A while back Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science, offered some sound advice to climate scientists about “good climate communication”. Basically, if you’re a climate scientist who wants society to take your data seriously, you have to be something of a political scientist too. Mooney spotlights the Evangelical Climate Initiative as an example of good climate communication that can reach a broader constituency. It’s something that’s “not what you’d expect”. The name itself breaks a popular stereotype about who cares about climate — and a stereotype about evangelicals: that they’re inherently anti-science.
Ethan Zuckerman has posted a beautiful piece that stitches together many of the ideas we deal with in How To Win and the Center for Artistic Activism. I can’t recommend it enough:
A butterfly is hopping from flower to flower. Oh, good. I think. The butterfly is busybodying as usual.
We are like butterflies. We busybody ourselves every day for our survival as we think we know how. But the difference with us, is that we know we are not as innocent as the butterflies. We are about to ruin this planet we call ours through our stupidity.
Luckily, there are so many of us in the world, who are now awakened, ready to act to save our world.
Surajit Sarkar discussed his work with the A Deep Fried Jam trio and the community art initiative in India the Catapult Arts Caravan in relation to the media consumption in India.
Surajit Sarkar lives in New Delhi, India. He has held positions as varied as photocopier salesman, bank officer, primary school teacher and developer of curriculum for primary school children and teachers alike. Since 1991, he has worked with video, at first in mainstream television writing and directing a highly successful weekly science & tech program on Indian national TV network. He moved to documentary film making, and has worked on subjects ranging from agriculture, education and the uneven costs of ‘development’. A number of these have been recognized nationally and internationally and have won prizes in film festivals in India and abroad.
A celebrity-centric Upgrade! with artists Jillian Mcdonald and Eyebeam Resident Jamie O’Shea.
Jillian McDonald, famous for “Me and Billy Bob,” presented old and new work which focuses on the subcultures that drive the celebrity and horror film industries. She showed a DVD, some quicktime files, a data-driven web project and more dvd. Jamie O’Shea performed an extraordinarily efficient art experience at precisely 8:22:22 on 2/22. An entire performance, narrated by Corey Sullivan, took place within 1/5 of a second. Jamie’s automated memory process created an indelible, and effortless, impression of this instant.
