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

在自然保护区的背景下，特定地点的艺术品在加强不同类型的游客体验期间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，地点特定的艺术作品在加强不同类型的游客体验期间的多物种联系方面可以发挥什么作用？艺术品可以通过哪些方式体现和传播与当前环境/科学研究和保护实践有关的知识？学术研究强调与自然的联系对于支持环境的行为的重要性，然而，最近在地学、生态批评和科学技术研究方面的进展动摇了关于自然、科学和人类经验之间交叉关系的简单化概念。自然保护区是思考这些问题的一个有用的试验场。它不仅可以被配置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。这个项目将探索如何在艺术实践中体现这些联系的复杂性，以及互动雕塑是否可以通过感官体验产生新形式的默契和对复杂生态的理解。位于洛蒙德湖保护区的近距离接触将探索使用雕塑来产生游客参与的新模式，人与地方之间的突出联系，保留的自然和更广泛的生态系统，以及在场和缺席的模式。洛蒙德湖保护区是唯一适合这项研究的保护区：该保护区于2012年被皇家鸟类保护委员会和合作伙伴收购，目前仍在建立保护和参与实践。保护区多样化的生态环境为创造性探索提供了丰富而复杂的场所，包括以原住民Alder为主的潮湿林地；营养丰富的泥炭地沼泽；草原和野花草甸；开阔的湖水和Endrik Water的球场和泛滥平原。这些生物多样性的栖息地为游客提供了独特的体验，也给RSPB带来了复杂的保护挑战，他们正在管理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.