Close Encounters: art, presence and environmental engagement at Loch Lomond

在自然保护区的背景下，特定地点的艺术作品在加强不同类型游客体验中的多物种联系方面可以发挥什么作用？研究问题：在自然保护区的背景下，特定地点的艺术作品在加强不同类型游客体验中的多物种联系方面可以发挥什么作用？艺术作品以什么方式体现和传达与当前环境/科学研究和保护实践有关的知识？学术研究强调了亲环境行为与自然联系的重要性，然而，最近在地理人文、生态批评和科学技术研究方面的进展，已经动摇了对自然、科学和人类经验之间交叉关系的简单概念。自然保护区是思考这些问题的一个有用的试验场。它不仅可以作为一个保护和娱乐的地方，而且还可以在个人、生态系统和全球范围内建立有意义的联系。这个项目将探索这些联系的复杂性如何体现在艺术实践中，以及互动雕塑是否可以通过感官体验产生新的隐性知识形式和对复杂生态的理解。该展览位于洛蒙德湖自然保护区，将探索利用雕塑来产生新的游客参与模式，突出人与地点、自然保护区和更广泛的生态系统之间的联系，以及存在与缺失的模式。洛蒙德湖非常适合这项研究：2012年，该保护区被皇家鸟类保护协会及其合作伙伴购买，目前仍在建立保护和参与实践。保护区多样的生态环境为创造性探索提供了丰富而复杂的场所，包括以原生桤木为主的潮湿林地；矿化泥炭地；草地和野花草地，开阔的湖泊，以及德里克水的河道和洪泛平原。这些生物多样性的栖息地为游客提供了独特的体验，也为RSPB提供了复杂的保护挑战，他们管理着四个重叠的国家和欧洲保护指定。

What role can site-specific artwork, in the context of a nature reserve, play in strengthening multispecies connection during diverse kinds of visitor experience?Research Questions: What role can site-specific artwork, in the context of a nature reserve, play in strengthening multispecies connection during diverse kinds of visitor experience? In what ways can artwork embody and communicate knowledge relating to current environmental/scientific research and conservation practices? Academic research stresses the importance of connectedness to nature for pro-environmental behaviours, yet recent advances in the geohumanities, ecocriticism, and science and technology studies have unsettled simplistic conceptions of the intersecting relationship between nature, scienceand human experience. The nature reserve is a useful test-site for thinking about these issues. It can be configured not only as a place for protection and recreation, but also where meaningful connections are made, at personal, ecosystemic and global scales. This project will explore how the complexities of these connecting relationships can be embodied in artistic practice and ifinteractive sculpture can generate new forms of tacit knowledge and understanding of complex ecologies through sensory experience.Sited in the Loch Lomond reserve, Close Encounters will explore the use of sculptureto generate new modes of visitor engagement, foregrounding connection between person and place,reserved-nature and wider ecosystems, andpatterns of presence and absence. Loch Lomond is uniquely suited to this research: bought by the RSPB and partners in 2012, the reserve is still establishing both conservation andengagement practices. The diverse ecologies ofthe reserve makea rich and complex sitefor creative enquiry, including wet woodland dominated by native Alder; minerotrophic peatland fen; grassland and wildflower meadow, open lochand the course and floodplain of Endrik Water. These biodiverse habitats provide a unique experience for visitors and a complex conservation challenge for the RSPB, who are managing four overlapping national and European conservation designations.