Science and art
Learn to listen and listen to learn: How art-science collaborations can succeed
Heirloom brown beans, dropped on the stage floor, were part of Carolin Seiferth's performance. Photo: Arne Hyckenberg/Sveriges Radio
A new study explores what it takes to build meaningful art-science collaborations. Drawing on a collaborative process between researchers and composers at the Baltic Sea Festival, it offers practical guidance for designing processes that foster dialogue, learning and trust.
- Study reflects on a collaborative process between researchers and composers at the Baltic Sea Festival
- Researchers and composers needed to embrace openness to other ways of working and were able to build and strengthen collaborative skills, such as listening, communication, and problem-solving skills
- Three design principles – creating safe-enough spaces, embracing the unfolding nature of a process, and engaging in joint reflection – help navigate ‘messy’ co-production processes
Art-science collaborations are often praised for raising awareness about sustainability challenges and motivating the public to engage in change-making, but rarely examined in terms of their potential as spaces for learning from and with each other through shared experiences.
To share learnings and provide guidance for those interested in such collaborations, a new study led by Centre researcher Carolin Seiferth offers insights into a unique experiment bringing researchers and composers together. The paper, published in Sustainability Science, reflects on a co-production process between six researchers and six composers during the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab in 2023. Together, they created orchestrated “calls to action” to protect the Baltic Sea by combining science communication and music.
“There is quite a lot of interest in art-science collaborations,” Seiferth says. “But there is very little guidance on how to navigate these messy processes on equal terms.”
From dialogue to learning
The project was part of the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm. Over six months, researcher-composer pairs worked together and co-produced pieces covering a range of sustainability challenges the Baltic Sea region faces.
Without knowing what exactly might come out of this collaborative process, everyone involved had to embrace openness to other ways of working, different perspectives, and emergence. Researchers and composers practiced to deeply listen to each other, convey insights from research and composition ideas in simple terms without loosing nuance, and deal with challenges such as a limited amount of time in practice.
The study shows that art-science collaborations are not only platforms for dialogue, but for learning.
Seiferth says: “Researchers and composers have much more in common than we think. We understood that we share a deep curiosity and structure our work around something we do not know yet.”
Three design principles for practice
To design art-science collaborations as platforms for learning, the paper outlines three principles: creating safe-enough spaces, embracing the unfolding nature of a process, and engaging in joint reflection. Safe-enough spaces allow participants to step outside their comfort zones and experiment with doing things differently while still feeling supported. Embracing the unfolding nature of a process requires letting go of control and celebrate the unexpected. Engaging in reflection can help participants to make sense of what they have learned.
“It is not about instrumentalising the arts to communicate science,” Seiferth says. “It is about nurturing relationships and making sure the process is useful for all involved.”
Watch a video of the piece "Dialogues" co-produced by Carolin Seiferth and Sampo Kasurinen below:
Seiferth, C., Olin, A.B., Vaziourakis, K.-M., Bhat, S., Austin, Å.N., Lin, C., Kasurinen, S., Ehnvall, Z., Yokoyama, M., Johnson, M.M., Berg, A., Tudén, D., Ljungar, E., Nyberg, E., Sobek, A. & Blenckner, T. 2026. Learn to listen and listen to learn: reflections from a co-production process between researchers and composers. Sustainability Science.
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