In this exhibition, scientists and artists come together to increase awareness about the problems the Ocean faces, to achieve a mobilisation of citizens for the protection and restoration of the Ocean.
Artists and Scientists
Arts and sciences are often seen as opposite of each other. Even the brains are different, they say! Left or right, that is the question. However, the artist and the scientist are not so different of each other. Maybe the way they see the world is.
We may ask, what is an artist? As a definition, an artist is a person who creates art, such as painting, sculpture, music, or writing, using conscious skill and creative imagination.
To create art, passion and originality are vital part of an artist, as well as creativity and observation. To be successful, the artist needs to be persistent, disciplined and fearless. To resolve frustration, patience is an essential instrument for an artist. The artist needs to work alone for inspiration but also needs to work with others to be able to be inspired, to learn new techniques, and to compare and challenge their own work.
And what is a scientist? The Oxford dictionary says that a scientist is a person who is studying or has expert knowledge of one or more of the natural or physical sciences.
The scientist tends to be predominantly inquisitive and curious about the world, they want to know why things happen and how things work. He also needs to be patient and persistent as he needs to repeat experiments multiple times to verify results. The scientist must be creative and envision things that cannot be seen. He needs to work as part of a team, share information with the public or collaborate with colleagues around the world. Apart all said, the scientist also tends to be artistic, meaning that he is creative and original.
As we can see, the artist and the scientist are not so different and have common characteristics, like imagination, originality, discipline, patience, persistence. Finally, the artist and the scientist need to work alone but they also need others to learn and challenge. As they say, “To work only alone makes the world to small, and egos to big”.
The world needs the scientist but also needs the artist, both are essential in our lives. However, very seldom they work together or cooperate. The present exhibition joined scientists and artists to work together to increase awareness about the problems the ocean faces, like habitat and biodiversity loss, pollution, excessive human exploitation, as well as climate change impacts, to achieve mobilisation of citizens for the protection and restoration of our Global Ocean.
The global ocean
The role of the Ocean in the lives of human beings is of the utmost importance, even for those who live far from the coast, as both the products extracted from the ocean and the services provided bring us benefits. However, the problems faced nowadays by the Ocean are putting in danger the sustainability of our planet.
Although we learned in school that there are five oceans, the reality is that there is only one continuous ocean, which covers more than 71% of the Earth’s surface. The Global Ocean is divided into five ocean basins, delimited by Continents and other oceanographic features, forming the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, and the Southern Ocean. This Global Ocean concept gives us a more realistic view of our planet, and how it is affected by our behaviour, as what happens in one, affects all the others.
The Ocean has long been a source of interest and inspiration to all, constituting a true fascination to people, in particular to artists (writing, painting, etc.). The UN has recently launched the Decade of the Ocean for Sustainable Development (2021 to 2030), and the arts are undoubtedly an important way to reach the public with essential information for the protection of the ocean, as well as to change impacting Human behaviours.
Sustainable Development
One of the first unifying definitions of Sustainable Development was given in the report by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, “Our common World”, in 1987: “… development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Thus, the Commission has managed to comprehensively unite the environment in which we live, with the economic development, and the social progress that we want to achieve, drawing attention to the need for equity between generations, all essential elements for a sustainable development in the world. It is only at the junction of these three inseparable pillars (economic development, environmental protection, and social progress) that sustainable development is achieved.
OceanArt: Science to Art
ARTISTS:
Ana Pego
Carlos Ferreira
Dina Salvador
Dana Georgescu
Fiona Issler
Florbela Soares
João Jesus
Júlio Antão
Nicolau Westwood
Rafaela Silva
Sara Pontes
Sarita Camacho
Teresa Cerveira Borges
SCIENTISTS:
Centre of Marine Sciences of Algarve (CCMAR)
Research Groups:
– FBC (Fisheries, Biodiversity & Conservation)
– ECOREACH (Ecology & restoration of riverine, estuarine & coastal habitats)
CURATORSHIP:
Teresa Cerveira Borges