Facilitating Creative Exploration
in Liminal & Legendary Spaces
18Hz Arts Collective provides opportunities for the creative and the curious to transform questions into knowledge and connection. Event participants explore, observe and record their experiences under the guidance of professional artists, writers and nature journalers. By making science and history accessible through art and narrative, we help our attendees build a richer relationship with themselves and a deeper understanding of the world around them.
18Hz Arts Collective broadens perceptions of science & history
through collaborative, creative work in curious & remarkable locations
All of our programming tracks integrate art and narrative as teaching tools and allow us to mix and match various modules to suit both the location and the needs of our participants.
Creative Exploration Track
Observation and Organization Track
Research Methods and Analysis Track
Please visit our “Programs” page for more information.
Event participants experience ...
Place-based Artistry
This type on on-site work can change perceptions and sensibilities and create an incredibly transformative experience for artists and writers alike. Creating seedling ideas while being immersed in liminal space can lead to profound statement artworks and projects that change the attitudes of the public at large.
Asking Better Questions
Sometimes "yes" and "no" aren't the answers you need to really understand what is happening around you. Knowing the right way to pose a question for the most informative and effective response takes practice, but participants will find that the best possible questions lead to still more questions, and eventually to deeper and more comprehensive understanding.
Finding New Narratives
History and science are comprised of stories linked together through people, events and over time. Facts and truths are two different things and "myth" is not synonymous with "lie". Asking better questions leads directly to spaces within a known narrative where additional, different and surprising information may be found.
Integrative Learning
Greater comprehension, increased problem-solving abilities and informed choices to use new knowledge and cognitive tools to draw stronger conclusions are all incredible benefits of integrative learning. Putting the "A" in STEAM for our learners and teaching them how to use it to its best advantage is one of the most important goals of 18Hz Arts Collective
Using liminal space as a starting point for a deep dive into science and history connects learners to these places and the information they contain in a clear, fascinating and relevant manner.
Our locations include ...
Cemeteries and Memorial Parks
One of the few consistently remaining semi-green spaces that allow passage for wildlife away from busy roads, these locations are almost ideal for direct observation of adapting and changing ecosystems. Many are curated by their municipalities allowing for our small groups to schedule time around the work for which the space is dedicated.
Historic Register Sites and Museums
From older public works and sites of industry to generational family homes now conserved and curated as museums and educational venues, these locations provide an opportunity for deeply personal connection with the past through art and memory. Quieter, unspoken information will be revealed if one is still, respectful and observant enough to find it. These spaces are perfect for a deep dive into structures and social norms from the past and within our present.
Trails, Parks and Monuments
While many of these locations preserve sites of conflict, most are also open spaces welcoming to wildlife as well as those seeking stories of the past. The longevity of trees is a notable feature many National Parks are using to connect visitors to the stories of the locations where they are growing, since they stand directly alongside one another in the present. These spaces create opportunities for finding the hidden narratives that aren't recorded on plaques, statues or obelisks.
Historically Haunted Spaces
These are important sites in terms of history as well as ecology. While many are part of the historic register, offer coordinated educational outreach and run as nonprofit foundations in their own right, others are conserved in their empty states, allowing nature to encroach and reclaim them over time. Both forms of conservation are well-suited to the methods we use to teach and connect our participants to both the physical and the emotional worlds that thrive in these places.
Places that already contain mysteries and inspire questions are an excellent starting point for observing and gathering scientific and historical data. 18Hz Arts Collective is dedicated to bringing creatives together in these locations to build community and connection while exploring these topics.
Science is made accessible through Art, and History always contains "Story"
But on the opposite side of the scale, the subjects that truly engage and foster the desire for more knowledge in these learners are quite often considered electives and less important at best, and unnecessary, inconsequential luxuries at worst. Unfortunately this leads to Art and Narrative being:
- Underutilized and disregarded as a way of thinking and problem solving
- Taught and viewed as hobbies or extra-curricular activities
- Relegated to the status of “That’s great for kids, but isn’t part of the ‘real world.’”
Learners labeled “gifted” or “artistic” at any point during primary school education quite often find that the subjects of Science and History loomed as two of the most difficult or least favorite for many reasons, including:
- The presentation is boring
- It doesn’t seem relevant
- The concepts are abstract and unclear
- It fails to inspire curiosity.
Any space that holds scientific data and stories of human history is a valued part of our work and the real world. When art and story are employed in the service of science and history, each provides context for the other.
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