Articles

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Think of a natural environment that you know very well. A forest, a meadow, a beach... It can be any. Do you have it? Good! Now, if you can, try to remember a walk in that place. What it smells like, what you hear, what you see or what you touch. All these details are important in memory and constitute a part of our perception of the environment. But what if we modify the senses? 

Imagine going back to that place. This time, however, we're going to equip you with some gadgets. First, a reflective mask that will make you anonymous to others and blend your figure into the landscape. Then, headphones that play amplified binaural beats, recorded in that same environment but on different days (you might be walking through a sunny space while listening to the rain). And now, with these changes... you're walking again! Do you think your perception of your surroundings would be the same?

Reference

Mateu, Paula " ¿Cómo percibe la Inteligencia Artificial la naturaleza? Este proyecto científico-artístico trata de descubrirlo ", National Geographic Spain, 08 September 2024, online.

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Abstract

We are facing a planetary emergency caused by interdependent biodiversity loss and climate change. Whilst climate change is itself a major driver of biodiversity loss, climate change and biodiversity loss also share many anthropogenic drivers and reinforce each other's impacts. It is thus crucial for actions directed at climate change mitigation and adaptation to be synergistic with those addressing biodiversity loss. Actions addressing the two crises of climate and biodiversity separately, while overlooking their intertwined and mutually reinforcing nature, are likely to fail. The energy sector is a key element of climate change mitigation strategy, which, if poorly planned, could adversely affect biodiversity. In this study we describe the synergies and potential trade-offs in combating climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as the relevant EU policies and projects.

Reference

Prakash, S. and Neuville, A., Biodiversity, climate change and energy, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2024, doi:10.2760/755341, JRC134744.

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Legal personhood has been signed into law for the Whanganui River and the Urewera. Now Māori and Pacific leaders are proposing the same for whales at the UN as a further step to protect the environment. Māori leaders, including the Māori King, together with other leaders from throughout the Pacific have supported a resolution for the adoption of the whale as ocean ambassador to the United Nations. They are seeking support for a global agreement on protecting the legal personhood of whales in international waters.

Reference

Smale, Aaron "Māori and Pacific leaders propose legal personhood for whales at UN", online: newsroom. , https://www.newsroom.co.nz/maori-and-pacific-leaders-propose-legal-personhood-for-whales-at-un, 18 Sept 2023

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Artist and researcher Jol Thoms offers his reflections on No Happy Ending: Storytelling at the end of the world, the recent CREAM Documentaries of the Imagination discussion between lead researcher and award-winning filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) and Mushroom at the End of the World (2015) author and anthropologist Anna Tsing. In this conversation, the radical thinkers and makers focussed on a critical question concerning communication in the inevitable planetary condition of climate catastrophe, asking: “How on Earth do we tell stories if indeed there may be no happy ending?”

Reference

Thoms, Jol "Are We Talking About Climate Realism?", online: CREAM , 2022

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16 young people, who were between the ages of two and 18 when they filed the lawsuit in March 2020, have already felt the impacts of climate change, from dangerous air quality brought by wildfires to the extreme drought that jeopardizes some of their family-owned cattle ranches. As these environmental consequences mount, young people have emerged as a leading force in the climate activism movement.

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Uyeda, Lay Revy “Fossil fuels v our future: young Montanans wage historic climate fight”, the Guardian, online, 2022. 

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Granting rivers legal personhood represents a seismic shift from the bedrock belief in Western society that humans are at the apex of the natural world. But for many Indigenous people, the concept of nature as a sentient equal to humans is nothing new. In Maori culture, for example, ancestors, or tupuna, are embodied in the landscape. “I see the river and the trees as ancestors,” says Uapukun Mestokosho, a member of the Mutehekau Shipu Alliance, the committee that advocated for the river’s legal rights. “They’ve been here long before we have and deserve the right to live.

Reference

Berge, Chloe “This Canadian river is now legally a person. It’s not the only one.”, National Geographic, online, 2022.

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Ecuador and Bolivia have already enshrined rights for the natural world, while there is a campaign to make ecocide a prosecutable offence at the international criminal court. The report for the Law Society, the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales, explores how the relationship between humans and mother earth might be recalibrated in the future.

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Siddique, Haroon “Give legal rights to animals, trees and rivers, say experts”,the Guardian, online, 2022. 

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Through “O futuro é indígena,” we want to remind people that we Indigenous peoples are the stewards of the Earth’s most critical biodiversity. The world’s largest interconnected communities of species live in our ancestral territories, and it’s our job to protect them.

It is of utmost importance, then, that when we speak of biodiversity, we begin by speaking of us as Indigenous peoples: when our bodies are under threat, so too is the collective body of the Earth and, consequently, the future of both humanity and the rest of the Earth’s community.

Reference

Aedy, Alice and Terena, Eric “O futuro é indígena”, online, wepresent, 2022.

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The Massachusetts high court on Tuesday ruled that the US’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil, must face a trial over accusations that it lied about the climate crisis and covered up the fossil fuel industry’s role in worsening environmental devastation.

Reference

McGreal Chris, “Exxon must go to trial over alleged climate crimes, court rules” online, the Guardian, online, 2022.

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“The Italian parliament approved a law that means the state must safeguard ecosystems and biodiversity “in the interest of future generations.”

Reference

Frost, Rosie “‘Historic’ vote means Italian state must now protect animals and ecosystems” euronews.green, online, 2022

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In a global first for climate breakdown litigation, judges from Germany have visited Peru to determine the level of damage caused by Europe’s largest emitter in a case that could set a precedent for legal claims over human-caused global heating.

Reference

Collyns, Dan “German judges visit Peru glacial lake in unprecedented climate crisis lawsuit” online, the Guardian, online, 2022.

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I believe we now need to tell stories about how beautiful, how rich, how harmonious the Earth we inherited was, how beautiful its patterns were, and in some times and places still are, and how much we can do to restore this and to protect what survives. To take that beauty as a sacred trust, and celebrate the memory of it. Otherwise we might forget why we are fighting.

Reference

Solnit, Rebecca “Ten ways to confront the climate crisis without losing hope”, the Guardian, online, 2021.

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The changes in the legal system deeply affect the psyche. If the law says I’m in relationship with the ocean and the river then it won’t be long before people start behaving as if we are interconnected with the other life forms on the planet.

Reference

Barkham, Patrick “Should rivers have the same rights as people?”, the Guardian, online, 2021

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It would be a mistake to believe that the pandemic is a crisis that will end, instead of the perfect warning for what is coming, what I call the new climatic regime. It appears that all the resources of science, humanities and the arts will have to be mobilised once again to shift attention to our shared terrestrial condition.

Reference

Latour, Bruno “The pandemic is a warning: we must take care of the earth, our only home”, the Guardian, online, 2021.

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The paper provides guidance for involvement in, with, and through art and makes suggestions to create links between disciplines to support meaning-making, create new images, and metaphors and bring in a wider solution space for climate change. Going beyond the stereotypes of art as communication and mainstream climate change education, it offers teachers, facilitators, and researchers a wider portfolio for climate change engagement that makes use of the multiple potentials of the arts.

Reference

Bentz, Julia “Learning about climate change in, with and through art.” Climatic Change 162, 1595–1612, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02804-4.

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Rights of Nature offers a potentially transformative approach to environmental advocacy by offering an enhanced potential for alliance and coalition building. Currently, environmental battles are often fought on a case-by-case basis, with individuals and organizations lining up with a specific cause, rather than pursuing the bigger aim of protecting an ecosystem as a whole, now and into the future. By bringing together people who have previously worked separately to protect not only against the next looming threat, but to establish rights that can be enforced into the future, Rights of Nature could open the door to a whole new world of environmental protection.

Reference

Levang, Emily “Can we protect Nature by giving it legal rights?” ensia, online, 2020.

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Yet all human rights ultimately depend on a healthy biosphere. Among the human rights being threatened and violated by the ecosystem degradation and the decline of biodiversity are the rights to life, health, food, a healthy environment, water, an adequate standard of living and culture.

Reference

Boyd, David R. “Why all human rights depend on a healthy environment”, The Conversation, online, 2020.

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The material scale of the human enterprise helps explain how we’ve managed to transform global nutrient cycles, alter the climate, and drive myriad species to the brink of extinction.

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Stone, Maddie “Human-made materials now equal weight of all life on Earth” National Geographic, online, 2020.

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Earth jurisprudence, is an emerging theory of law and governance that requires a radical rethinking of humanity’s place in the world, to acknowledge the history and origins of the universe as a guide to humanity and to see our place as one of many interconnected members of the Earth community.

Reference

Maloney, Michelle “Rights Of Nature, Earth Democracy And The Future Of Environmental Governance”, Green Agenda, online, 2019

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Breaking down the artificial barriers between science and art can lead to collaborations, broaden the understanding of problems facing communities, and grow engagement to explore solutions. Does it ever feel like there’s something missing from your work that you can’t quite put your finger on—something to bring more meaning and accessibility to your science? That missing element might be art. Art and science have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship throughout human history. Over the past 2 centuries, Western society began perceiving these disciplines as more exclusive than complementary. But recently, rejection of this artificial separation has spurred a movement to recognize and revive mutually beneficial art-science collaborations.

Reference

Blaeser et al., Why—and How to—Engage Artists in Science, Eos, 18 Aug 2023, online: https://eos.org/opinions/why-and-how-to-engage-artists-in-science 

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The European Union’s new Citizen Science Prize makes a statement. It honors, presents and supports outstanding projects whose social and political impact advances the further development of a pluralistic, inclusive and sustainable society in Europe. This year the jury of the European Union Prize for Citizen Science 2023 was composed by Kat Austen (GB/DE/KR), Andrea Szorzi (IT), Pedro Russo (PT/NL), Stefanie Wuschitz (AT), Lewis Hou (GB).

The selected projects are unique in their own way and together signify the future direction of citizen science in Europe. We were keen to see projects that demonstrate the real value to the knowledge landscape offered by engaging and co-creating with non-experts meaningfully throughout the research process. During our decision-making, we saw some fantastic projects that were still in the earlier stages of development and we are excited to see how they progress, and encourage those to consider reapplying in future.

Our three main prize winners deal with key issues such as health, circular economy, and social inclusion, showcasing how outstanding citizen science projects introduce new methods to face complexity within a globalized and tightly entangled world.

Extracts from the Jury Statement for the European Union Prize for Citizen Science 2023.

Read the full statement by the Jury & check out the winners of the European Union Prize for Citizen Science 2023. The award ceremony for these prizes will take place at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz (Austria) - 06-10 September 2023.

Abstract

The Farm to Fork strategy is a cornerstone of the European Green Deal. It strives for a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system fulfilling the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The strategy presents the policy perspective: the case for action; the need to build a new food chain; the imperative for a just and fair transition benefitting all actors within the EU and beyond. Essentially, it puts forward the grand plan for sustainable food systems. But what about the people perspective? How do our values, our culture and our individual views of the world influence how far policy can drive change in the way we think about food, and how willing we are to really embrace sustainable food systems? Such pivotal questions are not only scientific in nature, so we looked to the JRC’s Art & Science programme and our artists in residence, Sonja Stummerer and Martin Hablesreiter (honey & bunny) to help us explore what goes into the making of a sustainable sandwich, and how will it taste?! Although this beautifully illustrated book is the unique creation of Sonja and Martin, their research was enriched through lively engagement with scientists from across the JRC who work in numerous fields linked to the complex world of sustainable food systems. Our hope is that the book serves to create healthy conversation and debate, to make the implicit explicit, and to explore collectively the emotional challenges that lie on the horizon.

Reference

European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Stummerer, S., Hablesreiter, M., Food futures : sustainable food system, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/31139

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Collaborations between artists and ocean scientists are becoming increasingly frequent. As the UN Ocean Decade (2021-2030) stresses the importance of engaging with the public, there is a growing interest in using art as a tool for communication as well as for scientific exploration and experimentation. This mini-review charts the current academic research on art-science collaborations and the ocean, focusing on literature where artists and scientists work together to produce something based on scientific research. The study finds that these relationships are never apolitical, are complex and develop differently depending on each project. In sum the paper will highlight that although the academic literature is limited, its diversity has the potential to reach numerous academic disciplines and that focusing on process and engagement should be a direction for further research to help broaden the academic reach of these important oceanic knowledges.

Reference

Whittaker GR (2023) Creatively connecting science, society and the sea: a mini-review of academic literature focusing on art-science collaborations and the ocean. Front. Mar. Sci. 10:1234776. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2023.1234776

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EEA Report | No 25/2019

This report, building on the experience of both the EEA and Eionet, presents a synthesis of global and European megatrends with illustrations of key emerging trends, wild cards and uncertainties. It aims to inform about on‑going, emerging and potential future developments, raise awareness and contribute to the diffusion of anticipatory thinking.

Read more: Narratives for Change series 

EEA is launching the Narratives for Change series to bring new perspectives to the fore, enhance societal dialogue around alternatives to dominant paradigms, and enable agency and deliberation through debates and participation. The publication of each of the narratives within the series will be followed by webinars aimed at bringing together multiple perspectives and expertise to collectively explore and discuss avenues for steering European societies away from the old, unsustainable normal.

Reference

Benini, Lorenzo and Vincent Viaud (lead authors) (2020) Drivers of change of relevance for Europe's environment and sustainability. EEA Report | No 25/2019. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2020 © European Environment Agency, 2020. doi:10.2800/129404

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The enthusiasm to bring the arts and science closer together, even to emphasise similarities, is rather peculiar, as they are so very different. There are not, however, two cultures as pronounced by C.P. Snow, but both are aspects of a common culture which includes industrial management, engineering, architecture, economics, politics, and sport. Yet there is currently much media coverage devoted to just this link. A recent art/science supplement in Nature begins with an introduction claiming that today it is hard to find a true artist-scientist like Leonardo da Vinci. But was da Vinci, a brilliant technologist, really a scientist? What did he discover about how the world works? And what about current scientist artists like the poet and Nobel Laureate for chemistry, Roald Hoffman, or the discoverer of the contraceptive pill, playwright and novelist Carl Djerassi?

Reference

Wolpert, Lewis (2005) "Strange bedfellows" in LabLit.com ( http://www.lablit.com/article/39 ). Accessed 06/07/2023

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Owing to their intricate variable density architecture, and as a principal site of star formation, molecular clouds represent one of the most functionally significant, yet least understood features of our universe. To unravel the intrinsic structural complexity of molecular clouds, here we leverage the power of high-resolution bitmap-based three-dimensional (3D) printing, which provides the opportunity to visualize astrophysical structures in a way that uniquely taps into the human brain's ability to recognize patterns suppressed in 2D representations. Using a new suite of nine simulations, each representing different physical extremes in the turbulent interstellar medium, as our source data, our workflow permits the unambiguous visualization of features in the 3D-printed models, such as quasi-planar structures, that are frequently obscured in traditional renderings and animations. Our bitmap-based 3D printing approach thus faithfully reproduces the subtle density gradient distribution within molecular clouds in a tangible, intuitive, and visually stunning manner. While laying the groundwork for the intuitive analysis of other structurally complex astronomical data sets, our 3D-printed models also serve as valuable tools in educational and public outreach endeavors.

Reference

Imara, Nia; Forbes John C. and James C. Weaver: “Touching the Stars: Using High-resolution 3D Printing to Visualize Stellar Nurseries”, The American Astronomical Society, vol. 918, no. 1, published 25 August, 2021 DOI 10.3847/2041-8213/ac194e 

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The CulturEU funding guide is filled with visual aids to help you easily navigate the EU funding landscape and quickly find those opportunities which are most relevant to you. Icons are provided to indicate for which sector, type of action and organisation each funding programme is likely to be most relevant.

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CulturEU Funding Guide. EU Funding Opportunities for the Cultural and Creative Sectors 2021-2027. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2021 © European Union, 2021

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There is something captivating about destruction on an epic scale. The horror of it draws the eye and ear, pulling focus. Looking out across acres of scarred earth at the open cast lignite mine of Janschwalde near Cottbus / Chóśebuz in Lausitz (Lusatia in English) by the German-Polish border, the sheer magnitude of the anthropogenic change visited on the landscape is magnificent and catastrophic. Yet, scale and perspective are key here. Is it possible to look beyond this immensity and find that, at other scales and in other timeframes, there are stories evolving that transcend catastrophe?

Reference

Austen, Kat; “Learning from Landscapes for the Post-Anthropocene”, online: Against Catastrophe, 2022

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"Loving trees is easy, loving diatoms not to so much. At  less than 0.2 mm in size, and only visible to us through a lens, they remain hard to narrate and empathise with. And yet, they play indispensable roles. They feed marine animals, absorb carbon dioxide dissolved in the ocean from the atmosphere, and produce more oxygen than trees. Their nutrient-rich bodies are swept up into the atmosphere by storm winds and deposited on land where they become an essential fertilizer to the tropical forests. Without diatoms trees would die; our planet would perish. And yet, diatoms, along with other microbes, remain idle in current ecological conversations.

It is in this context that this issue of Antennae, titled ‘Microbial Ecologies’ offers a timely range of multidisciplinary practices, approaches, methodologies, and conceptions to help us see and value the microbial worlds that until recently have remained invisible. This issue is co-edited with bio artist Ken Rinaldo—an artist internationally recognized for interactive art installations developing hybrid ecologies with animals, algorithms, plants, and bacterial cultures. His art/science practice serves as a platform for hacking complex social, biological, and machine symbionts. Inventing and constructing techno interfaces allows for illuminating and amplifying the underlying beauty, and intertwined symbiosis existent in natural living systems."

Reference

Aloi, Giovanni (ed.): "Microbial Ecologies", Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture Iss. 59, 2022.

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The Journal of Art & Ecology is the online publication platform of the MA Art & Ecology at Goldsmiths.
Each annual edition presents creative practice and critical reflection on the artistic research of the graduating cohort.

Reference

The Journal of Art & Ecology is published by MA Art & Ecology, Goldsmiths, University of London

All Rights Reserved by Respective Authors

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In 2013, researchers at Oxford published an analysis of the jobs most likely to be threatened by automation and artificial intelligence. At the top of the list were occupations such as telemarketing, hand sewing, and brokerage clerking. These and other at-risk jobs involved doing repetitive and unimaginative work, which seemed to make them easy pickings for AI. In contrast, the jobs deemed most resilient to disruption included many artistic professions, such as illustrating and writing.

Reference

Thompson, Derek "Your Creativity Won’t Save Your Job From AI", online: The Atlantic, December 2022

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This study investigates the role(s) that arts and cultural organisations can play in fostering knowledge valorisation for the benefit of society, and how European valorisation policy can contribute to strengthening the impact of the arts and cultural organisations in knowledge valorisation processes. Based on a literature review and interviews, almost 100 inspiring practices, as well as eight in-depth case studies, it shows how the arts and cultural institutions in Europe already participate in knowledge creation and valorisation processes, and take up different roles to better connect research with society. The study also highlights the main barriers that currently limit arts and cultural organisations from realising their full potential contribution in fostering knowledge valorisation. Based on the findings, the study formulates recommendations on how the European Commission can further improve the conditions in the EU to tap into the potential of the arts and cultural organisations for increasing the impact of knowledge valorisation arising from research.

Reference

European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Fostering knowledge valorisation through the arts and cultural institutions, Publications Office of the European Union, 2022, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/377987

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Artist Siobhán McDonald will turn recordings into an acoustic installation exploring humanity’s impact on the ocean

Siobhan McDonald is a JRC artist-in-residence working with Arwyn JONES on soils and permafrost. Last week The Guardian (see The Guardian 19/10/2022, p.26) dedicated an article to her work in the arctic.

Reference

Carrol, Rory "Microphones dropped into ocean off Greenland to record melting icebergs", online: The Guardian , Oct, 2022

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The NEB presents an urgent call to action, rallying, finally, all to contribute actively to the greatest challenge humanity has faced. As practitioners of SciArt, we think the NEB creates an opportunity to push these practices from niche to public field, thrusting SciArt beyond its conventional spaces (lab, studio, exhibition or performance). SciArt practitioners have hands-on experience in implementing artistic projects within scientific set-ups and vice-versa, often relating to diverse stakeholders; provoking new perspectives on exploration, introspection and behavior; and fostering meaning, emotions and values both individually and societally

Reference

Ayton-Shenker Diana; “Becoming World-Makers with a New Global Bauhaus”, online: Leonardo, 55 (4): 324, 2022 doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_e_02220 

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In reaction to the Commission’s Communication on the New European Bauhaus, and in order to constructively contribute to the own-initiative report by the European Parliament, Culture Action Europe has consulted its wide cross sectoral membership made by over 170 networks, organisations, policy-makers, activists, individuals, to draft the following policy recommendations.

Reference

Culture Action Europe; Position Paper on the New European Bauhaus, 2022.

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Culture Action Europe published new research on being a SWANA artist and cultural worker in the EU. Entitled “In Search of Equal Partners”, the paper was developed in the framework of the “Engaging with SWANA/MENA cultural agents in the EU” project, supported by the Open Society Foundations (OSF).

The objective was to involve this community in advocating and shaping European cultural policies and funding schemes that are more inclusive and better safeguard fundamental rights (including working conditions, mobility, freedom of artistic expression and gender equality).

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More about Culture Action Europe.

Credits

Main researcher: Yamam Al-Zubaidi.

Experts: Marcin Górski, Marie Le Sourd, Gabriele Rosana.

Researchers: Reem Abd Ulhamid, Nawar Alhusari, Jumana Al-Yasiri, Ceyda Berk-Söderblom, Houari Bouchenak, Eyad Houssami, Rana Issa, Rajae Mechkour, Meriem Mehadji, Sepideh Rahaa, Fairooz Tamimi and Amna Walayat.

Culture Action Europe: Tere Badia, Mamen Garcia.

This project has been funded with support from the Open Society Foundations. 

Published by Culture Action Europe (Jan 2022)

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“This toolkit has been developed as a practical resource to support artists, researchers, technology experts, and companies in finding a common ground and language, identifying goals and objectives, offering guidance to plan and execute a collaborative project with the aim to maximise the impact of the outcomes.”

Reference

S+T+ARTS Collaboration Toolkit. Rodolfo Groenewoud van Vliet. Contributors Ramona Van Gansbeke, Tânia Moreira, Aurélie Delater, Lucy Bunnell, Camille Baker Editors: Ramona Van Gansbeke, Lija Groenewoud van Vliet, Tânia Moreira. Published by: STARTS Ecosystem, 2020.

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This report presents the findings of the Cultural Value Project, one of the most in-depth attempts yet made to understand the value of the arts and culture – the difference that they make to individuals and to society. The three year project, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, has been looking into the question of why the arts and culture matter, and how we capture the effects that they have.

Reference

Understanding the value of arts & culture: the AHRC Cultural Value Project, 2016 by AHRC.

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This is the Edge, and it’s quite possibly the smartest office space ever constructed.

Reference

Randall, Tom: The Smartest Building in the World, Bloomberg, 2015

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