Conference Review
Representing Climate Change: Ecology, Media, and the Arts
15-17 October 2008
Summary Abstract
This two-day conference was planned to kick off the second year of the “Cultures of Climate Change” research group. This conference brought together artists, academics, activists, and members of civil society to discuss the nature of representations of climate change, a topic that was diversely intended and diversely interpreted. As the conference was timed to coincide with the launch of a photography exhibition at Clare Hall of four noted international climate photographers (Chris Steele-Perkins, Laurent Weyl, Susannah Sayler, and Ashley Cooper), the exhibition served to set a context for the conference and provide a common point of reference for the delegates.
Event Report
Our conference was attended by individuals from a range of different disciplines; our presenters included anthropologists, ecologists, literary critics, architects, journalists, media researchers, designers, and environmental activists. We began our conference with a session on the polar regions and the representations of climatic iconicity (the polar bear) and loss and change among indigenous communities (changes in maps of sea ice). Following a series of presentations by artists on their artworks—in this case, paintings, sculptures, films, and installations—that address or reflect on climate, we concluded the day with a session on ‘ecopoetics’: a session that blended literary criticism with ecological thought.
The second day shifted gears to include more praxis-oriented approaches, including talks by a visual designer and a publisher of a climate-photography calendar. Before our two keynote dialogues, we extended our discussion of representations into more political spheres, featuring presentations about contemporary national and international movements to create awareness of climate change (one highlight of this was a presentation by Joe Smith, CRASSH visiting fellow just returned from his voyage to Greenland with Cape Farewell). Our keynote dialogues complemented each other nicely; the first was an Anglo-American dialogue between representatives of two arts and ecology organisations, Edward Morris of the Canary Project (New York) and Michaela Crimmin of the RSA (London). This was one of our liveliest sessions, closed by a policy presentation by Oliver Tickell. who authored the Kyoto 2 protocol, a heavily-attended and powerful talk.
