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The art of science
Science is key to addressing global health challenges, but it needs to work with the arts to reach all who could benefit, says Danielle Olsen
In THE Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, UK, Lemn Sissay’s vibrant poem The World Wakes exploded with the possibilities of 2D materials science following the isolation of graphene. At the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts in Vietnam, Lêna Bùi’s film Where Birds Dance Their Last reflected on the beauty and vulnerability of Vietnamese feather farms after avian flu. During the University of Global Health Equity’s Hamwe Festival in Kigali, Rwanda, Ellen Reid’s audio experience Soundwalk was shared in a hopeful discussion about music, parks and mental health.
A poem, a film and a musical map. All publicly accessible and all creating space for meaningful conversations about research. These are a few of the things I have helped bring to life over the years, working at the intersection of scientific research, the arts and advocacy to support science in solving global health challenges.
Science is key to addressing these issues. But it isn’t the only key. To achieve its potential and for its advances to be implemented and reach all who could benefit, science depends on trust and good relationships. People might not always see science as relevant, trustworthy or meaningful to their lives. There are reasons why some see science as having a chequered past and systemic biases, from nuclear weapons to eugenics, and are therefore uninterested in, or suspicious of, what it propounds. Others feel excluded by the impenetrability of hyperspecialist knowledge.
In its capacity to build upon and test an evidence base, science is powerful, but – and not for want of trying – researchers and funders haven’t been as good at ensuring this evidence base responds to the needs and interests of diverse communities, or informs policy makers to take action.
Science might be perceived as distancing itself from the personal, the poetic and the political, yet it is precisely these qualities that can be most influential when it comes to public interest in a topic or how a government prioritises a decision.
A moving story well told can be more memorable than a list of facts. This is where the arts come in. Artists can give us different perspectives with which to consider and reimagine the world together. They can redress the proclaimed objectivity in science by bringing stories – subjectivities – into the picture, and these can help foster a sense of connection and hope.
In 2012, I set up artist residencies in medical research centres around the world. Bùi was attached to the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam. The head of the zoonoses team at the time was delighted, finding that Bùi, as a Vietnamese artist, had licence to be in, and share useful insights from, villages where infectious disease researchers weren’t welcome.
Six years later, to mark the centenary of the flu pandemic, I led Wellcome’s Contagious Cities programme, which established artist residencies in Berlin, Geneva, Hong Kong and New York and worked in partnership with cultural institutions to support locally led explorations of epidemic preparedness. Covid-19 threw this work into stark relief, and has also informed our Mindscapes programme. This is currently sharing experiences of mental health through the work of artists around the world, such as writer Priya Basil, who is travelling to places where biomedical and traditional approaches to mental health meet, aiming to compile a new atlas of mental health.
With pandemic, climate and mental health crises upon us, rising inequality and what feels like an increasingly fractured world, never has there been more need to build and nurture hopeful and imaginative spaces to grow human connection and shared purpose for the common good. Science and the arts can work hand in glove to achieve this.
