Climate Modelling, the Data-Image and the Possible in Forest Ecologies: How an Art/Science Collaboration Engages with Ecoliteracy

Key findings from this study

• The study demonstrates that climate models contain openness to revision rather than predetermined outcomes.
• The authors report that art installations enhanced public engagement with environmental data visualization practices and their underlying assumptions.
• The researchers found that creativity and imagination function as pedagogical resources supporting both visual and ecological literacy development.

Overview

An environmental data scientist and artist-researcher examined how climate models and visualization techniques shape understanding of forest carbon dynamics. The collaboration applied Bergsonian philosophy to question predetermined climate futures. Rather than treating climate outcomes as fixed, the authors integrated art-based and scientific approaches to engage public audiences with forest ecology data through immersive installations.

Methods and approach

The collaboration produced data-images from tree carbon quantification visualizations. The authors embedded these visualizations within outdoor art installations designed for experiential, place-based learning. Public responses to the installations were collected and analyzed thematically. The work bridged digital media, environmental education, and arts-based interdisciplinary methodology to examine how imagery production and dissemination affect visual and ecological literacy.

Results

The study demonstrates that climate modelling remains subject to reconceptualization rather than operating as predetermined prediction. Immersive art installations successfully engaged publics in questioning how environmental data visualizations are constructed and circulated. Participant responses indicated that creative and imaginative engagement through art installations enhanced visual literacy development. The local focus on tree carbon quantification offered a tractable entry point for examining broader climate modelling uncertainties.

Implications

The findings suggest that art-science collaboration can reframe climate communication beyond technocratic data presentation toward critical engagement with model construction itself. By positioning climate futures as open rather than resolved, the authors propose that creativity and imagination function as epistemic resources in environmental education. This approach potentially supports publics in developing more sophisticated understanding of both data visualization practices and forest ecological systems.

The study indicates that ecoliteracy develops through experiential, place-based encounters with data-images rather than abstract climate projections alone. Visual literacy and ecological literacy become intertwined when art installations situate scientific imagery within lived spatial experience. Questioning how environmental models are produced and disseminated emerges as central to supporting critical public engagement with climate science.

The research contributes to understanding how interdisciplinary collaboration between environmental data science and art practice can challenge predetermined framings of ecological futures. Rather than treating climate models as objective representations, the integration of Bergsonian philosophy enables reconsideration of possibility and contingency. This model demonstrates potential for expanding how institutions and educators approach environmental communication and public knowledge production.

Scope and limitations

This summary is based on the study abstract and available metadata. It does not include a full analysis of the complete paper, supplementary materials, or underlying datasets unless explicitly stated. Findings should be interpreted in the context of the original publication.