Beyond Plant Blindness: seeing the importance of plants for a sustainable world
- Submitting institution
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The University of Cumbria
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Wilson3
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
- University of Gothenburg, Gothernburg Botanical Gardens
- Brief description of type
- Exhibitions and Artists Book
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
- April
- Year
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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2
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- Beyond Plant Blindness (BPB): Seeing the importance of plants for a sustainable world was a major 3-year multi-disciplinary project based in Gothenburg, Sweden, funded by the Swedish Research Council. BPB included three art interventions (by Wilson and Snæbjörnsdóttir) within Gothenburg Botanical Gardens, in association with which, a public, pedagogical project questioned visitors on ‘Plant Blindness’, and the effectiveness of contemporary art in respect of this and related environmental matters. BPB also included the production of a 14-metre tapestry installed in a public site in Gothenburg city centre, a one-day international public symposium, and a 280-page project-specific book, co-edited by Wilson.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Beyond Plant Blindness (BPB): Seeing the importance of plants for a sustainable world was a 3-year multi-disciplinary project based in Gothenburg, Sweden, funded by the Swedish Research Council. Snæbjörnsdóttir/Wilson were PIs along with others from the fields of Botany and Pedagogy. BPB set out to explore strategies to address the phenomenon of ‘Plant Blindness’ (Wandersee and Schussler 1999) where the intrinsic and ecological importance of plants and their capacities are eclipsed through anthropocentric subjectification.In three interventions within Gothenburg Botanical Gardens we installed photographic, printed and sculptural artworks, and during the summer of 2017 these were used as a focus for the parallel (BPB) public/ pedagogical project. Visitors were questioned on ‘Plant Blindness’, and the effectiveness of contemporary art in respect of this and related environmental matters.In October 2018 a further 14-metre tapestry by Snæbjörnsdóttir/Wilson was installed in a public site in Gothenburg city centre. To coincide with its installation, a one-day international public symposium was held, involving speakers from Mälmo Botanical Gardens, Goldsmiths College, London and Valand School of Art. The symposium included a site visit and talk by Wilson and Snæbjörnsdóttir with their installed work, Searching for Stipa.Working with the chief plant hunter and botanist at Gothenburg Botanical Gardens, the artists used a biographical approach, focusing on the provenance of individual seeds. By basing the inquiry in the conceptual territory between this ’domestic’ environment and the ’wild’ site of a locally endangered species, contradictory methodologies are weighed in conservation, ideas of hybridity and contamination, individual character and behaviour as opposed to community and ecology etc. Wilson, Snæbjörnsdóttir and Sanders are editors of the eponymous project book, published by The Green Box, Berlin which was launched in autumn 2020 in association with the Linnaeus Society, London. In the book, contributions from invited, internationally-based authors expanded on their BPB project work.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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