Communicating science and technology with art and design

Being able to communicate critical findings and activities to researchers, policymakers, industry, and the public, is of growing importance to science and engineering. Doing it in a clear and well-presented format promotes better comprehension and trust in the information source and broadens the impact and influence of ideas in society.

This activity aims to promote and present these findings through a strategy developed in two concurrent strains, focused on communication design and art.

The communication design strain looks at how science can be communicated more effectively to its target audiences and how design can help enhance the dissemination and transfer of knowledge. It studies how design can add value to the scientific process by optimising communication between research teams and maximising the epistemic potential of visual tools. It tries to capture design knowledge into instruments that place it at the disposal of researchers and scientists and explores the many ties between art, communication design, engineering, and science. Its main outputs are directly applied to the 2SMART project as a whole, namely in the form of design artefacts that collect and present the gist of the project’s outcomes and its communication strategy.

The art strain brings artists to science and engineering laboratories, developing residences where they work with researchers and adopt the tools and technologies found there as their media or subject matter. It looks into how artistic research can open new perspectives on the activities developed in the laboratories and on the outputs of their work, exploring the many roles that artists and art can play in these contexts. As a result, three artistic residencies were organized and produced with the artists André Rangel, Catarina Braga, and Carolina Grilo Santos, showcasing the results and these artistic perspectives to the public in their respective exhibitions. Towards the end of the project, a final group exhibition displayed the process and results from all the residencies.

Team Leader

Team