The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of all true art and science.  He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.
Albert Einstein
In the end, consciousness begins as a feeling, a special kind of feeling to be sure, but a feeling nonetheless.
Antonio Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens
 
Most scientists accept the fact that the earth is in the spasm of the sixth mass extinction. Dr. E.O. Wilson names the next age the Eremozoic Age – the Age of Loneliness - because if we proceed with our insouciant disregard for our planet’s health, half of the species on Earth today will be gone by the end of the century.  It is widely accepted that endangered lemurs may well be extinct in the wilds of their homeland, Madagascar, in as few as 30 years.
 
Recently the excellent CNN report, “Planet in Peril”, brought home to millions of Americans our current planetary distress including the plight of Madagascar’s lemurs. The news media frequently feature these environmental “wake-up calls”, but while these messages of doom overwhelm us with disturbing facts and time-frames, they don't engage us emotionally or propel us to action.
 
The challenge then is to find ways to emotionally engage the public with our environment and motivate them to act on its behalf.  One medium that begs for such emotional connections is art. Art is capable of delivering a sense of urgency about our ailing earth and the fact that we are failing to protect it. Art speaks viscerally to us, making us realize that we are damning our progeny to a world without the beauty of biodiversity that we enjoy. Art can be an effective tool in bridging this missing emotional connection to our earth - or more specifically, the intersection of art and science.
 
The Lemur Conservation Foundation (LCF) has always held that art is a great vehicle for conservation and that science and art are sister disciplines whose practitioners, through collaboration, can have an astonishing impact. To create the kind of art that can affect change in the public consciousness requires a profound understanding of the living world, one borne of scientific investigation and an appreciation for nature’s wonders.  For this reason, LCF operates a program called “The Art/Science Environmental Imperative” that supports this intersection of art and science.
 
The goal of LCF’s Art/Science Environmental Imperative is to operate workshops where university level and professional artists (visual artists, poets, creative writers, musicians, fine photographers, etc.) and scientists (biologists, physical anthropologists, psychologists, environmentalists, etc.) come together into a research environment (the Myakka City Lemur Reserve) where creative arts are not normally part of the activities – so as to transcend the perceived divisions between art and science. The intent is to foster cross-disciplinary interactions that will deepen the experiences of both artist and scientist. Too often students feel pressured to narrow their research or artistic focus. LCF aims to create an atmosphere were these borders are blurred, allowing scientists and artists alike to discover new ways of looking at the same thing.       
 
With lemurs to symbolize the plight of many species at risk in the wild, the program uses the LCF colony as a conduit for this art/science intersection and the impetus for a collection of compelling artistic work.  Dr. Jonathan Miller, Program Director of Environment Studies at New College of Florida, pushes this concept even further proposing an “Aestheto-Blitz,” loosely based on the concept of “Bio-Blitzes” where scientists of different specialties swarm over a targeted patch of habitat in an effort to quickly document all the species found there. While the focus of a Bio-Blitz is intense and exciting, one ends up with a list of species – “informative, but not particularly inspirational,
 
Miller proposes an Aestheto-Blitz where “poets, painters, photographers, essayists, musicians etc. are let loose in the same area to capture not names but the moods, details, light, wonder, etc.., hopefully conveying what is at stake in a way lists and numbers can’t… Obviously there is a lot of potential for scientists to inform artists about what is rare and significant and for artists to help scientists see through new eyes (or ears).”  The intersection of art with physics, engineering, microbiology and mathematics is not uncommon in the academic world, but such connections are a new and exciting concept with regard to living animals, ethology, physical anthropology and psychology.
 
The LCF’s Myakka City Lemur Reserve is a beautiful, peaceful, 100-acre section of pristine old Florida full of “genii loci”, not to mention its charismatic and endangered inhabitants. It is a perfect place for this intersection, as LCF has hosted both scientists and artists over the years. Dr. Laurie Santos from Yale University, who was recently named one of the 10 brightest young scientists by Popular Science, has conducted extensive cognitive research at the reserve with her students. About the Art/Science Environment Imperative, she wrote, “As for your idea for the art and science mission, I think this is a great idea, and something that LCF will be well-positioned to spearhead.”
 
In sum, the LCF Art/Science Environmental Imperative could well create the work and insight that can help restore that sense of mystery, wonder and amazement needed to stir the hearts and minds of those who need encouragement in coming to grips with our environmental crisis.