Jen and Laura Project Outline: World Words

Although our careers seem miles apart - one a marine biologist, the other a writer - we share a lot in common. We are both from Scotland, both have a love of our home culture, literature and nature. Crucially, we have a common goal - to share our work and passions with others. Paper Makers allows us to put our skills in science and literature together to engage others in the natural world around them.

Our idea is to create a series of shaped words using resources relating to the theme of the science paper that Paper Makers is taking inspiration from (Hoegh Guldberg and Bruno, 2010). Each word will reflect a specific issue highlighted in the paper, for instance an image of the word ‘acidity’ shaped out of lemon peel reflects the problem of ocean acidification.

These images will act as a catalyst to engage with a digital audience and encourage individuals to participate in Paper Makers by creating their own image of a ‘World Word’, photographing it and contributing it to a ‘digital exhibition’. The aim is to upload a new central stimulus ‘World Word’ once a week from our first blog posting until the end of project exhibition in September.

The above would be demonstrated in the project exhibition through the creation and display of a colourful word cloud, containing all the words submitted by the public. The secondary exhibited piece of our project will be a newly created piece by Writer L.J. McIntyre that incorporates many of these submitted ‘World Words’.

These duel exhibited pieces would highlight the artistic practice, development and engagement of the artist and scientist pair as well as the public engagement sought through their ongoing project World Words.