Tag Archives: arts

Speaking Event: The Art and Science of Climate Change

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Climate change is a complex scientific subject with a plethora of data-rich reports that detail its diverse impacts. Not everyone, however, responds to facts and figures or charts and graphs. That is why art can help broaden the public conversation and help create new pathways to understanding this critical issue.

On Monday, November 16th, I will be giving a presentation that I developed called The Art and Science of Climate Change at The Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design. Blending my two worlds, it introduces the basic science of climate change and explores how artists from around the globe are reacting to its various impacts and possible solutions.

After the talk, there will be a reception for the group art exhibition, Visualizing Climate Change in which I will be showing images from my ongoing project on American Glaciers. The show runs through November 23rd.

The lecture begins at 6PM and the gallery reception runs from 7PM to 8:30PM. But please note, to attend the talk you must RSVP via email to: isd@cooper.edu. Seats are limited. No RSVP is required for the exhibition reception following the talk. If you are in the area, please stop in and say hello. This event is co-sponsored by the SciArt Center.

The Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design
​7 East 7th Street, Room 715
(Between Third and Fourth Avenues)
New York, NY 10003

Please contact me to arrange a presentation for your organization.

Art Exhibition: Visualizing Climate Change

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The Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design is bringing art and science together this month in an effort to expand public understanding of climate change. In a group exhibition called Visualizing Climate Change, artworks of various mediums explore the challenges of this pressing issue.

“Each exhibited work,” according to the curators, “seeks to conflate the bounds of science, art, architecture and engineering in order to provide fresh insight, expression and understanding around specific issues of climate change.”  The show is the culmination of a year long student fellowship program in which each participant pursued both scientific and visual research on particular aspects of our changing climate.

Displaying the work of the student fellows as well as contributing artist Melissa Fleming, the exhibit runs from November 16 to 23. The opening reception is scheduled for Monday, November 16th from 7 to 8:30 PM in the 7th floor lobby of the Cooper Union Foundation Building at 7 East 7th Street, NYC. This event is free and open to the public.

Credit: CUISD

Credit: CUISD

Art and Climate Change: “America’s Endangered Coast”

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Three years ago today Super-storm Sandy slammed the New York City tri-state area. Creating a record storm surge of 13.88 feet at the Battery in lower Manhattan and causing $70 Billion in property damages, it opened the region’s eyes to the dangers posed by rising sea levels. But, this issue is not limited to the northeast. It is a looming threat to all coastal communities in the US. In an effort to call attention to this critical situation, photographer John Ganis has created a series of images – and a soon to be published photo book – called “America’s Endangered Coast”.

Traveling from Texas to Maine, he documented sites that have been and will likely be impacted by either by storm surge flooding or tidal flooding. For each photograph he notes not only the location, but also its elevation above sea level. Of these images Ganis says, “Climate change is a fact and a predicament for mankind of great urgency that I feel compelled to address in my photographic work.”

The two main drivers of sea level rise are thermal expansion – a process in which water expands as it warms – and melting glaciers. Both are the result of rising global temperatures.

Since 1880, according to the IPCC, the average global sea level has risen about eight inches. Looking ahead, as sea levels continue to rise, future storm surges and tidal flooding events will have a higher starting point and will therefore be able to reach further inland. So, in comparison to the impacts of Sandy, a lesser storm could produce similar, if not worse, flooding in the future.

To see images from “America’s Endangered Coast”, visit: www.johnganisphotography.com/galleries/the-endangered-coast/

JohnGanis_NJ_2013

“House Site & Shrine, Brook Ave, Union Beach NJ (El. 5 ft.) 2013” Credit: John Ganis

Speaking Event: The Art and Science of Climate Change

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Climate change is a complex scientific subject with a plethora of data-rich reports that detail its diverse impacts. Not everyone, however, responds to facts and figures or charts and graphs. That is why art can help broaden the public conversation and help create new pathways to understanding this critical issue.

Today, I will be giving a presentation that I developed called The Art and Science of Climate Change at the New York Photo Salon. Blending my two worlds, it introduces the basic science of climate change and explores how artists from around the globe are reacting to its various impacts and possible solutions.

If you are in the area, please stop in and say hello.  The program begins at 6:30 PM.

The New York Photo Salon
School of Visual Arts (SVA)
136 West 21st Street, Room 418-F
(Between 6th and 7th Aves)
New York, NY 10011

Please contact me to arrange a presentation for your organization.

Speaking Event: The Art and Science of Climate Change

Posted on by

Climate change is a complex scientific subject and there are a plethora of data-rich reports that detail its diverse impacts. Not everyone, however, responds to facts and figures or charts and graphs. That is why art can help broaden the public conversation and help create new pathways to understanding this critical issue.

Today, I will be giving a presentation on the “Art and Science of Climate Change” for a Human Impacts Institute event at the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn, NY. My talk will cover both the basic science of climate change and explore how artists from around the globe have been responding to its various impacts and possible solutions.

More speaking events coming this autumn!

Event: The Art and Science of Climate Change

Posted on by

Climate change is a complex scientific subject and there are a plethora of data-rich reports that detail its diverse impacts. Not everyone, however, responds to facts and figures or charts and graphs. That is why art can help broaden the public conversation and help create new pathways to understanding this critical issue.

This Friday, I will be giving a presentation on the “Art and Science of Climate Change” at the 52nd National SPE Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. My talk will cover both the basic science of climate change and explore how artists from around the globe have been responding to its various impacts and possible solutions.

Looking forward to it!

Weather and Art: Snowflakes

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We have all heard the phrase, “no two snowflakes are alike.” This popular adage originated in the late nineteenth century and is widely credited to Wilson Bentley, a farmer from Jericho, Vermont with a deep curiosity about water’s various forms. He was also the first person to photograph individual snowflakes.

Bentley collected fresh falling snowflakes on a blackboard and documented them for posterity with a technique known as photomicrography. This is a photographic process that involves attaching a camera to a microscope. Working in the late 1880s and early 1900s – the days before film – Bentley’s images were captured on emulsion covered glass plates. His first icy masterpiece dates to 1885.

During the course of his lifetime, Bentley photographed more than 5000 individual snowflakes and did not find any two to be exactly alike. In 1931, he published a book of his work entitled, “Snow Crystals.” Extensive collections of his images can be seen at the Jericho Historical Society in Vermont and the Buffalo Museum of Science in upstate New York.

Scientists today continue to study how snow crystals grow.

Photo of an individual snowflake circa Winter 1901-02 by Wilson Bentley.                   Credit: Wilson Bentley/Smithsonian Institution Archives

Photo of an individual snowflake circa Winter 1901-02 by Wilson Bentley.                   Credit: Wilson Bentley/Smithsonian Institution Archives

Frigid Weather Turns Ocean Waves to Slush

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How cold has it been in New England recently? Cold enough for ocean waves to partially freeze along the coast of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.

Photographer Jonathan Nimerfroh captured these unusual slushy waves on February 20th, when the local air temperature reached a high of only 19°F. While freshwater freezes at 32°F, seawater – owing to its salt content – has a lower freezing point of 28.4°F.

To see more images of this uncommon wintry phenomenon, visit the photographer’s website.

Image Credit: Jonathan Nimerfroh

Image Credit: Jonathan Nimerfroh

Weather and Art: Vortex

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The word vortex – popularized last winter by extended arctic outbreaks related to a wobbly polar vortex – can sound rather ominous. A vortex, however, is simply a whirling mass of air or water.  Its spiral pattern is found throughout nature.

In the weather world, vortices form for a variety and combination of reasons, including differences in atmospheric pressure, wind shear, and centrifugal force. Tornadoes, waterspouts, and hurricanes, are all examples. They, unlike the polar vortex, are visible because of the water vapor and debris that gets sucked into them.

The spiral shape of a vortex is also represented in art in various sizes and materials. One of the largest is Richard Serra’s massive (67’x21’x20’) cor-ten steel sculpture, “Vortex” (2002), at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas. One of my more recent sightings, however, was on a much smaller scale. Also simply titled “Vortex” (1932), this was a small (11×14”) gelatin silver photographic print by Edward W. Quigley at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. As someone who is fascinated by the intersection of art and science, this image really stood out to me at MOMA’s current photography exhibition, “Modern Photographs: The Thomas Walther Collection, 1909-1949”. It is on view through April 19, 2015.

Credit: Edward W. Quigley and MOMA

“Vortex”, 1932.  Credit: Edward W. Quigley and MOMA

Credit: Richard Serra and

“Vortex”, 2002.  Credit: Richard Serra and Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth 

Art and Climate Change: Sebastião Salgado’s “Genesis”

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Science and photography have joined forces to increase public awareness about the pressing issues of climate change and the environment. Sebastião Salgado’s Genesis, on view at the International Center of Photography in NYC, is a series of 200 black and white photographs that document what society has to lose if actions are not taken to mitigate climate change. They are the product of an eight-year global survey of landscapes, seascapes, wildlife, and indigenous peoples.

Inspired by nature’s ability to restore itself on his family’s former cattle ranch in Brazil, Salgado’s photographs capture the beauty and grandeur of what remains of this planets’s pristine wilderness. In a statement written on a wall of the exhibition, Salgado and his wife/curator, Lélia Wanick Salgado, say, “As well as displaying the beauty of nature, Genesis is also a call to arms. We cannot continue to pollute our soil, water, and air. We must act to preserve unspoiled land and seascapes and protect the natural sanctuaries of ancient peoples and animals. And we have to go further: we can try to reverse the damage we have done.”

Using the images as a springboard for discussion, the ICP has arranged a number of events to accompany the exhibition. These include a series of lectures and panel discussions as well as a schedule of gallery walks where climate scientists from Columbia University explain the environmental issues facing the particular regions represented in Salgado’s photographs.

The exhibition runs through January 11, 2015.  For the full schedule of events, visit: http://www.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/icp-talks

Salgado_Genesis

The eastern part of the Brooks Range, The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, USA, 2009. © Sebastião Salgado.  Credit: Sebastião Salgado/ICP