Exploring Art as a Communication Interface for Watershed System Resiliency

Abstract

Art has shown promise as a method of communicating the science and attendant need for watershed restoration work to both practitioners and the public. My thesis is exploratory; it explored whether art can convey concepts of connectivity, capacity, and resiliency as they relate to restoration in small socio-ecological watershed systems in southern Bruce County, Ontario, Canada and to larger hydrological systems in general. Holling’s classic resilience loop was combined with qualitative observations from a beaver wetland complex using Arts Based Research and an interpretative phenomenology methodological framework to prototype an ecological art exhibit. This exhibit was presented ten times to varied and multidisciplinary audiences and informal anonymous feedback was gathered. This ecological art exhibit showed potential to broaden uptake for the methodologies and motivators for restoring connectivity and capacity to increase watershed system resiliency. Hence, the use of art as alternative medium to central textual messaging may have potential to help circumvent communication barriers encountered in ecological restoration.