Drawing, singing and design .. How did the arts present the climate crisis?

Sarah Abdin

The issue of climate change is one of the most important issues that concern the world in general, and it has high international priority and attention because of the dangerous effects that result from phenomena such as melting ice, sea level rise and global warming.

Although these phenomena are difficult to observe in our daily lives, because most people do not live near glaciers or permafrost places, art has played an important role in expressing this problem and drawing the world’s attention to its seriousness through various artistic mediums, from classic opera epics to video games and paintings Painted on the walls of cities, and in this report we review five artists, scientists and musicians who chose art to draw attention to the seriousness of climate change.

Climate change dress
American artist Michelle Banks frequently uses scientific theories in her work, and says she uses science because it deals with ideas of life in general, and helps her find answers to questions that she does not find answers to.

Banks decided to design a dress inspired by the idea of ​​climate change, which is closer to a wedding dress and called it "snow and carbon marriage", similar to the dress from the top of traditional wedding dresses, but from the bottom it looks green in color with brown faded fabrics.

Banks chose that color that does not suggest freshness or nature, because it is closer to the color that appears when the Arctic snows melt, and through the presentation of the dress, Banks hopes that people will think about the implications of their decisions, their daily lifestyle, and its far-reaching impact.

Thaw ballet
In ballet art, dancers use their bodies to express most human emotions such as love, war, victory, defeat, happiness, and sadness. In ballet melt ballroom dancing designer Diana Mofus, dancers have crossed their bodies about climate change, where characters appear dancing around glaciers, and in front of images of drifting snow, Their bodies mimic the process of breaking down glaciers and dissolving them in seawater.

Climate Change Opera
American musician and composer Matthew Bartner grew up on the northern edge of Alaska, one of the states in the Pacific, and was noticing climate change on his way home from college, prompting him to write an operatic work on the effect of melting ice on the climate.

Bertner collected the records of scientists who talk about climate change, interviews on the subject with Alaskan residents, with the voices of the opera singer from seven different places around the world. The circle around climate change is unusual.

Underwater homes
There are some places that will feel the effects of climate change sooner than others, and the American artist Xavier Cortada has paid attention to the dangers of climate change on the American city of Miami in particular, because he knows that it will suffer due to the rise in the sea level, being a low and flat city and close to the waterline, which is Why are so many floods already occurring?

Cortada was frustrated that the Miami government did not address the matter, and the population did not feel these risks that could not be ignored, so he expressed his thoughts on climate change in an art project entitled "Underwater Houses", during which he painted house numbers in large sizes, each number corresponds to a water level The sea that rises to sink marks after a certain altitude, and Cortada gave the signs to homeowners to put them in their yards.

Children of the city drew more cortada-like signs and numbers, put them near their schools, and along busy roads to draw attention to the problem of climate change. "The art project has already had a real impact, and the people who put the signs in their yards have created a bond to address the causes of climate change," he says. In their societies. "

Climate change game
"This is one of the topics that people are not interested in learning about their dangers, and it shouldn't be so," says Washington University climate scientist Dragan Frierson, and he chose digital art to design a game that helps players learn about the dangers of climate change.

Dragan believes that digital art and games can say a lot, as it helps people connect to that major problem, by visualizing the invisible things in everyday life, and in Dragan's game strikes disasters throughout the United States, and gives the player an opportunity to act with the appropriate solution by helping A group of scientists and experts in the field of climate.