Art in the service of science:
Using art to explain archaeology and field research
Public outreach should concern all scientists, but few actually
make an effort to engage the public. Everyone acknowledges the obligation that
archaeologists have to share the results of what they've learned through
fieldwork with people who live in the areas they study-after all, it's their
prehistory too. Yet, archaeologists are
like frustrated artists. Based on the evidence they've found, they form an
image in their head of what the past was like, but they just don't have the
right skills, or visual language, needed to fully make this past come alive so
that a broader audience can understand their message. The tools of an
archaeologist include trowels, shovels, GPS receivers, and transits-hardly what
you'd choose to sketch an image of past civilizations. Oh yes, archaeologists
write plenty-pages and pages of text that will be read by other academics-but
this is a technical language that cannot help people form images of a past that
can no longer be seen today.
That is why the role of artists in archaeology is so important.
Through visual diagrams and illustrations, we can make the past come alive for
the general public-to challenge what people know about pre-history, and to
encourage them to learn more. More important, we can shape scientific knowledge
of the past, achieved through field research and scholarship, and make it
relevant to the present.
When combining art and archaeology, the process is the thing.
Visualizing a past event or place is the result of a collaboration between a
scientist and an artist, a give-and-take that is built from rough sketches done
on typing paper on airplanes or in smoky hotel rooms over lots of beer, and
achieved through shared, debated ideas and images. The resulting visualizations
are often never "really finished," in that they will be revised and
improved, or changed due to new information. This work will also have many
co-authors-archaeologists, students, local community members... and the artist
him/herself. I sometimes feel that the drawings I do are not my own work, but
the result of the knowledge I've learned from others, and created through
experiences I've had.
However it is achieved, the goal is to enlighten, explain complex
information and situations, create wonder-and generate more questions. And above all, this is never about art, or
pictures, or the "artist's vision." The things I do are simple visual
aids, and my job is not to make a pretty picture but to aid the translation of
science information into a visual form that will enhance public understanding
of not just what happened in the past, but what it may have looked like. In this case, I feel very lucky being able
to participate in something so... darn fun.
Sirionó leaders and Dan Brinkmeier at
Iviato, Bolivia.
Daniel A. Brinkmeier
Program Developer, Community Outreach
Environmental and Conservation Programs
The Field Museum, Chicago
Email:
brink@fmppr.fmnh.org
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reconstructions of fish weir landscape