SEED by Dr Trish Morgan

Research Overview:

SEED (Sensory Experiences of Environmental Data) is an interdisciplinary project between communications, environmental geography and engineering. It explores how environmental data can be communicated through the five senses: sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.

Ireland produces a wide range of environmental data through monitoring systems, sensors and open public datasets. While this data is essential for research and policy, it is most often communicated visually, through charts, dashboards or reports, which can limit how people engage with it.

SEED focuses on how environmental data can be translated into sensory and experiential forms, allowing people to encounter data not only by seeing it, but also by hearing it, touching it, smelling it, or experiencing it in embodied or physical ways.

The project was based on two existing EPA-funded research projects by Dr. Trish Morgan that found policy siloing between environmental and cultural policy. SEED enhances this previous policy analysis and findings by showcasing in practical ways how environmental and cultural policy can work together, building capacity in an Irish context. 

Funded by Research Ireland under a COALESCE Strand 2A Grant.

Research Context & Questions:

• How can environmental data be communicated in new and imaginative ways?

   

Methodology:

• Archival Analysis
• Field Work
• Participatory Design
• Practice-Based Research (PBR)

Key Collaborators:

• Dr Trish Morgan - Assistant Professor, DCU School of Communications 
• Dr Shirley Coyle - Associate Professor, DCU School of Electronic Engineering
• Dr Istvan Lazlo - Artist, Researcher and Lecturer
• Aka D. Large - Researcher, DCU School of Communications
• Cliona Harmey - Artist and Researcher
• Shane Finan - Artist and Collaborator
• Fiona McDonald - Artist and Collaborator
• Adam Gibney  - Artist, Educator and Collaborator
• Cailean Finn - Artist, Researcher and Collaborator
   

Research Outputs:

The project brings together and makes available:

• An open-access database of artists and practitioners who have worked creatively with environmental data across the five senses (based on the archival analysis and fieldwork methods).
• A toolkit for practitioners and a toolkit informed non-specialists such as researchers, scientists, technologists, educators, policy makers and various stakeholders (based on participatory design methods with commissioned practitioners).
• Examples of novel communications works made by leading artists working in Ireland (based on the practice-based research methods).

• Learning resources, including video tutorials on sourcing and working with environmental datasets, and introductory guides to tools commonly used in this work.

   

Further Information:

SEED Website