News
Call for Contributions: Special Themed Issue
of ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies
Climate, arts, and activism: Critical Inter- and transdisciplinary
perspectives The debate about the socio-ecological crisis has moved to the center of society. What conditions and practices are needed for art-science collaborations that will contribute to transforming society towards critical climate and ecological justice? That is the guiding question for the proposed special issue.
We welcome contributions from different academic disciplines (geography, environmental humanities, sustainability studies, transformation research), artistic research/submissions, design research, and other fields of practice. Proposals are encouraged from regions, cultures, and people that have not been previously featured or addressed in the discourses and scholarship.
Contributions to this themed issue of ACME within the scope of ACME’s topics may be represented in a wide variety of formats to capture and reflect the scope and range of perspectives. The language of the issue is English. We invite journal articles (up to 9’000 words), roundtables, interviews, and visual analyses, as well as creative or multimedia contributions, including Poetry, Comics, & Speculative Fiction, performances, or podcasts.
Deadline for abstracts: 15th of October 2025
Selection / Notification: 15th of November 2025
First drafts: 1st of April 2026
Final Copy: 1st March 2027
Publication: May 2027
DOWNLOAD OPEN CALL
Co-edited by Yvonne Schmidt (Bern Academy of the Arts), Susan Thieme (University of Bern) and Mirko Winkel (University of Bern)
Symposium on Climate Change Education & Communication at SGM 2025 in Bern
!Call for Abstracts! – !Call for Abstracts!
«Climate Change Education and Communication»
23rd Swiss Geoscience Meeting – Conference
Johanna Paschen, PhD of the EcoArtLab, is co-convening the 23rd Swiss Geoscience Meeting on «Climate Change Education and Communication», taking place in Bern on Saturday, 6 December 2025.
Despite high levels of public awareness about anthropogenic climate change and increasing pressure on the political sphere, climate action among large parts of the general public still remains relatively low. So, what are the individual and societal preconditions, factors, and mechanisms that facilitate or prevent action on climate change among different segments of the population? And what are the potentials and limitations for climate change education and communication efforts? Here, various disciplines within the educational, psychological, social and climate sciences, as well as humanities can provide the theoretical and practical instruments to understand public engagement with climate change.
This session aims to provide multiple perspectives into the challenges and opportunities of climate change communication and education. Inviting contributions from a broad range of disciplines (e.g., education, psychology, communication, public understanding of science, humanities, social and natural sciences, arts, artistic research), this session focuses on the perception, processing, communication, application, learning, and education of climate information and knowledge. Talks or posters may relate to all approaches (e.g., theoretical and practical, quantitative and qualitative), scales (e.g., local, national, global), and age levels (e.g., children, adolescents, adults).
Talks or posters may relate to all approaches (e.g., theoretical and practical, quantitative and qualitative), scales (e.g., local, national, global), and age levels (e.g., children, adolescents, adults). We encourage contributions from young scientists (Master- or PhD-projects), while interdisciplinary projects are especially welcomed too.
Call for abstracts
Deadline for submissions: Firday, 29. August 2025
Abstracts will be initially assigned to the session indicated by the authors at the time of abstract submission. Abstracts should be submitted electronically following the instructions on the SGM 2025 website.
Unfortunately, presentations can only be given in person.
Registration
Until Saturday 1 November 2025(open from beginning of September on).
Registration and payments must be made electronically following the instructions on the SGM 2025 website
Fieldwork Denmark: Technical University of Denmark, DTU Aqua Institute | Visiting artist-researcher | Riikka Tauriainen
Grateful for the chance to join marine biologists in the field! We are studying plankton: micro-organisms and jellyfish in the Limfjord.
This is part of Riikkas ongoing research at the EcoArLab, HKB / IPTK within the art-science Project Plankton Ecosystems, where we explore the intersections of ecology, art, and marine science.
Thanks to the SNSF mobility grant for making this exchange possible and to Riikkas amazing collaborator Marta Musso for the inspiring teamwork.
Photos: Riikka Tauriainen
«micro-organisms and jellyfish in the Limfjord»
Grateful for the chance to join marine biologists in the field! We are studying plankton: micro-organisms and jellyfish in the Limfjord.
This is part of Riikkas ongoing research at the EcoArLab, HKB / IPTK within the art-science Project Plankton Ecosystems, where we explore the intersections of ecology, art, and marine science.
Thanks to the SNSF mobility grant for making this exchange possible and to Riikkas amazing collaborator Marta Musso for the inspiring teamwork.
Photos: Riikka Tauriainen
Fieldwork Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen / Centre for Applied Ecological thinking | Johanna Paschen; Riikka Tauriainen & Marta Musso
Our PhD in geography Johanna Paschen was conducting interviews and applied a disruptive seed exercise of art-science collaboration in plankton research with the two collaborators Riikka Tauriainen (artistic PhD) and Marta Musso (marine biologist).
The aim was to learn more about the methods and practices applied in the Plankton Ecosystem project. It was a great insight with many reflections and exchanges also with an external artistic researcher from the CApE – Centre for Applied Ecological Thinking of the University of Copenhagen.
«disruptive seed exercise »
Our PhD in geography Johanna Paschen was conducting interviews and applied a disruptive seed exercise of art-science collaboration in plankton research with the two collaborators Riikka Tauriainen (artistic PhD) and Marta Musso (marine biologist).
The aim was to learn more about the methods and practices applied in the Plankton Ecosystem project. It was a great insight with many reflections and exchanges also with an external artistic researcher from the CApE – Centre for Applied Ecological Thinking of the University of Copenhagen.
Workshop | Plankton Ecosystems | Meike Vogt | Riikka Tauriainen | Kunstmuseum St. Gallen
«
An Inclusive Science-Art Journey into the Imaginary
World of Plankton»
Art and science both make us think and rethink the world. In a creative dialogue between science and art, Meike Vogt, senior scientist and Riikka Tauriainen decided to tell the story of plankton and its fundamental role for marine life and climate.
For “Experimental Ecology”, a traveling exhibition displayed most recently at external pageSt Gallen’s Kunstmuseum, they created a visual installation named “Plankton Imaginary”.
On Nov. 3rd, they also organized an all-day open arts lab and a two-hour arts-meets-science workshop in the exhibition space.
The open arts lab offered a wide range of activities that invited participants to imagine, create, feel, and experiment with science. They could sculpt their own plankton specie with clay, craft a jelly fish with rice lamps and colored tissue, draw plankton inspired by live sample from local lakes and an artistic plankton movie using citizen science microscopes, and explore the effects of ocean acidification through hands-on experiments.
62 families, spanning all age groups, took part in the interactive open arts lab. Eleven more people participated in the Science-Art workshop which started with a presentation introducing the different art pieces of the installation. This was followed by drawing exercises and a round-table discussion about plankton, life, and the universe.
Overall, a very successful day where science and art came together to ignite curiosity and inspire new perspectives on the world.
pictures: Riikka Tauriainen & Meike Vogt
«
An Inclusive Science-Art Journey into the Imaginary
World of Plankton»
Art and science both make us think and rethink the world. In a creative dialogue between science and art, Meike Vogt, senior scientist and Riikka Tauriainen decided to tell the story of plankton and its fundamental role for marine life and climate.
For “Experimental Ecology”, a traveling exhibition displayed most recently at external pageSt Gallen’s Kunstmuseum, they created a visual installation named “Plankton Imaginary”.
On Nov. 3rd, they also organized an all-day open arts lab and a two-hour arts-meets-science workshop in the exhibition space.
The open arts lab offered a wide range of activities that invited participants to imagine, create, feel, and experiment with science. They could sculpt their own plankton specie with clay, craft a jelly fish with rice lamps and colored tissue, draw plankton inspired by live sample from local lakes and an artistic plankton movie using citizen science microscopes, and explore the effects of ocean acidification through hands-on experiments.
62 families, spanning all age groups, took part in the interactive open arts lab. Eleven more people participated in the Science-Art workshop which started with a presentation introducing the different art pieces of the installation. This was followed by drawing exercises and a round-table discussion about plankton, life, and the universe.
Overall, a very successful day where science and art came together to ignite curiosity and inspire new perspectives on the world.
pictures: Riikka Tauriainen & Meike Vogt
