The Cave Lab Project: Science, Technology and Other Stories in the Karst of Bizkaia

In 2015 and 2016 two separate discoveries were made of Magdalenian cave etchings in the Basque Country, which attracted a considerable amount of public attention and the decision by the local government to commission multidisciplinary studies of the sites. Questions emerged from members of the cave research team and the local community over who had the right of access to the cave, how the cave and its study should be approached, and how decisions were being made.

This project follows some of the multidisciplinary studies taking place in the karst of Bizkaia, and attends to the collaborative work being carried out by scientists, speleologists, local authorities, and other members of the community. More specifically, it looks at instances where caves are being used as 'laboratories' and explores how the participants of the study can engage with caves in ways that allow for different types of knowledge to emerge.

To address this, I expand on my previous research with speleologists and the physicality of caves, and draw on studies that look at how knowledge is produced through practices in which different enactments between actors enable different versions of it. In this context, scientific knowledge emerges as one of many possible enacted practices between people and things, and the interactions between participants, technology, and the materials of the cave, become meaning-making opportunities. Giving back to the cave and multidisciplinary collaborations this multiplicity thus allows for creative processes to flourish within and between the actors involved, and helps identify and address points of tension and conflict.

An extensive part of the research involves accompanying and collaborating with the multidisciplinary teams inside and outside the caves and shed light on the practical nature of their work. It also requires a comprehensive examination of the historical contextualization and the socio-economic importance of caves and the karst system in the Basque country, and an in-depth analysis of the policies and different bodies regulating them.

This project aims to make a methodological contribution to the fields of STS and anthropology in areas involving multidisciplinary collaborative projects that work with innovative ways of bridging theory and methods and offers new ways of conceptualizing multidisciplinarity. It also addresses how multidisciplinarity can involve disciplines and practices outside of traditional academic fields, widen its reach and increase its breadth, whilst additionally inviting a redefinition of what a 'lab' is.

By offering a focus on an aspect that is of local socio-cultural significance, this study expects to raise interest with the teams involved in the multidisciplinary collaborative projects, as well as their communities, and seeks engagement from new angles with the topics discussed here. Although this study is specific to the interactions of people and caves, it has the potential to be applied to other research sites that are part of local politics and environments.