CLIMATE AFFECT | 2020
A constellation of thinkers and their works, integrating philosophical and scientific lenses.
AFFECT LANDSCAPES
Climate change is a concept exceedingly difficult to relate. Analytical angles fail to capture the magnitude of crisis. This project documents an effort to represent our cultural response to climate change as the amorphous “hyperobject” in order to arrive at a more complete understanding. Using the landscape/terrains as a metaphor, and clay as a medium, I attempt to create both a tactile and visual experience of what is otherwise amorphous and imperceptible.
Much like other calamities that appear in the 24-hour news cycle, our ordinary consumption of the climate crisis is reduced to a mere spectacle. Mainstream media serves to ‘other’ and distance what is harsh, lived, felt reality for many across the world, while reinforcing our sense of status and safety. My project aims to combat traditional means of information dissemination, which frequently serve to neutralize critical observation. More broadly, I aim to find meaning in the despair of these looming crisis by communicating difficult emotions like loss, grief, and fear in a shared space. By collectively and publicly recognizing loss, we take a necessary step in confronting realities and the impossibility of maintaining business as usual.
Much like other calamities that appear in the 24-hour news cycle, our ordinary consumption of the climate crisis is reduced to a mere spectacle. Mainstream media serves to ‘other’ and distance what is harsh, lived, felt reality for many across the world, while reinforcing our sense of status and safety. My project aims to combat traditional means of information dissemination, which frequently serve to neutralize critical observation. More broadly, I aim to find meaning in the despair of these looming crisis by communicating difficult emotions like loss, grief, and fear in a shared space. By collectively and publicly recognizing loss, we take a necessary step in confronting realities and the impossibility of maintaining business as usual.