PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 90: Urban Ecology: Management
Wednesday, August 10, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 524 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Urban ecological experiments as public art.

Felson, Alexander^*,1, ¹ Ecology Exchange, New York, New York, USA

ABSTRACT- Ecologists are interested in establishing experiments in urban systems. In cities, however, a variety of obstacles, including ethical considerations, spatial complexity, and institutional agendas, constrain them and limit their ability to install and monitor such experiments. Public art, with its long history of innovative adaptation to the city, could provide a template for establishing ecological experiments in urban environments. By emphasizing the temporality of experimentation and the seasonality of research, ecologists have an opportunity to configure experiments in cities as temporary art projects. By combining their research concerns with the aesthetic and civic roles of public art and linking monitoring and measuring with cultural factors, scientists could effectively build their research into urban space. Pilot projects could be developed through a creative blend of traditional research, urban design and community investment to create reproducible, cost-effective ecological experiments. Ecological approaches such as replication, modularity, temporality and cost efficiency would inform the layout and aesthetic of selected urban sites. Experimental elegance, simplicity of design and reduction in variables would also promote aesthetics. Through the creation of adaptable units to be measured and compared to one another, experiments would yield meaningful quantitative data that might then not only give rise to a set of cultural, aesthetic and functional public spaces but also contribute to our understanding of urban ecology.

Key words: urban ecology, public art, human, design