[ecrea] Visualizing Science and Environment Symposium CFP

*Visualizing Science and Environment*

*Symposium organised by the Science and Environment Communication 
Section, ECREA, in association with the Media Research Group at the 
University of Brighton, UK*

*Venue: University of Brighton, UK, 17-18 November 2011*

From the DNA double helix, to climate model simulations, to media 
footage of environmental protest, images play a central role in the 
construction and communication of scientific and environmental matters. 
However, the visual dimensions of science and environment communication 
are often overlooked in research.  What forms of knowledge and 
understanding do images produce, facilitate and/or constrain when it 
comes to issues of science and the environment? How are the visual 
dimensions of science and environmental communication approached 
differently across diverse fields such as the physical sciences, the 
social sciences and the humanities? This symposium will explore the 
visual dimensions of science and environmental communication by 
addressing questions of knowledge, understanding, practice and power, 
through the visual.

We invite formal papers and creative contributions (such as artwork and 
short performances) from academics and practitioners that examine the 
role of the visual in the construction and communication of science and 
the environment. We welcome work from a variety of theoretical and 
methodological perspectives, from the natural sciences to the social 
sciences and creative arts. Of particular interest is work that involves 
collaboration and dialogue across different areas, such as art and 
science, or academia and civil society groups.

Topics for exploration may include, but are not restricted to, the 
following:

   * The visual representation of environmental problems -- by the
     media, NGOs, corporations, citizens and/or activists
   * Visual representations of environmental activism and the use of
     the visual by activists
   * Filmic/televisual/creative arts engagements with science and the
     environment
   * Visual construction of science, medicine and the medicalised body
   * Image selection criteria used by news and website editors to
     represent science and environmental issues
   * The interplay of visual representations with verbal/aural codes in
     science and environment communication
   * The characteristics of visual representation of science and the
     environment in digital media and their exploration by multiple users
   * The influence of visual elements on the process of reading
     multimodal messages about science and the environment
   * Public responses to different forms of visualizing science and the
     environment
   * Creative dialogues across disciplines as a means of creating new
     ways of visualising science and the environment

Please send a 200 word abstract to Julie Doyle (j.doyle /at/ brighton.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(j.doyle /at/ brighton.ac.uk)>, Anabela Carvalho (carvalho /at/ ics.uminho.pt) 
<mailto:(carvalho /at/ ics.uminho.pt)> and Louise Phillips (louisep /at/ ruc.dk) 
<mailto:(louisep /at/ ruc.dk)> by 30 June 2011