Abstract
<p>This introductory chapter frames the central question guiding the volume: what makes an art–science interaction meaningful? It outlines how this guiding question emerged within the PALETTES research environment, an inter- and transdisciplinary project that brings together researchers from different backgrounds, artists, and cultural practitioners in collaborative exchanges within and beyond academia. Recognizing that art-science interactions are multifaceted and context-dependent, the book explores meaningfulness through different disciplinary and practice-based perspectives.Against this background, the chapter positions the book within ongoing debates on art–science collaboration and epistemic diversity, and situates its scope, rationale, and distinctive features in relation to the current state of the art (and science). It discusses the positioning of art as an epistemic practice in its own right as central to the book’s approach, critically addressing the risk of instrumentalization when art is reduced to serving as a tool for predefined scientific goals. The book examines how art and science can enrich one another as distinct yet interacting ways of knowing. The chapter also reflects on the collaborative conditions under which the chapters were developed, showing how they emerged through sustained dialogue, co-creative activities, and iterative exchange. The contributions thus reflect the very collaborative processes they seek to examine at a meta-level. The chapter further clarifies its intended audiences and concludes with a reflection on the approach to composing the book, including the principles that guided the selection and development of the contributions, as well as on the composition and structure of the book itself, explaining how the volume is organized without fixed thematic divisions, and how this structuring can be understood as a curatorial practice that makes visible the relations between contributions. It also provides a brief overview of the chapters and their respective lenses, followed by cross-chapter connections that offer orientation for navigating the volume as a whole.</p>