Nalini Nadkarni



Chapter SeventeenBiome: A Collaboration of Dance and Rainforest ScienceNalini M. Nadkarni andJodi M. LomaskIntroductionForests, especially tropical rainforests, can be viewed as complex tapestries, with many species and interactions interwoven into a matrix of high structural complexity and fragility. In a congruent way, people who try to understand rainforests and conserve them benefit from interweaving threads of different disciplines. In this paper, we describe our explorations of rainforest ecosystems through the disciplines of science and dance. We present the questions we posed as we developed our partnership, our history in weaving together science separately and together, and outcomes that emerged from this project. Our questions were: what are the intellectual join points of science and art? How can we create synergistic relationships between art and science, rather than making one discipline the servant of the other? How might arts-science interactions benefit conservation?Our paper is presented as a dialogue between the two of us as we discuss our collaboration together, each coming from our respective perspectives from science and art: on the one hand the ecological scientist, and on the other the dancer. We have deliberately framed the paper as a conversation between us two, as a reflection of the way we have worked together.BackgroundNalini Nadkarni:I have been drawn to trees since my childhood, when I climbed sugar maples in my parents’ backyard. I pursued my graduate studies in ecology, and chose to carry out research in the canopy, the upper part of forest ecosystems. When I began my dissertation work, the organisms that live in the treetops were very poorly known. I helped develop ways to get safely and non-destructively into the treetops, using mountain-climbing equipment, hot air balloons, construction cranes, and walkways. This opened up what was called ‘the last biotic frontier’, and led to my aim to document the diversity of species and the complex interactions of pollinators, fruit dispersers, and an array of mutualistic interactions high above the forest floor. I discovered how many of these canopy interactions interwove with organisms on the forest floor. This led me to understand that the forest ecosystem behaves like a tapestry: an entity that is complex, connected, strong, beautiful, useful, but also vulnerable to damage.Much of my work has been conducted in the rainforests of Central America. In the past 15 years, along with other tropical rainforest biologists, I have become increasingly aware of the threats that human activities pose to the sustainability of rainforests, including: forest fragmentation, mining, conversion to agricultural uses, and climate change (Bawa et al., 2004). This awareness has motivated me to help mitigate some of these human disturbances. To do so, I began scientific outreach and education programs, working with National Geographic to create documentaries, writing articles for children’s magazines, and giving presentations to adult groups such as garden clubs. In 1994, I created a non-profit organisation for researchers and educators, which I named the International Canopy Network. However, I soon realised that these messages were only going out to those who were already aware of the importance of trees and forests.I felt an urgency to take another approach to science communication that would allow me to engage with people who were not already aware of the importance of the rainforest tapestry (Nadkarni, 2002; 2004). I recognized that some of these people — such as artists — might value trees because of their aesthetics, form, and beauty, rather than the technical details of the scientific aspects of the arboreal world. I also thought that the images that artists create and the emotions their work evokes might provide powerful inspiration for segments of the population to understand and appreciate rainforests. In 2006, I began working with musicians, installations artists, and rap singers, bringing them to the forest canopy and inviting them to express their perceptions of the forest and the values they see in this habitat. During this time, I received a call from Jodi Lomask, a modern dancer, enquiring about a collaboration to create a dance about rainforests. Jodi Lomask:I direct a dance and sculpture company called Capacitor. We often work with scientists to create shows about the natural world. We have generated creative work about the bottom of the ocean to the top of the canopy, through the deep earth and into outer space. In 2000, I created a process called the Capacitor Lab, which is essentially a think tank that we developed to support our performance projects. Once we come up with our initial set of questions, we plan engagement events between artists and scientists. Everybody presents his/her work, interests, and perspectives on the questions that I bring to the process. For this project about rainforests, we were excited to use a remote lab — the rainforest itself. It was the first time we were actually able to go to the environment we were hoping to portray through the performance. I had been to Panama to research the very intricate relationships that exist in the forests between birds and plants. I called Nalini because I thought she could guide us through her work about symbiosis and the complex relationships in the forests. I wanted to explore how so many living things share resources in the forest, and how symbiotic relationships in nature assist this process of survival. I was interested in applying them to life for humans in the city. I also wished to use the concept of symbiotic and commensal relationships in the forest to better understand my own human relationships. This, I think, is the contribution of artists — to take things that exist in nature and to apply them poetically to their personal experience. When artists are successful at this, they are able to touch audiences on an emotional level, which can have a great effect.Weaving Dance and ScienceJodi Lomask:Nalini ushered members of my dance troupe and me into the canopy of 250-foot tall Douglas-fir trees in a temperate rainforest of Washington State USA and 150-foot tall strangler figs in the tropical forest of Costa Rica. She provided scientifically sound information on the complex interactions of forests. We immersed ourselves completely to see what would emerge without preconceptions of what we would find and without any specific agenda. We wanted to be there and feel and experience it first-hand and then see what emerged creatively. In the Costa Rican cloud forests, we climbed on the outside and the inside of the trees we encountered. We attended lectures by Nalini and her forest ecology research colleagues. We taught movement classes to members of the local community and generated choreography. What developed were the preliminary seeds of a full-length dance called biome (Hopkin, 2007). This was the first time we were able to explore our subject matter physically, which helped us to realise that it was our job to embody nature as clearly as possible, as a way to remind audiences about their own deep connections to it.Nalini Nadkarni:As I watched biome develop, I saw each new segment of the dance translate from the real forest interactions into abstract forms that created a pastiche of rainforest diversity, complexity, and fragility. I came to understand as a scientist that the dancers weren’t acting out different parts of the forest for the viewer to say, ‘I recognise that those are the monkeys or those are the vines’. Rather, I saw that they could convey a sense of the forest through their movements, props, costumes, music, and background video. It was neither completely literal nor entirely abstract, which I found very exciting and powerful (Figure 1 — this chapter; Figure E — colour section).Figure 1. The opening of biome at Fort Mason Center’s Cowell Theater in San Francisco. Pictured Lizelle Gouws, Jocelynn Rudig, Ross Hollenkamp, and Justin Flores. Photo by Bruce Wismer.In our performances in San Francisco and in Seattle, I opened with a 10-minute talk about the biology and ecology of the rainforest. This was followed by the dance that Jodi had choreographed and she and her dancers performed. After the performance, we encouraged audience participation in conservation activities. We invited eight local conservation groups to set up tables in the lobby so that the audience could learn about and potentially also volunteer for conservation projects. Thus, our audience was educated about rainforests through the mini-lecture of the biologist; emotionally moved and inspired by the dance; and then could be actively engaged through the conservation tables. What was also exciting was that biome provided an arts-oriented audience access to biology and conservation, as well as delivering an aesthetic experience. Three months after the performance, we provided workshops for college students at The Evergreen State College (modern dance majors) that contained some of biome’s content (Figure E — colour section).The role of aesthetics in this collaborationJodi Lomask:In creating performance art, I feel that it is my job as an artist to define what will be moving or powerful on stage. I find that sometimes, what I find is beautiful can expand the definition of what is considered beautiful in mass culture. For me, what is most honest, is most beautiful. I strive to provide my performers with an authentic experience, to really feel something, which the audience can witness. In the forest, I wanted my performers to feel something — not what they ‘should’ feel or were expecting to feel, but to have a deep experience of the environment and therefore become something honest and beautiful to behold. Nalini Nadkarni:As scientists, we are often trained not to let the concept or aesthetics of beauty enter into our work. Instead, we think about counting the number of species, or the magnitude of biomass or the rate of pollinator visits. Yet every scientist I have worked with holds a sense of beauty and a sense of wonder, even if they do not express that with the metrics they use to document the world. One wonderful thing about working with an artist like Jodi was that she gave me permission to perceive and communicate my own aesthetic responses to the forests in which I have been doing scientific work for decades. DiscussionHow might the combination of art/science stimulate conservation? Many studies have shown that simply presenting scientific information does not directly translate into people taking action on that topic (Berenguer, 2007; Dietrich, 2013). For example, scientists have known about and communicated facts and figures about climate change for nearly half a century, yet little action has been undertaken about it by the public or policy makers (Smith & Lieserowitz, 2014; Schultz, 2000) But when Jodi wove in aesthetic tools (like beautiful movements, compelling music, colorful costumes, and captivating video) with those scientific messages I presented, the combination of both moved the audience to take action. We presented local conservation opportunities to the audience as they entered the lobby of the theater after the performance, and found that many of them eagerly signed up to take part in tree-planting, bird-censusing, and other conservation events. They were exposed to the need for conservation, and also moved by the emotional experience of the dance. Science alone might have been too ‘boring’ or inaccessible, or technical. We needed to reach audiences emotionally, spiritually, and aesthetically on as many levels as possible to galvanize them for action. Jodi Lomask:The relationship between myself and Nalini was a literal dance between ourselves as equal collaborators. Nalini held a mentality that is common among scientists; somewhat domineering and dictating — that the scientist holds the power of knowledge and ideas, whereas the artist holds the capacity to illustrate and communicate. What we realized is that both the artist and the scientist are intellectual partners — that the artists are not merely scribes, but generators of new concepts and insights. It was important to me that we did not create a situation in which the scientists were dictating or directing the process, with the artists merely recording or interpreting. That would have minimized our job as documentarians and would have resulted in uninteresting artwork. We wished to do something deeper with the material the scientists were offering.Artists thrive on experiential and intellectual material and freedom — it is best if they have the room to respond, personalize, and generate their own perspectives on material. This realization made our collaboration so rich and engaging for each of us, and for the participants and audiences who viewed the performances we created.As scientists and artists, we found that there was much to interweave and much to share for a greater understanding of the tapestry of the rainforest world. We also enjoyed getting to know each other as both partners in a creative enterprise and as friends. We were energized by the personal friendship that grew out of our professional collaboration. ReferencesBawa, K.S., Kress, W.J., Nadkarni, N.M., Lele, S., Raven, P., Janzen, D.H., Lugo, A.E., Ashton, P.S., and Lovejoy, T.E. 2004. “Tropical ecosystems into the 21st century.” Science 306: 227-228.Berenguer, J.?2007.?“The effect of empathy in proenvironmental attitudes and behavior.”?Environmental Behavior 39: 269-283.Dietrich, H. 2013. “The role of emotion in environmental decision making”. Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research: Department of Psychology. 55. University of Nebraska, Lincoln.Hopkin, M. 2007. “Dance of the forest.” Nature 450: 8.Nadkarni, N.M. 2002. “When preaching to the choir isn’t preaching to the choir: churches, trees, and environmental perspectives.” Environmental Practitioner 4: 188-190.Nadkarni, N.M. 2004. “Not preaching to the choir: communicating the importance of forest conservation to nontraditional audiences.” Conservation Biology 18: 602-606. Schultz, P.W.?2000.?“Empathizing with nature: the effects of perspective taking on concern for environmental education.”?Journal of Social Issues 56: 91-406.Smith, N. and Lieserowitz, A. 2014. “The role of emotion in global warming policy support and opposition.” Risk Analysis 34: 937-948. ................
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