Why Climate Scientists Should Join PCN: A Call for Epistemic Partnership between art and science

Photography: Mark Kasumovic (working with Dr. James Bendle in Crete, Greece)

In the contemporary landscape of climate research, the transition from data production to public understanding remains one of our most persistent challenges. While scientific output has increased exponentially, much of this knowledge remains confined within specialist frameworks—an "epistemic culture of uncertainty" that limits the societal impact of critical research.

The Picturing Climate Network (PCN) was established to address this gap, not merely as a platform for science communication, but as an infrastructure for transdisciplinary collaboration. We invite climate scientists to join a network that reimagines the role of artistic practice as a foundational partner in the production of climate knowledge.

Beyond Illustration: Art as an Epistemic Partner to Science

Traditional models of art-science engagement—such as the artist-in-residence (AiR) model—frequently position the artist as a secondary participant tasked with "translating" already completed science.

PCN advocates for early-stage integration. By embedding artists within the research design and grant-writing phases, scientists gain access to collaborators who can:

• Challenge methodological assumptions through alternative perspectives.

• Co-produce meaning rather than simply illustrating data.

• Navigate "wicked problems" that require pluralistic, context-specific approaches.

  
  

Bridging the Representational Gap in Art and Science

As scientific instruments become more complex, they often produce data that is "black-boxed" and cognitively distant from the public. Your research identifies this as a representational gap where abstraction leads to disengagement.

Joining the network connects you with visual practitioners capable of re-symbolising these invisible processes. Through metaphors, sensory affect, and narrative, artistic practice can translate technical abstraction into an embodied experience, fostering the emotional resonance necessary for sustained public agency and collective action.

Demonstrable Impact and Structural Support

In an institutional environment where "impact" is increasingly prioritised (e.g., the UK’s Research Excellence Framework or Horizon Europe), PCN provides a structured pathway for professionalised engagement.

The network is cultivating (with your help):

• A Professionalised Infrastructure: A digital platform designed to facilitate matchmaking between researchers and artists based on shared regional or conceptual field sites.

• Robust Evaluation Frameworks: Access to mixed-method approaches—including qualitative interviews and social impact assessments—to provide tangible evidence of research impact to stakeholders and funding bodies.

• Interdisciplinary Fluency: A community of practice that cultivates shared vocabularies, helping to overcome the "Two Cultures" divide that often hinders cross-disciplinary work.

  
  

Join the Network

The climate crisis demands that we move beyond the laboratory and into a "worldwide lab" where knowledge is co-produced with cultural and community partners. We invite you to contribute your expertise to a network dedicated to reimagining how climate science is seen, felt, and understood.

Register your research profile at picturingclimate.org to begin the collaboration.

Further Reading & References

• Daston, L., and Galison, P. (2007): Objectivity. New York: Zone Books. (Explores the history of scientific visual conventions).

• Hulme, M. (2009): Why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Latour, B. (2004): Atmosphère, atmosphère. In O. Eliasson: The Weather Project. (On the laboratory being turned "inside out" by the climate crisis).

• Snow, C. P. (1959): The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge University Press.

• Sommer, L. K., et al. (2019): "Pollution Pods": The merging of art and psychology to engage the public in climate change. Global Environmental Change, 59.