The Art of Climate Change

Current research claims individuals spend 28 seconds or less when viewing a particular piece of artwork in a museum. This time tally includes the all-too-common selfie-taking. So museums have been introducing ‘slow art’ programming to encourage visitors to spend more like 5–20 minutes viewing single artworks of their choosing.

Taking time to really look is what visual literacy—the ability to look, observe, see, describe, analyze and interpret what is in front of us—is all about. The benefit? Seeing the world from a different perspective, a valuable life skill, as described in this Forbes post.

So what does this have to do with the climate crisis? The complex realities of climate change are all around us. But, just like artworks, they can’t be realized in 28 second glances. One of the most vexing components of climate change is that the majority of its destructive effects—the breaking down of long-established ecologies—is subtle (that is, until the effects are not, of course, as in those pesky catastrophic weather events). So visual literacy in nature, as in art, can help us understand the nuances and enormity of the climate crisis.

In this Science News for Students article, you can read about seven artists, scientists and composers who are attempting to teach, express cooperation, encourage action, explain ideas and concepts of climate change using art.

Here in Madison, as described here, elementary students designed and built a ‘city of the future’ using sustainable city planning concepts and recyclable materials. And the dance troupe The Seldoms premiered Floe at the Memorial Union.

Artists speak out through many venues. As described in this Think Progress article, Alexis Frasz’ consulting company, Helicon, facilitates collaborations between environmental and climate advocates and artists. Landscape architect Michael Singer works with ecologists and engineers to design gardens, buildings and infrastructure projects that are integrated with nature. Franz says his structures “improve water and soil, restore ecosystems, capture rainwater — and they are also beautiful and engaging public spaces.”

The Land Art Generator works to add value to public space. Artists, architects, engineers and scientists work in tandem toward a post-carbon economy and toward enhancing the city with works of public art, while providing equitable power to thousands of homes around the world.

This past December’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop25) held in Madrid was enriched with powerful artworks, as described here.

Now, take a few minutes to master your visual literacy skills with the help of the Toledo Museum of Art’s visual literacy primer, The Art of Seeing Art™. Then go back and notice the little things.

Are things indeed always as they appear at first glance?

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This blog is written by LWVDC’s Climate Team. If you receive blog posts by email, our system automatically inserts “by Brook Soltvedt.” Brook is the webmaster, not the author of the blog.

Photo Credits:

Flagg, J. M. (1917) Wake up America! Civilization calls every man, woman and child! / James Montgomery Flagg. United States, 1917. N.Y.: The Hegeman Print. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/91726511/.

Highsmith, C. M., photographer. (2016) Spanish artist Jaume Plensa's "Self Portrait" sculpture outside the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio. Lucas County Ohio Toledo. United States lucas county ohio toledo, 2016. -10-02. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016632484/.