Conversion from traditional knowledge to future collective impact with the fusion of science and arts: a lesson from resilient communities with global environmental changes

Progress and Results (2024 Year)

Research purpose and content

1)  Objectives and background

【Goal】 By contrasting the relationship between climate and environmental change and people and society from the past to the present in the same time resolution, we can identify the impact of global climate change at the point of change in civilization, society, and life, and the impact of regional and catastrophic events on the lives of local communities, and the common values that transcend time and space (or values specific to particular environments and times) that remain across generational and cultural divides. The impact of global climate change and regional and catastrophic events on the livelihoods of local communities at the point of change and the impact of global climate change and regional and catastrophic events on the livelihoods of local communities at the point of change, and the timeless common values (or values specific to environments or times) that remain across generational and cultural divides. The objective is to create a resilient, more empathetic, and actionable vision of the future in response to the probability theory of global climate change and catastrophic events predicted for the future through the collaboration of researchers, artists, and local stakeholders from a multidisciplinary fusion of arts and sciences, and to make global environmental issues personal to them. The process of this research and the future images produced will serve as a model for proposing and deriving resilient lifestyles in response to changes in the surrounding environment.

【Research Background】 Coral memory, human memory: This study was conceived to derive high-resolution data on the relationship between humans and nature by superimposing the memories of nature (coral) and human memories through a direct comparison between high-precision dating using coral skeletal annual rings and human and social science records using paleoenvironmental records with high temporal resolution. The idea was to derive high-resolution data on the relationship between people and nature by overlaying the memories of nature (coral) and people. Since the skeletons of reef-building corals and bivalves grow additionally at a rapid rate of several centimeters per year, the annual rings can be divided into minute sections to reconstruct hundreds of years of the environment on a weekly to monthly basis, providing a time machine that captures the environment surrounding human life in a particular era. (See 5. Achievements.) The results of this study enabled direct comparisons with humanities and social science data based on archaeological sites, ancient documents, folklore, and folktales, which have limited chronological and quantitative data. Until now, little climate and environmental information data has been accurate and precise enough to directly compare the relationship between past human life and environmental change. Therefore, the results of this research will make it possible to directly compare past human life and climate change for the first time.

２）How does the research contribute to the solution of the global environmental problems?

To explore resilient human-nature relationships in the rapidly changing global environment of the Anthropocene epoch, where global environmental change is determined by the complex interplay of climate change and social change, we must identify external and internal factors that intersect in multiple layers at different temporal and spatial scales and understand their interactions with a high degree of precision. The interplay between external and internal factors must be identified and understood with a high degree of precision. This research will compare the relationship between climate/environmental change and people/society from the past to the present based on coral and other high-resolution environmental indicators at scales of one day to several years along a timeline, and will examine how global environmental change and local environmental incidents have changed people's thoughts, actions, and lifestyles, and how they have shaped current local lifestyles (conventional knowledge). Through the process of theatrical performances, the project aims to create a high-resolution history of the “high-resolution relationship between people and nature” in the region. Furthermore, we propose a future vision (future collective knowledge) that encourages empathy and collaboration among researchers from different fields and stakeholders in the region, as well as measures to adapt to the environment by using the theatrical process to make it a personal matter that is close to our senses.

３）Project organization

■General Unit:　The unit will be reconfigured to reflect the actual situation from the practice FR to achieve the workflow and variety of outputs and outcomes of this project.

■Science Unit:  This unit includes researchers responsible for natural science, humanities, and sociology research, experiments, and verification, as well as artists and local stakeholders who conduct research activities in the project.

■Art Unit:  Consists of artists, researchers and management who will collaborate with the Science Unit in the production and performance of artworks. Artists participate in the project as co-researchers or commissioned artists.

■Local Unit:  This unit is responsible for setting up local conversation spaces and publicizing artworks. This unit includes local stakeholders as co-researchers or research collaborators.

Challenges and achievements for this year

1)  Project overall progres

 Until this year, the laboratory facilities and systems were established to advance the geochemical analysis of coral skeletons to conduct analysis and analysis of other paleoenvironmental indicators and comparison with information from the humanities. In addition, experimental attempts were made to promote the fusion of science and art. In addition, we have begun to experiment with immersive media such as air domes and virtual reality (VR) to bring the environment itself to life and promote empathy.

Derivation of high-resolution temporal data: Reconstruction of past environmental changes using reef-building corals: We are currently analyzing high-resolution data of water temperature, precipitation, typhoon, earthquake/tsunami signals, volcanic eruptions, and other environmental events from reef-building corals and bivalves to reconstruct a time-axis model of the atmosphere-ocean-land-water cycle using a multiproxy model that includes coral skeletons. The analysis is currently underway. In Kikai Island, we are attempting to derive paleoclimate records from the Holocene to the present as evidence of disasters such as earthquakes, famines, and typhoons and associated social changes from archaeological sites and archives. Progress to date this year has resulted in a plan to study changes in the intensity of the East Asian monsoon during the Holocene over the past 1,000 years. In addition, to accelerate the analysis of coral annual rings in this research project, the PR period has mainly involved the relocation of the mass spectrometer, maintenance, and building of the analysis team.

Barriers to Humanities-Science Interdisciplinary Research and the Introduction of Theatre: In the early stages of the IS-FS of this study, one team conducted the research in the same field. Although we thought that the fusion of the humanities and sciences would progress, the different orientations, methods, results, and evaluation methods of the humanities and natural sciences created a distance problem regarding common images and goals. In addition, the difference in time resolution when comparing human and natural data was a major problem in advancing this research. stacles, such as simply sharing the research results, as they did not lead to the spontaneous discovery and resolution of local issues by residents, and the issues considered by the researchers did not necessarily coincide with the issues considered by the local residents. In the first year of the FS period, research participants were invited to participate in a project with playwright/director Oriza Hirata, who is also a member of the FS. Researchers from different fields, residents, and students then worked as a team to create a play based on issues that could or could have arisen in the community and performed the play in front of the local residents. The researcher's performance generated effects such as audience members feeling familiarity with the researcher and recalling real-life issues from the problems occurring in the play. This process of sharing and breaking down barriers was Phase 1 in this study.

Phase2 of this research is the simulation of scientific data by art (high resolution). The virtual SceNE “Yurau” produced in this study was produced and performed in Kikai-cho on 10/15 and 16, 2022, and in Komaba, Tokyo on 12/21-23, 2022, with the theater company “Seinendan” on the theme of the relationship between the community of Kikai Island and water. When the play was performed in Kikaijima, a multifaceted and objective evaluation of the audience's empathy and the transmission of emotions and information, as well as their thoughts and behavioral changes toward the environment and local community, was conducted through questionnaires and interviews with the playwright, director, actors, and audience (researchers, residents, and stakeholders). In the theater performances that were practiced, the results of the research were transformed into art, which created various questions and doubts and equal dialogue between the audience, researchers, and artists rather than the enjoyment of knowledge in one direction. The researchers were able to formulate research themes from new perspectives, viewpoints, and possibilities in their research field and from residents. As the collaboration between scientists and artists deepened, they began to explore new areas for both science and art, and the PR period conducted two phases of theater work-in-progress to explore what this might look like. The first stage of the theater work-in-progress took place in November 2023. The questions and actions that emerged from these exchanges were shared, as well as experiments on putting scientific data into the body. The work produced was performed at RIHN. In addition, this project continues to investigate what emotions and changes occur when new art is attempted, and the receiver's experience (body experience) is changed.

Sound Art “Voice of Coral: We began producing sound art as a new experiment. Coral skeletons, mainly composed of calcium carbonate, have various internal structures depending on the type of coral, and various environmental characteristics and changes in the ocean affect the growth process of coral skeletons. The artist created an artwork that attempts to analyze the internal micro-space, density, and crystalline structure of coral skeletons from the aspect of acoustics. Together with composer Mamoru Fujieda, who is active in the field of biological sound art, he attempted to convert the internal structure of the coral skeleton into sound by submerging the skeleton underwater and recording the bubbles emitted from inside the skeleton with an underwater microphone (hydrophone). Using underwater recordings of the skeletons of both present-day and 5,000-year-old corals, we were able to hear subtly changing, yet periodic sound patterns.

Unvelt Dome SceNERIUM: The name of the dome, SceNERIUM, was inspired by the idea of physically feeling the viewpoints and vibrations of the images, sounds, and stories filmed in this research by showing them in a dome space. This year, the Anthropology x Planetarium program “From Coral Reef to the Starry Sky” produced on Kikai Island and the coral voices produced this year were presented at the Open House of the Institute for Global Studies. According to a questionnaire from the participants who experienced the program, the message was conveyed directly in the anthropolium with a storyline, and feelings of joy and preciousness were clearly expressed, but in “Coral Voices,” the participants were surprised, and their feelings of anxiety and sadness were different and varied widely. The participants' impressions were based on what they learned from the story and the simulated experience through the images, and they also said that the artwork appealed to their hearts.

2)  Amendments to research objectives, methodology and organization as applicable

In FR1, the organizational structure was reviewed. During this project, there were barriers to the fusion of science and art, science and locality, and art and locality, and attempts were made to facilitate the fusion of each. To systematize the structure and research activities of this project, the organizational structure was changed to three units: the Science Unit (science), the Art Unit (art), and the Local Unit (region), with the supervisory unit implementing initiatives to fuse each.

■Science Unit

100k general history of Kikaijima: Kikaijima Island in the Amami Islands has exposed coral reefs formed over the past 100,000 years due to its exceptional uplift rate. The coral fossils obtained from these reefs can reveal the detailed climate of each age. This study will be compared paleo climate from coral fossils with archaeological human life in the Nansei Islands and used as basic data for discussing the impact of changes in the natural environment on human culture. This year, we set up equipment and protocols to analyze stable isotope ratios after collecting corals to capture environmental changes. In addition, fieldwork will include sampling Holocene coral reefs and a preliminary survey of coral reef terraces 100,000 years ago. We are compiling the results of our research to date to capture the continuum of environmental change over the past 7,800 years through in-depth dating.

Time Sphere Symposium: In transdisciplinary research, we focused on the diverse rhythms and scales of time that living things and materials possess. Through the intersection of diverse scientific disciplines, art, and the community, he discovered that by combining “time” and “space,” information can be compared and understood. The symposium aimed to deepen new knowledge and understanding among the participants by sharing their different perspectives on time and time measures in each field. 11 speakers brought together topics such as absolute dating using geoscientific methods and the relationship between time and space in natural science, anthropology and archeology, and art.

■Art Unit

Theater Work in Progress Phase 2: In the second phase of the Theatre Work in Progress, to examine how science and art can collaborate, we decided to experiment to test two points: whether we can put scientific knowledge into the simple concept of “isotopic mass,” and whether we can put it into the body as theater, and whether the audience can sense it. 

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa x Institute for Global Environmental Studies (IGES) Exhibition Production: SceNE Project has opened an exhibition of three works: the sound art installation “Coral Field,” a model of Kikai Island created in the “100 Years of Theater Project,” and the video work “Coral of Kikai Island: Memory of Life in Circulation. The sound installation were created with composer Mamoru Fujieda in the previous fiscal year. Isamu Nakayama, the head of Shido Oke Ward, a resident of Kikai Island, and Jun Toniuchi of the Kikai Island Ecotourism Association participated in creating this installation. A theatrical performance is also planned for February at the same site.

Umwelt Dome SceNERIUM: The dome was named the Umwelt Dome SceNERIUM based on physically feeling the perspectives and vibrations of the images, sounds, and stories being filmed in this research by showing them in a dome space. This year, we produced a program that introduces the three aspects of coral characteristics (animals, plants, and minerals) and their relationship to the global environment with 360-degree videos taken underwater during research. The program was shown at Science Agora 2024 and at the RIHN Open House, where 700 people experienced the program. About 30% of the participants filled in their next actions, such as wanting to learn more about the status of corals and the global environment and wanting to keep corals, leading to a “personalization” of the program. It is necessary to adjust the number of questions left in the program to create more diversity of opinions.

■Local Unit

Kikaijima Future Conference: It became an opportunity for the mayor and researchers to discuss the future of Kikai Island flatly as participants and positive opinions for making Kikai Island a better island were heard one after another from the islanders. On the other hand, there was an opinion that the sharing of issues and regional visions should be done more than once, and we hope that it will continue to function as a place where many people, regardless of their positions, can talk together. We would also like to work on creating a clearer vision of the future.

Festival of Coral and Art: An attempt to create a new festival is being implemented as an opportunity to share the results of this research with the community. At the last festival, researchers, artists, and local residents collaborated to hold many events, including SceNERIUM, a dedication performance of coral voices and harp music in a limestone cave, a report on the results of architectural fieldwork, a bone density survey of coral islands by a medical team, and a coral festival with August dance and island song singing the August Dance, in particular, was a popular event among the local residents. The festival also provided an opportunity to restore the pride of the community and to pass down the culture. 

World Geological Heritage Site Recognition: Together with the Mayor of Kikai Town and the Kikai Town Geopark Promotion Council Secretariat, we applied for and received recognition as a World Geological Heritage Site (The Second 100: IUGS Geoheritage sites) based on research results reported so far on the Holocene coral reef terraces of Kikai Island. The registration as a World Geological Heritage site has brought the people of Kikai Island closer to the science community, as evidenced by the pride that local residents and the presentation by the mayor of Kikai Town at an international conference.

Future tasks

① Examination of Methods of Deriving Future Collective Knowledge and Applicability

This study aims to create a vision of the future using a theater workshop. However, due to the importance of the process of deep

mutual understanding between the researcher and the artist prior to the workshop, we were unable to conduct a study of the

production method for the future collective knowledge during the PR period. Therefore, we will simultaneously conduct a study of

the method of deriving the future collective knowledge while simultaneously carrying out Phase 1 in the next fiscal year. In

addition, Kikaijima Island is being promoted as the main field base, and we are examining the generality of the model obtained

from it, as well as trials in other regions, cultural spheres, and different environments.

② Rights issues for artwork produced jointly

In this study, scientific research and art production are being conducted simultaneously, so there is a possibility that research data

may be published in the artwork for the first time. In addition, participating researchers devote a great deal of effort and time to

the production of art. We would like to discuss within the Institute whether art works can be evaluated as scientific research results

and achievements, not only in the form of papers but also in the form of artwork. Furthermore, we would like to discuss how to

handle copyrights and other rights between researchers and artists, and how to handle artists' rights to perform their research

results in other countries, regions, and organizations during the project or after the project is completed, if the research results are

attributed to the Institute for Global Studies.