Ada, The following is a selection of posts from the Yasmin ART_SCIENCE list-serve. Please also post to ada and I will make sure your posts get to YASMIN as well. There is some valuable discussion on sound if you are interested... Week 2 is below, Week 3 is attached.
******************************************* From: GEORGE GESSERT I want to return to something that David M. mentioned earlier, that artists can "expose underlying cosmologies" and contribute "subjective modes" to scientific information. To me this is tremendously important. Whether we are scientists, artists, or something else altogether, global warming is profoundly challenging emotionally and psychologically. It interrupts many of the narratives of Western civilization - and, I would guess, of most other cultures as well. Much of the time we can defend ourselves from the psychological impact of what is unfolding, but realistically we cannot expect ourselves always to be dispassionate. According to James Lovelock in The Revenge of Gaia, we face climate changes so extreme that we would be wise to consider what information we want to preserve, and how to preserve it. Collapse of some sort, he believes, will unfold over time, but probably in no more time than separates us from the Edwardians, that is, in no more than a human lifetime. This sounds like slow motion apocalypse. Of course, Lovelock is only one scientist. We are in a situation where we know we don't know what will happen (Rumsfield was right about a few things), but we do know that most of the news is not good. As it unfolds people, artists and scientists included, are reacting in ways that recall reactions to other historic diasters, such as the spread of nuclear weapons: denial, numbness, despair, grief, and anger. Also humor, elegaic grace, and occasional heroic actions, such as Al Gore's. I think that art can hold a mirror up to all of these reactions, and, at best, validate each in its own way. By that, I do not mean to imply that it is desirable to live indefinitely in a state of denial, despair, or numbness (or for that matter with elegaic grace), but art can let us know that such reactions (and I would guess that all of us have experienced each of them at one time or another), are natural and human. At the same time there are other, more productive and fulfilling possibilities available to us when we are ready. Art, simply by presenting images that we could not have imagined, can offer reminders of hope. Hope often does not take an expected form. Last week in San Francisco I saw a sketch William Wiley has done for a global warming pinball machine. I could never have imagined such a project, and had to chuckle: a little seed of hope. Now, at the risk of making this message too long, I want to respond to a few of the postings. Danny is absolutely right, I think, that "the politics of the sublime is where artists are, I think, on fertile ground for their investigations". Climate change lends itself to comprehension through the sublime, which accommodates not only the vastness and fearfulness of what we face, but the time frame involved - problems of scale that Roger brought up. I also agree with Roger that the time has come for an evolution in awareness in the West, but I would qualify that by saying "rapid" evolution. …………………………………………………………………………….. FROM: JOEL > > David, I'd like to comment on your words in your message ... > > "By expanding our physiologically-limited perception of space, time, > and frequency, artworks can help audiences/participants experientially > and more intuitively/viscerally understand important interconnections. " > > If by expanding our physiologically-limited perception of space, time, > and frequency, you mean using art to make larger concepts of space, > longer timelines, and higher frequencies more clear as an approach to > inspiring a vi > public, I would disagree that art does that well. I would > say that art > generally does the opposite - it brings space, time, and frequency > into the immediacy of one's scope of perception. > > But that's good. A visceral, experiential connection with > environmental issues is very important, and I have lately, meaning the > last few years, become more aware of the value of sound in > understanding the environment. As president of Electronic Music > Foundation, I've been involved in producing several events as examples > of our Ear to the Earth program, all of which have deepened my > conviction that sound has a unique importance in engaging the public. > > More forcefully, I would say that listening is close and personal. > Listening creates feelings of connection and involvement. The more > focused our listening, the greater will be our feelings of > experiencing the environment, and the deeper and more immediate will > be our understandings of the world. > > Yet sound - as a vehicle to engage the public with the environment - > has not been discussed very much in this list. Why do you think that's > so? From: DAVID Joel, If I understand you, we are in agreement. I was referring to the ability to transpose/interpret phenomena beyond our senses (literally or metaphorically) to bring them into the range of our conscious awareness. Sonification and visualization are of course prime examples of this, and the ones that I use most frequently within immersive displays. I see how the semantic confusion could arise from the use of the phrase "expanding perception." Literally this could mean developing the ability to perceive beyond our accepted physiological limitations, as is argued to occur with psy phenomena and some altered states of consciousness achieved through meditation, trance states, entheogens, etc. But I was referring to it as bringing phenomena into the scope of our "baseline" senses. But in my experience, there is a very fuzzy line between the two, since perceptions are shaped withing the continuum of conscious awareness and physiological capabilities of sensory inputs... I wholeheartedly agree that electronic music and sonification are vital examples of this. When I studied analog synthesis with Bob Moog, he would discuss how the capability of transposing these electronic phenomena into our sensory realm opens doorways to expanded conscious awareness. Can you give us examples of how you think this can be applied to create a more intimate connection to climate-related topics? …………………………………………………………………………….. From: RAMON GUARDANS Can anything good come from climate change? If climate change is bad anything opposing it is good If opposing climate change is good climate change helps to do good things So climate change is bad but can lead to good things. If climate change has some good aspects my be we should identify what is bad about it , and this would be the pollution that drives it, and the hardships that will fall on others sooner than later. Dealing with pollution (an appropriately negative term that helps avoid the ambiguities above) and enhancing access to, early warning fair information and resources to respond would seem to central aspects. Dealing with pollution, a specific kind of waste considered dangerous, is part of the production process. No production no waste, no waste no production its simple. The identification of waste, as the identification of productive resources requires a frame of reference, waste and resources are a continuum of inhomogeneous distribution in space and time as everybody knows sometimes waste is thick sometimes resources are plenty and depending on your production process you can easily have diverging ideas about what is what. For many of us arms would be to large extent a form of pollution, before they are used in their fabrication , twhen disposed off. But many of us live in countries where a significant fraction of the GDP is from producing this kind of pollution, that is obviously valued in a different way by concerned workers, traders and shooters. And I a can only respect the workers and may be even some traders and shooters It might be wise to work on the construction of multiple cooperative frameworks that are able to resolve conflicts by more developed means that shooting or poisoning. Greenhouse gases and climate change might be a useful frist step A final note to joel / roger etc on sound I very much agree that sound is great thinking ground, my latest art work was algorithmic echolocation (two clips in yt unnder that name) where we mapped into sound the dynamics of the last 420 000 years of atmospheric chemisty (CO2 Temp, etc) as measured in air bulbs in icecores of antartica. …………………………………………………………………………….. From: JOEL CHADABE David, I'm delighted to read your response. Yes, we're on the same frequency, so to speak. Also with Bob Moog, who was a close friend. EMF's Ear to the Earth program has as its intent precisly to engage people in environmental issues through environmental sound. The program has different manifestations, among them an annual festival each October in New York, other events such as our participation in Tevereterno in Rome this past June, and the Ear to the Earth Network, soon to be launched. Have a look at this report on the installation itself: http://www.eartotheearth.org/reports/0610_festival/suspendedsounds2.html …………………………………………………………………………….. From: NORIE Hi Joel, Re your post:<More forcefully, I would say that listening is close and personal. Listening creates feelings of connection and involvement. The more focused our listening, the greater will be our feelings of experiencing the environment, and the deeper and more immediate will be our understandings of the world. Yet sound - as a vehicle to engage the public with the environment - has not been discussed very much in this list. Why do you think that's so?> Thanks for raising the issue of sound, especially in this thread where "feelings of connection and involvement" can be so important in an art work -- to give a physical and emotional sense that we are all connected in and through climate. This was certainly our experience with The Trouble with the Weather. I'm not sure what Janine thinks but I thought that the beautiful and intriguing sound in her work played a really important part.It was both gentle and also full of unexpected intense and surprising moments. It really worked to create a physical and emotional space around her work, which was otherwise physically very open. (The sound too was quite open, but nevertheless as sound, physically described a space). By creating an intimate space for the work, it meant that people felt really comfortable with lying on the floor under the dishes and spending quite a long time there. In our work, collecting breath really made us appreciate the "feelings of connection and involvement" -- the physical breathing into a mic sounded out both an intimacy and a generosity that felt really important and gave a viscerality and warmth to in some ways a conceptual work. You could hear people generously contributing to an "imaginary'" solution to global warming.We noticed that the collective collected breath that sounded through the installation also invited people into the space and held the space together, in the way sound in particular is so good at. As breath it also had a slightly anxious or uneasy edge, to me at least, and that also felt right emotionally and conceptually. So, you ask, why so little discussion of sound on this list? Good question... but in a way, it's like most such discussions... unless they are about "sound art" it often doesn't figure. I don't know if it's just the hegemony of the visual in western cultures today and the consequent poverty of language to discuss sound? Or maybe it's the emotional side of sound that in some ways makes it seem of lesser significance, or a limited significance (it can only speak in an emotional or musical register)? Or?? …………………………………………………………………………….. FROM: ANNICK >Janine, I don't think that there are actually "many citizens" that > have changed and are able to think global complexity (cf. > the "scale" discussion). It is not only a question of > governments (it would be much easier then) : the ecological > groups are very much into that model too, even if they try > not to, or if their "mastering" is on different topics or > unconscious. OK. Let say I am pessimistic ;-) > But I heard an artist explain that he does not want to go to > Antarctica to do artwork because it was actually increasing > the pollution of the area and that artists were not doing > better than the others there. OK. BUT, he still did an art > project (to denounce the pollution of Antarctica) that he > gave to the artists that were actually going and who > installed the piece and took a nice picture of it and > brought it back. MORE : in a discussion, he asked to the > other artists : if you were encountering life in Antarctica, > would you step on it ?" ... forgetting that *there is* life > in Antarctica and that, precisely, Earth *is* a global > complex system and that what he does, here in Europe *is* > affecting the whole planet. > > It is just an example that struck me. I am not condemning or > judging : we all are full of contradictions (I am). And I > don't know what should be done or not done (for instance > artworks *in* Antarctica or in space). > I find it very hard to *truly* think global complexity for > myself. I am not positionning myself above the others ! And > I find even harder to decide what is the best to do or not > to do. …………………………………………………………………………….. From: ANDREA POLLI I also appreciate Joel's comments about sound, I have also seen a lack of emphasis on sound on the science side. For example, a few months ago I had the opportunity to visit an amazing multimedia science communication facility at one of the US agencies and although the visualizations of climate and climate change information shown there were amazing, in a custom designed room on an impressive VR system, there was not a single speaker installed in the room, it was very surprising. The Eco-sonification panel here at Mutamorphosis that Roger mentioned on the list earlier happened yesterday and presented a very interesting range of sonification approaches and projects. Some projects that were presented as having primarily aesthetic aims, others with primarily scientific aims. Because the issue of the environment is so politically charged, in my opinion it was almost impossible for most of the projects not to exhibit a kind of political perspective as well, but what was striking to me were the projects that addressed history and memory, Peter Cusack's Chernobyl recordings and Michale Young and Paul Adderly's sonifications of soil samples from Lake Chad. Finally, as someone who is going to Antarctica soon, I wanted to respond to Annick's post: > “But I heard an artist explain that he does not want to go to > Antarctica to do artwork because it was actually increasing > the pollution of the area and that artists were not doing > better than the others there.” I think that this artist makes an important point, although it's not a choice I have made, I appreciate this issue. A majority of Antarctica remains untouched by humans and it is very important to preserve this. For me both the understanding that a limited number of people go each year under the NSF program I am going with (under that system, if not me, it would be someone else--in other words, my not going would not affect the number of people there), and the hope that I could help communicate something about the importance of the pristine location, seemed to justify my decision. But, I can respect other people might make a different choice. These kinds of difficult choices are necessary as our mere presence on Earth is having an impact: some people choose not to fly, others choose to cut down energy use in other ways, others choose not to have children or become vegetarian, etc. We have to appreciate that the ability to make choices like this is a privilege, many people do not have the ability to make these choices due to lack of education, resources or access. Hopefully those of us who have the ability to make personal choices will also take time to advocate for governments and companies to address climate change on a larger level. ……………………………………………………………………………..
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