Blending scientific and artistic insights and creative practice: two case studies presented by artist and scientist collaborators

As an interdisciplinary collaboration of two writers (of poetry, prose and film scripts) and an astronomer, the authors have developed robust art-science astronomy projects blending scientific and artistic ways of knowing and creative practice. Dovey's current project explores how exoplanets (planets around other suns) are imagined by the public and by astronomical artists, incorporating scientific insights from Pope's research in exoplanetary science. Creative outputs include science communication films that screen at international 'Science New Wave' film festivals and within cultural and educational institutions. As the recipient of an ANAT (Australian Network for Art and Technology) Synapse grant, Sometimes worked closely with astrophysicists (including Tamara Davis and Pope) at the University of Queensland on combining poetry with astrophysics. Her project utilised scientific and literary methods to explore the contextualisation of astrophysical vocabulary, resulting in several poetic works as well as two short audio-visual works exploring the subject of dark energy. This paper shares the background context, aims and outcomes of these two related projects as case studies. The live IAC session includes screenings of film clips and readings from recently published work that has resulted from these projects.