at the intersection of art, science, and policy within the SciArt initiative. They include exhibitions such as NaturArchy, art-science residencies, performances, installations, collaborative projects, and multimedia works, alongside documentation and reflection through catalogues, media archives, and publications that capture the creative and conceptual processes behind them.
More than just final products, these outputs embody a spirit of experimentation, offering a safe haven for speculative exploration, testing ideas, embracing possible failure, and developing new ways in which art and science can jointly engage with and address contemporary societal challenges.
Latest news
As a beautiful and illustrative example of how art and science collaborations can positively impact policymaking, two of the artworks currently on show at the NaturArchy exhibition in Brussels - by JRC SciArt in partnership with iMAL - will be showcased at the EU Green Week 2024 in the Charlemagne building, Brussels.
On 14/06/2024 at 16:30-18:00 at the Fablab iMAL(Brussels), Gala Berger and indigenous artist Metsá Rama will lead a workshop to learn about the worldview of the Shipibo-Conibo people through the practice of Kené painting.
The Invisible Seeds artwork to which the workshop references, developed after two years of collaboration between Gala, the Shipibo-Conibo artists and agricultural policy and research input from Irene Guerrero Fernandez (JRC) will be unveiled this same week at iMAL as part of the NaturArchy exhibition.
On 12/06/2024 at 19:00 at iMAL (Brussels), Margherita Pevere and the Lament team will unveil the final artwork and performance.
FREE Half-Day Nature Arts Workshop: ALL AGES WELCOME, organised by the Synocene – Beyond the Anthropocene in the framework of the NaturArchy exhibition by JRC SciArt in parternship with iMAL.
Be part of this sound art project that will bring local Sonian voices to a museum in Brussels.
Join us for the NaturArchy exhibition Opening events 24/25 May 2024.
The opening on 24 May will start at LaVallée, rue Adolphe Lavallée 39, 1080 Brussels and move to iMAL 30 Quai des Charbonnages, Brussels,for a guided tour of the exhibition by the artists. There will be a second opening in the Parc du Cinquantenaire and a workshop in the Forêt de Soignes on 25 May.
These events are open to the public and free of charge (registration is required for the Synocene workshop).
A wealth of art + science projects are addressing topics of environmental importance. The cutting-edge ideas and experiments from the field hold great potential for transforming policy - but how does the message get across?
Prof Ingeborg Reichle moderates this panel organised by JRC SciArt as part of the Leonardo LASER Network online, on 17/05/2024 on the recently published, "The Art + Science + Policy Nexus", written by artist and researcher Dr Kat Austen.
Artist JD Whitman has been implementing numerous art and science workshops for her project, Plastic Magnitudes- currently being produced in the framework of NaturArchy, with an upcoming exhibition at iMAL - with community members from County Clare and County Galway, Ireland.
On Monday 29/04 Dr Ele Carpenter (Umeå University, Sweden) will give a talk at JRC Ispra, introducing her curatorial research into nuclear art and culture, tracing the movement of uranium across the planet.
NaturArchy artist Kristin Bergaust presented the project Ocean Connections - currently being developed in the framework of NaturArchy together with Guillermo Garcia Sanchez and Evangelos Voukouvalas - at the Politics of Machines (POM) Conference 2024 in Aachen (DE).
Professor Geert Buelens will be at JRC to give a conference on the forgotten history of climate change as part of the Belgian Semester 2024 programme of events, in collaboration with JRC SciArt.