Slibfluisteraars – artistic strategies for the transition to sustainable materials

How can art give teach us to listen to the unheard in climate transitions? The research project 'Slibfluisteraars – artistic strategies for the transition to sustainable materials' responds to developments around the use of silt along the Groningen coast and explores how artistic practices can give nature a voice in the public dialogue about transitions to sustainable material use.

Photo: Susanne Luurs

Around the coast of the Wadden Sea in the Eems-Dollard region, the level of silt in the water has a significant impact on local ecosystems and economies. Finding a different purpose for this silt offers opportunities for new applications, as well as nature restoration in the region and beyond. Various ecological, economic, and sociological interests, values, and visions converge around this material Slibfluisteraars (Silt Whisperers) explores how the incorporation of non-human perspectives, such as those of the silt and its ecosystem, can bean urgent intervention in and addition to this context, contributing to the creation of a more holistic approach to the materials transition.

Imagination is essential for making non-human perspectives truly relatable, thereby challenging and deepening the conversation about sustainable materials among designers, industries, and users. Artists can have a key role in this, as they are able to translate complex, interdisciplinary subject matter within their artistic practices.

Slibfluisteraars therefore collaborates with four artist-researchers who, drawing on their own artistic practices, will explore listening methods and share them with various stakeholders, such as residents, policymakers, and businesses. At each stage, the developed methods are tested, evaluated, and refined, creating a continuous, iterative process of co-creation and reflection.

Partners

Ruby de Vos, senior researcher at the Professorship Art & Sustainability, is the project leadof this research (Research Centre Art & Society, Hanze University of Applied Sciences). In this project, she collaborates with artist researchers Marjolijn Dijkman, Susanne Luurs, and Leonard Witte. Next to this, Slibfluisteraars partners with Klaei B.V (Klaas Laansma) and Sense of Place (Ruud Reutelingsperger).

This project is funded by a KIEM-MV of Regieorgaan SIA.