Herwig Turk, Senior Artist in the Social Design department at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, discusses his interdisciplinary work with scientists with our team.

First, he presents his working relationship (2003-09) with the Centre of Ophthalmology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. As it is impossible for him or any artist to ‘catch up’ with the specialised knowledge that scientists handle, he organises situations in the lab which allow him to ‘work around’ knowledge.

For hands on (2014), Herwig asked scientists to perform scientific procedures (without the required instruments) that they are used to as part of their daily routine. The gestures are so precise that fellow scientists can easily read them. hands on thus helps to unveil the implicit or tacit knowledge contained within hand movements.

Conversely, tacit knowledge experiment 1 & 2 (2011) attempted to defamiliarise the experience of the lab: scientists were asked to build a tower using laboratory objects in an unconventional, playful way, outside of their comfort zone. Trust-building was essential here. This is a reciprocal process, as artists also need time to find their footing within a scientific institution.

Herwig suggests that we create situations which encourage the scientists we work with to talk about the cultural embeddedness of oil and to let them speak for themselves about any connections that they see between oil and culture. Herwig says that initially he was after ‘big answers’ and it took him some time to value and pay attention to ‘small things’. He encourages us to turn to small things ourselves too.