Rich in symbolism and emotional response, the emerging field of the ecological effects of artificial light will guide our exploration of science and storytelling. |
During summer 2016, participants in this Mellon-funded Liberal Arts Research Collaborative will investigate the science of storytelling while discovering the story behind science by producing creative projects based on scientific work in the field and in the lab. Artificial light at night has major implications for conservation and can be representative of the way humans interact with nature. In this sense, studying artificial light from a scientific perspective will harken back to some of the great American conservation writers, including Aldo Leopold, Barry Lopez, and Henry David Thoreau. Like the conservation writers we admire, we will take much of our inspiration from our time in the field—in light and dark, day and night, along streams and in the forest—to produce our writing. Of course, we expect that the joys and frustrations of lab work will also serve the basis for our writings, which will be chronicled on our blog.
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