2017 Art / Science Collaborations
From mapping of the sea floor and tracking the health of marsh-lands, to studies of the local Hog nosed-snakes and Spade-foot toads, there are over 70 science research projects going on at any given time in the Cape Cod National Seashore.
This year the Cape Cod Modern House Trust (CCMHT) and the National Park Service (NPS) are collaborating on a residency that invites artists to work alongside NPS scientists in the field.
Guest curators, Dylan Gauthier and Kendra Sullivan, have selected a group of ten interdisciplinary artists and writers working at the intersections of art, science, ecology, and land and water based practices.
The visiting artists will stay in the modern houses, (owned by the NPS and restored by CCMHT) which also served as laboratories, for their original inhabitants. The mid-century creative community in Wellfleet included Marcel Breuer, Serge Chermayeff, Olav Hammarstrom, Paul Weidlinger, Walter Gropius, Xanti Schawinsky, Konrad Wachsmann, Constantino Nivola, the Saarinen and Kepes families and Florence and Hans Knoll, among others.
In their teaching, writing and travels this group sought empirical data to inform new approaches to visual art, curation, and the design of furniture, housing and urban spaces. They worked and shared ideas in the Cape’s woods and isolated beaches.
Artist and MIT professor, Gyorgy Kepes, in particular, sought to bridge the gaps between art, design and hard science. His ground breaking books and lectures show how crossing boundaries can catalyze fresh insight.
Residents will spend two weeks in the Trust’s houses in May, and two in October, with presentations of their work to follow.
Dylan Gauthier and Kendra Sullivan are visual artists and members of the Brooklyn-based art collective Mare Liberum.
Participating Artists:
Mark Adams, artist and NPS staff cartographer is facilitating engagement with the NPS.
The project is organized by Peter McMahon, Executive Director of CCMHT and principal of PM Design in South Wellfleet.