Cataloging wonder: the art and science of the collection

Authors

Christine Metzger, California College of the ArtsFollow

Abstract

The Exploring Science in the Studio National Science Foundation grant funded three initiatives at California College of the Arts, a private four-year art and design college in the San Francisco Bay Area. The grant sponsored annual Science-in-the-Studio which embedded scientists into the art and design studio curriculum, the creation of Mobile Units for Scientific Exploration (MUSE) and a new collection of science materials, equipment, and natural specimens, and a national symposium on integrating science into the art and design studio curriculum. Approximately 30 SitS classes have been offered since 2010, and the Exploring Science in the Studio symposium was convened at CCA in November 2015. Students played a large role in the research, prototyping, and design of the MUSE system which provides a new model for semi-permanent science classroom/lab/museum spaces in locations that lack the physical, financial, or curricular ability to have full or traditional science spaces.

DOI

10.5642/steam.20170301.27

Author/Artist Bio

Christine Metzger’s work as both a geologist and a textile artist explores how landscapes respond to climate change and how scientific data can be presented in traditional and untraditional ways. Her work is deeply anchored in both place and time and in a consciousness of the role humans play in the grand scheme of life on Earth. Since 2010, she has worked at California College of the Arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she teaches interdisciplinary courses like "Bad Science at the Movies," an introductory geology class via the lens of Hollywood disaster movies, and "Life on Earth through Time,” a history of four-billion years of life history that integrates illustration and other creative work with science. She earned her PhD in geological sciences from the University of Oregon in 2013, and she was the principal investigator for an interdisciplinary $200,000 National Science Foundation grant, "Exploring Science in the Studio," from 2013 to 2016.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Metzger, Christine (2017) "Cataloging wonder: the art and science of the collection," The STEAM Journal: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 27. DOI: 10.5642/steam.20170301.27
Available at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/steam/vol3/iss1/27