SAMS news room

Calling arty science projects to celebrate natural Scotland

April 10th, 2013 Oban – Next week the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) will host an information session on “Imagining Natural Scotland”, a major new project to mark the Year of Natural Scotland 2013 by bringing artists and scientists together.

Imagining Natural Scotland is an interdisciplinary project that hopes to encourage creative and scientific people to join together on projects celebrating nature, environment, ecology and science through art, in the widest possible sense of the word. To introduce the project a series of public information sessions are being held around Scotland.

At the information session in Oban three presenters will show how cooperation between unrelated livelihoods can help protect the marine environment. The presenters include Director of SAMS Professor Laurence Mee, London fashion designer Daniel Mee and company director Andrew Gregoris.

Professor Mee’s research focusses on the meeting point of science, people (ie users of the marine environment) and policy in the marine environment. Daniel Mee is taking time out from his haute couture specialism to design a line of T-shirts drawing attention to shark finning and Andrew Gregoris is an expert in brand innovation, helping businesses use the power of creativity to increase commercial value.

Imagining Natural Scotland has funds for which creative (and eligible) projects can apply. Funded projects will then be invited to attend an international conference in St Andrews in August and will be included in a book about the project.

The information sessions will explain the guidelines to apply for funding and are intended to encourage debate around the project’s themes and to provide an opportunity for creative and scientific practitioners to network and develop ideas. Teams can apply for up to £10,000 to support work that investigates Imagining Natural Scotland’s key questions.

Imagining Natural Scotland is a joint initiative by Creative Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the University of St Andrews.

The Oban information session will be held on Monday April 15th 4-6pm in the William Spiers Bruce (WSB) Conference Room at SAMS, Dunbeg, Oban, PA37 1QA