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Waving graphs, installation by Felina Russ. Copyright: E. Böker, CASCB

Re-Shaping Nature

Scientific data meets Art and Design

Have you ever wondered how experimental data can be turned into art? The Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour (CASCB) and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) collaborated with the Merz Akademie on a sci-art project called “Re-Shaping Nature”. Now we are displaying the outcome of the partnership in an art exhibition at the CASCB.

The focus was on data visualization. Together with nine students from the Merz Akadmie, members of the CASCB and the MPI-AB participated in a semester-long course led by Mario Doulis and Jörg Frohnmayer, which took place during the winter semester 2021/2022. The intention of the course was to bring young students from arts and design in contact with scientists working at the CASCB and the MPI-AB. CASCB member Hemal Naik was responsible for initiating the project: “For me, art and science represent two sides of the same coin. Artists and scientists have much to learn from each other’s perspectives and methods. We wanted to create a platform for both parties to interact with each other and work together. This initiative helped both researchers and art students to explore a new perspective or add a new flavour to their own work.”

Gaining insights into each other’s work

The kick-off event was a two-day visit to the MPI-AB in Möggingen and the University of Konstanz, with the focus on gaining insights into each other’s work and establishing connections between Merz students and CASCB and MPI-AB researchers. “This truly is an inspiring approach to have an interdisciplinary exchange,” says Jörg Frohnmayer, research associate at the Merz Akademie. He appreciated getting a more detailed insight into a broad variety of research topics because “it encouraged art and design students to dig into 'real research data' and it gave researchers an insight into artistic approaches for visualization.” His colleague Mario Doulis, professor and head of the New Media Department at the Merz Akademie adds: “I know from my own experience as a design student doing an internship at Fraunhofer IAO how important it is to meet the people you work with in their working environment. During our visit, we could not only talk with the researchers directly about their work, we also got an impression of how a researcher's workday looks like. On the one hand, they work on completely different topics compared to designers or artists, on the other hand they are – what a surprise – people like you and I...”

 

Artistic twist

The students used datasets from behaviour experiments and gave the data an artistic twist. They visualized, for example, a stork’s journey, the mating behaviour of fiddler crabs or the echolocation of bats. MPI-AB postdoctoral researcher Daniela Perez thinks that “widely sharing scientific discoveries and data is a central, if not the most important, part of science.” She shared her fiddler crab data because “the opportunity to get my science portrayed by artists is just too good to miss.” She is excited to see what these young inspiring artists will create with her fiddler crab data. She says: “I spent almost ten years studying fiddler crabs, and now I am transitioning to worms. This partnership with the Merz Akademie is a beautiful tribute to all those years dedicated to fiddler crab research.”

 

Project Results

Paul Mignot

The White Stork Journey by Paul Mignot

My project shows a stylized journey of a migrating white stork in the form of an animated poster. My goal was to enhance the information given in the animal tracker while visualizing the journey which a stork undertakes each year. The migration is visible through constant changes in whereabouts since the environment around the stork changes in small steps. Through the changes around the stork I wanted to portray the feeling of traveling and creating new places in between the four main scenes.

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Swarm Behaviour and Environments, Copyright: Jan-Filip Kvrgic

Swarm Behaviour and Environments by Jan-Filip Kvrgic

Inspired by Daniel Calovi's work with simulated swarm behaviour this project works with a similar implementation of algorithmic behaviour. The scene contains around 300 individual agents, both birds and fish, moving and interacting with each other according to a set of rules with separation, alignment, cohesion and user targets. A user can interact with the swarm through a Leap Motion sensor in ways that would be impossible in the wild.

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Bat VR, Copyright Melanie Müller and Nadine Frank

Bat VR Experience by Melanie Müller and Nadine Frank

A 3D/VR-Installation to experience how the echolocation of a bat works. It aims to make echolocation more understandable for humans since people can't recognize a space from the sound.

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Fiddler Crab Wave Visualization Copyright: E. Böker, CASCB

Fiddler Crab Wave Visualization by Isabel Carolin Kohlhagen

With this project I aimed to visualize a behaviour that is specific to fiddler crabs: waving. When sensing motion, the male crabs will wave their big claws to attract a potential mating partner. To clarify whether this behaviour is based on motion or not, I created a 3D environment with animated crabs that is connected to a webcam. When the webcam senses motion, the 3D crabs starts to wave at you.

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A fiddler’s world, Copyright: Vivienne Jahn

A fiddler’s world by Vivienne Jahn

Welcome to the world of the sand fiddler crab! Here you can explore the habitat of the crab in life-size and learn about their species, behaviour and burrow construction.

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Waving Graphs by Felina Russ, Copyright: E. Böker, CASCB

Waving Graphs by Felina Russ

Waving Graphs is an interactive installation that can be experienced with different senses: auditory, tactile and visual. Data of the signature wave of male fiddler crabs to attract female fiddler crabs were used for this work. In addition, the entire structure represents the work of the scientists through its material and presentation. The technology that is made visible through plexiglass stands for working with sensors, cables and cameras.

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Fiddler Crabs – Austruca mjoebergi Booklet, Copyright: Victoria-Luise Scheible

Fiddler Crabs – Austruca mjoebergi Booklet by Victoria-Luise Scheible

The booklet contains general information about Fiddler Crabs and introduces Daniela Perez, a researcher in this field. It is structured in the form of an interview, thus the texts are quick and easy to read. The design is in black and white and the illustrations in ink and watercolor, therefore it looks very casual and stylish. The format is square, which transforms well onto the shape of the crabs. The last part of the booklet is dedicated to the topic, ‘How to layout a booklet’, in order to give a little insight into our design field.

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How the collaboration came about

The collaboration began with a coincidental meeting between Hemal Naik and Maren Schmol, director of the Merz Akademie, in India. Naik suggested the idea of collaborating with art institutes or artists in order to create sustainable outreach programmes for science communication. The idea was presented to Frohnmayer and Doulis at the Merz Akademie as well as several members of the University of Konstanz and the MPI-AB (including Falk Schreiber and Martin Wikelski) during a brainstorming meeting in the summer of 2019. Having gained initial support, Naik and Frohnmayer decided to work together and organized three courses between 2019 and 2020 to test the feasibility of such collaborations. The results are the projects 3D Data Storytelling, Fly like a Stork and Fly like a Starling.

“Several members of the MPI-AB and the CASCB showed interest and shared their data and insights,” says Naik. “Finally, in 2021 we decided to go beyond concept and prototype development. That is why we organized the course with the concrete plan of setting up exhibitions of the artwork at the CASCB.”

Further expositions

Involved People

Course leader: Mario Doulis and Jörg Frohnmayer - Merz Akademie

Course concept: Mario Doulis, Jörg Frohnmayer and Hemal Naik (MPI AB and CASCB Affiliate)

Students from Merz Akademie: Nadine Frank, Vivienne Jahn, Isabel Kohlhagen, Jan-Filip Kvrgic, Paul Mignot, Melanie Müller, Felina Russ, Victoria Scheible

Researchers from MPI AB and CASCB who provided data for the art projects: Angela Albi: Fish project, Thejasvi Beleyur: Bat project, Daniel Calovi: Fish project, Andrea Flack: Stork project, Aya Goldshtein: Bat project, Daniela Perez: Fiddler crab projects

Organisation and communication: Bhargav Solanki, Elisabeth Böker