A warm congratulations to Dr. Derek Gladwin (LLED) and his team for receiving a $20,000 UBC Public Humanities Hub (PHH) Priority Thematic Research Incubator Grant for their project, “Sustainable Sound Installations: Harmonizing Aesthetics, Education, and Upcycling”. This project and team are affiliated with the Systems Beings Lab, a transdisciplinary research collective centred on systems and complexity education at UBC. The abstract of the project is below.
Incubator Grant Thematic area: Environmental/Climate, Land & Place-Based Humanities.
Team Members:
Dr. Michele Koppes, Professor, Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts;
Dr. Kedrick James, Professor of Teaching, Department of Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Faculty of Education;
Dr. Naoko Ellis, Professor, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science;
Dr. Danielle Ignace, Assistant Professor, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry; and
Dr. Will Valley, Associate Dean, Equity, Decolonization, and Inclusion, and Associate Professor of Teaching, Faculty of Land & Food Systems.
Abstract: This transdisciplinary project proposes a collaboration that integrates sound, aesthetics, regenerative design, and sustainable engineering to create, install, and exhibit wood resonators (sound speakers) at UBC. Aligned with Berkowitz and Gibson’s (2022) perspective on public humanities emphasizing relationships across time and interconnectedness, the project explores the ecological and aesthetic impacts of upcycling as creative use into artistic installations of wood resonators that function as translators of soundscapes and ecologies. The focus is on aesthetic experience for the public, with resonators serving as eco-aesthetic representations incorporating humanistic and environmental elements. The investigation involves a highly multidisciplinary team, reflecting the diverse research praxis intersecting in the project. The project aligns with the principles of public humanities, emphasizing the active engagement of “doing” in the design, production, and immersive experiences of artistic upcycling. The project plans to install the resonators inside the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) and another external space on the UBC campus. Research on public and user impact will be conducted to assess the broader implications of the resonator installations and their scalability for future funding.
Best wishes Derek and team on this inspiring interdisciplinary project!