Blended Languages Although artists and scientists often work together for a visual rendering of scientific concepts and information, Samsel seeks to build a bridge between intellectual, scientific and emotional, embodied understanding as artists and storytellers have done throughout history. Let Them Not Say Francesca Samsel, visuals and Jane Hirshfield, poet Between Melt & Memory Between Melt and Memory is a collaborative work between Francesca Samsel and Benjamin Keisling, an artistic perspective on research into the history of Greenland’s ice sheet. Video Link Tracing the Greenland Ice Sheet’s ice divide from the melting margins to its two‑mile‑thick summit 700 kilometers inland, Between Melt and Memory invites viewers to the in-between where geologic memory meets scientific foresight. The immersive, multi-sensory exhibition featuring glass and clay sculpture and projected visuals invites viewers to encounter the complexities of climate change through tactile forms, connection to the research sites and images from below the ice sheet. Based in scientific observations, here data are transformed via an artistic voice providing the opportunity for viewers to explore through science and metaphor while reflecting the changes within this fragile landscape. Samsel, Keisling Bedrock Bedrock is an exhibit, bridging a scientific exploration of earth’s past with an immersive multimedia content providing an entry point into the curiosities and complexities of our changing planet. Samsel, Keisling Interviewing Greenland’s Ice Sheet Interviews presents five specific events in the history of the Greenland’s ice sheet. “Interviews” is a multimodal art installation that seeks to provide viewers with an embodied understanding of glacial change. Although artists and scientists often work together for a visual rendering of scientific concepts and information, rarely do the two come together in a such a close-knit, equal collaboration, in which the germination of the idea and the weaving together of art and science result in an oeuvre in which the scientist explains the science to the artist and the artist gives the artistic view of the science itself, allowing the public to enter the art in order to see the science. The data remains the same, with two different media providing different interpretive perspectives. Samsel, Keisling Sculpting Data On Sculpting Data….. The Sculpting Vis Collaborative, lead by Daniel Keefe and Francesca Samsel, is comprised of an artist, computer scientists and environmental research groups. We draw color palettes, shapes, form and texture from nature, use them to encode complex large-scale climate data and models, thus rendering the complexities within the data in a language representing the world in which we call home. Rather than an abstract image, our work closes the gap between the synthetically colored representations of data and the environments being represented by that data. More on our work can be found at Sculpting-Vis.org. Climate Prisms: The Arctic An interactive museum that explores and documents Arctic field researchers documenting conditions in teh Arctic seeking information to assist in creating more accurate climate models. It bridges scientific data from researchers with art to engage the public, featuring video clips and data visualizations of the changing Arctic environment. Francesca Samsel, artist, Cathy Wilson, Geomorphologist, Linda Deck, Museum Director
