Addressing Sustainability with Arts-Based Science Communication
For decades, science has been aware of – and warned about – the consequences of humanity’s excessive resource extraction. Yet, today we are facing a range of global problems caused by overconsumption and exploitation of the planet’s resources. Why has humanity been so reluctant to respond to the many signs and warnings substantiated by science about our irresponsible and unsustainable consumption? What are the root causes of our disconnect from the natural world, and how can we overcome them?

In the research program Addressing Sustainability using Arts-Based Science Communication, we will explore how cultural and knowledge institutions can create science communication that contributes to a more sustainable future. By drawing on knowledge from the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts, the program’s partners will experiment with a variety of engaging and aesthetic formats in different contexts. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, researchers, museum professionals, and artists will create communication activities that seek to shed light on whether and how knowledge institutions can help provide citizens with more information and motivate tangible actions towards a more sustainable future.

Medical Museion creates space for rest
At Medical Museion we will create the installation Fallowlands. The projects will focus on the theme of rest, thoroughness, presencing and future thinking. We take a starting point in the fact that both the human body and the earth we live on and with have an undeniable need for rest. We will explore the human relationship with soil and the microbial life living here’s connection to human and planetary health. Inspired by the amulet collection at Medical Museion, participants will be invited to create objects and wishes for protection of our internal and external ecologies and shared futures.

During the summer 2025, we will create an outdoor experience in collaboration with the artist duo Baum & Leahy and researcher Tiff Mak, postdoc at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at DTU.

The project is led by the research group Science Communication at the Department of Science Education and has the following partners: Medical Museion, Copenhagen ZOO, and Danish Museum of Science and Technology
Read more about the project here: SUSTAIN-ART-SCI – Københavns Universitet

Associate Professor at Medical Museion Louise Whiteley,
lowh@sund.ku.dk, +45 2112 6712

Associate Professor Marianne Achiam,
achiam@ind.ku.dk, +45 3532 0357