PA41B:
Climate Literacy: The Arts as an Ally in Understanding Earth and Invoking Change I

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Session ID#: 30602

Session Description:
Research demonstrates that evidence and logic are not enough to persuade people to live more sustainably. Instead, effective action requires a combination of cognition and affect working together rather than separately or alone. Since prehistoric times, the arts have inspired deep engagement, reflection, and discussion thanks to their affective power to attract, involve, stimulate, and motivate people to do things they might not otherwise have the interest, energy, or courage to do. In their affective roles as agents of personal and social change, the arts, informed by the cognitive power of science and other fields, can introduce global change issues in new ways and move people—emotionally and physically—to act. This session will present examples, images, ideas, and results demonstrating how the arts have worked in collaboration with science and other fields to spark attitudinal and behavioral shifts and make climate change and sustainability personal, visceral, and actionable.
Primary Convener:  Marda Kirn, EcoArts Connections, Boulder, CO, United States
Conveners:  Heidi Steltzer, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, United States and J.D. Talasek, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, United States
Chairs:  Marda Kirn, EcoArts Connections, Boulder, CO, United States, J.D. Talasek, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, United States and Heidi Steltzer, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, United States
OSPA Liaison:  Heidi Steltzer, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, United States

Cross-Listed:
  • ED - Education
  • GC - Global Environmental Change
  • SI - Societal Impacts and Policy Sciences
Index Terms:

0815 Informal education [EDUCATION]
1616 Climate variability [GLOBAL CHANGE]
1630 Impacts of global change [GLOBAL CHANGE]
9810 New fields (not classifiable under other headings) [GENERAL OR MISCELLANEOUS]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Accessing Both Halves of the Brain to Make Climate Decisions: How Community-Sourced Media, Earth Remote Sensing Data, and Creative Placemaking Art Can Cultivate Change (266895)
Julia Kumari Drapkin and Lindsey Wagner, ISeeChange: Community Weather and Climate Journal, New Orleans, LA, United States
What Renaissance Literary Theory Tells us about Climate Communication (297441)
Genevieve Juliette Guenther, Eugene Lang College, The New School, New York, NY, United States
From Tattoos to Paintings: An Overview of Where Art and Science Intersect in the Anthropocene (300820)
Brian L Kahn, Climate Central, Princeton, NJ, United States
Aquamess: Portraits of Garbage at the Top of the World, observing and changing our synthetic footprint for human and planetary health (271972)
Carol Devine, Self Employed, Toronto, ON, Canada
Crude Life: The Art-Science Engagement Work of Brandon Ballengee (248066)
Marda Kirn, EcoArts Connections, Boulder, CO, United States and Brandon Ballengee, Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, New Orleans, LA, United States
Seeing Orange, Feeling Blue: Sound Art as an Approach to Bridge the Gap Between Public Perception and Scientific Understanding of Risk (276728)
Heidi Steltzer, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, United States and Brian House, Brown University, Department of Music, Providence, RI, United States

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