Research Catalogue

Juanita Schläpfer is currently a research associate at the University of the Arts in Zürich and a freelance science communicator. Her professional background is in exhibition development for science centres on subjects ranging from particle physics to climate change. She was an Artist in Residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco where she developed interactive artworks on the theme of complexity in nature and self-organising systems. At the Swiss national research facility, the Paul Scherrer Institute (ETH-Domain), she developed exhibits for the visitor centre and instigated hands-on science learning activities for children.

Her current research projects are of a transdisciplinary nature and examine the different modes of communication and collaboration in art-science research. Of particular interest is the relationship between formal and informal scientific knowledge, for example citizen science, and the role of art in informal science learning. This research brings together science communication, aesthetics theory and transdisciplinary theory, to examine ways of understanding and representing rapid environmental change.

Her education includes a BA in Communication Studies and Sociology and an MSc in Science Communication.