On Wednesday, March 28, the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) presents “Double Agents: Practicing Coastal Science and Visual Arts on Cape Cod” by Mark Adams and Terri Smith. This free event begins at 7 pm at Napi’s Restaurant, Provincetown.

Terri Smith

“As coastal scientists we get many chances to put on boots, chase storms or navigate the coastal shoals and experience the exhilaration of waves and sand in motion. Sometimes these immersive experiences feed directly into a process of making visual art. The tools of the coastal geologist: GPS, sonar, LIDAR, and UAS, create pictures and allow us to estimate how ocean systems work. The tools of the artist thrive on observation, channeled into a process of inspiration – the creation of art, at best, may illuminate the scientific data we collect – likewise, the products of science can appear to be or become works of art,” said Smith and Adams in a joint statement. “Either way, we are enormously lucky to be able to play with these tools and express something of the joy of living in the outer Cape’s landscapes and seascapes.”

Terri Smith is a coastal research geologist at the Center for Coastal Studies. She is interested in the physical processes that shape marine and coastal environments and lead hydrographer for the seafloor mapping program at CCS. She specializes in vessel-based acoustic mapping in ultra-shallow water, and the use of current technologies to visualize and interpret 3D spatial data such as bathymetry, and 2D acoustic backscatter imagery. She is a graphic artist and oil painter, and currently shows her artwork at the Post Road Art Center in Marlborough, MA.

Mark Adams

Smith has a M.S. in Geology and a B.S. in Marine and Coastal Policy and Management from the University of Rhode Island College of Environmental Sciences. She is a Research Associate for the Marine Geology Department at the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), and a Research Geologist for the Coastal Processes and Ecosystems Laboratory (CaPE Lab), a joint research effort between the School for the Environment within the University of Massachusetts at Boston and CCS in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Mark Adams has been a cartographer/coastal specialist with the Cape Cod National Seashore since 1992 and a painter/videographer on the Cape and Islands since the 1980s. Trained in Ecology and Environmental/Landscape Planning at the University of California, Berkeley; art training at California College of the Arts, mentored by the gurus of the Provincetown arts community (FAWC, PAAM, etc). He has shown artwork at PAAM, the Schoolhouse Gallery (Provincetown),  Fireplace Project (Easthampton) and On the Vineyard Gallery (Tisbury) among others.

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