The Paran\'a Ra'anga expedition

TL;DR

The Paranfa Ra'anga expedition was a multidisciplinary scientific and cultural journey along South American rivers, fostering collaboration between arts and sciences to enhance understanding of the river and its environment.

Contribution

This paper introduces a unique interdisciplinary expedition that combines arts and sciences to explore and understand the Paranfa river system.

Findings

Fostered collaboration between scientists and artists from three countries.

Revived historical tradition of river trips as knowledge instruments.

Provided new perspectives on the river and its cultural significance.

Abstract

Paran\'a Ra'anga (the image of Paran\'a, in Guaran\'i) is the name of a cultural and scientific expedition that traveled the rivers: R\'io de la Plata, Paran\'a and Paraguay, from Buenos Aires to Asunci\'on, during March 2010. The project brought together some forty scientists and artists from three countries in a slow and enriching cruise, putting in active contact actors from different backgrounds and disciplines -which usually run separately- in the framework of an unusual space-time experience. The project recovers the historical tradition of the trip as an instrument of knowledge and collaboration between the arts and sciences, necessary to build new ways of seeing and understanding the river and its banks. This article reports on the motivations of this project and its projection.