By Cissy Sun, Head of Art-Science

On July 2 2020, our 3rd Art x Science Dialogues focusing on Photography x Environmental Ecology was held via Zoom. Ms. Laure-Emmanuelle Perret-Aebi and Mr. Lats Kladny, Founders of Compáz Studio and Ms. Yining He, writer and curator on photography guided us through their works and practices in their field and had an inspiring discussion on the possibilities that the combination of art, science and technology could bring to raise the public awareness of environmental issues.

From top to bottom and left to right: Laure, Lats, Yining and Cissy

We trust that everyone has acquired informative insights on the topic. Due to the time constraint, we could only present a limited number of questions. If you have further questions for our speakers regarding photography and environmental ecology, please email us at artscience@swissnexchina.org. We will try our best to forward them to the speakers.

The webinar recording is available to view and download here.

The webinar slides are available to download here.

Here are some key event takeaways that we would like to share with you.

Where Art and Science Meet

Presented by Laure-Emmanuelle Perret-Aebi & Lats Kladny, Founders of Compáz Studio

Compáz Studio was established in Neufchâtel three years ago, aiming to bring about discussions on science, art and technology, and also to bring up projects that will have positive impact on the society and transform the technology into art. Since Laure has a solid scientific background in Chemistry and has worked in Photovoltaic field, they’ve worked on a lot of new technologies, especially transforming the solar panels into building elements and they also try to improve the implementation of solar technology in our daily life.

Photography and solar technology both use sunlight. Inspired by the nature, Compáz Studio started the Photo-Synthesis project. Photo-Synthesis are works of art powered by the sun, figuratively and literally. The top layer; “the art”; is a representation of plants, nature’s undisputed masters of photosynthesis: the process of converting light energy into chemical energy. Alternatively, solar panels; the artwork’s substratum or canvas; is man’s answer to plants’ ability to harness the power of the sun. Not by storing it as sugars, but by converting it into electricity.

The special film covering the standard solar panels are developed in recent years in the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) in Neuchatel. This film has a particularity to be transparent for given wave length of the light, which means the light could go through the film and the image to reach the solar cells to produce the electricity. This artwork offers a different angle of solar technology.

They emphasized that when we talk about photography and environmental ecology, it is very important that we could bring aesthetics to technology.

From Waters to Mountains: Three Environmental Ecological Projects from Sino-Swiss Photographers

Presented by Yining He, Writer & Curator

Yining has been writing, translating on photography for years, and is also actively engaged in the contemporary photography scene by curating exhibitions, organizing public programs and reviewing works as judges for contests and awards in photography field.

The exhibition she’s currently working on is “Between Mountains, Hills, and Lakes”, supported by Pro Helvetia and swissnex China. The exhibition will be touring to Design Society Shenzhen, Modern Art Base, Shanghai and Three Shadows Photography Center Beijing from August to December 2020.

The exhibition takes the geographical environment of Switzerland as a metaphor. It will examine the photography and related media works related to the country's society and culture from different dimensions such as geography, myth, science and technology, and daily relevance.

Yining introduced photographic projects from Chinese photographer – Haishu Chen and Lanqin Zhu, both joined the residency programs in Switzerland. Haishu has a special focus on the waters in Switzerland while Lanqin were inspired by the mountains there.

Yining also gave a special introduction of Swiss photographer Christoph Oeschger based in Zurich, whose work reflects on the environmental issues and politics.

Discussion and Q&A Session

As a team of artist and scientist, how do you think about the current relationship between human and technology?

• It is our responsibility to question about technology. We have many technologies that are important and we absolutely need them. But sometimes, it is important to ask if the technology is really necessary. And also think about for what kind of society we would like to build for tomorrow.

• Technology is coming out from human, we have the responsibility to take care of that. And art can contribute, not to give answers but to open questions.