Hosted by The Brooklyn Rail
Join us for conversations and musical performances with artists, scientists, composers, musicians, and museum directors on the implications of NFTs, carbon capture, and the performing arts in the age of climate crisis.
1pm ET: Artist dialog with Andrea Andersson, Torkwase Dyson, John Gerrard, and Miranda Massie hosted by Paul D. Miller
2pm ET: Musical performances from The ClimateMusic Project, DJ Spooky, and Jacqueline Austermann with Eve Ó Donnell and Lea Luka Tiziana Sikau
2:30pm ET: Science and Music dialog with Jacqueline Austermann, Laurie Goldman, Dr. Andrew Jones, Andrew Revkin, and Erik Ian Walker hosted by Paul D. Miller
3:30pm ET: Poetry reading by Craig Santos Perez
GUESTS
Andrea Andersson
Founding Director and Chief Curator of Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, a multi-platform and collaborative organization based in New Orleans, Andrea Andersson is a writer and curator, and has organized internationally touring exhibitions; she coedits a series of artists’ books together with Siglio Press including Adam Pendleton: Becoming Imperceptible, Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen, and Hinge Pictures: Eight Women Artists Occupy the Third Dimension. She most recently coedited Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch (Yale University Press) with Antonio Sergio Bessa, which accompanies the eponymous exhibition traveling this summer to the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. She is currently editing Troy Montes-Michie: Rock of Eye, a publication (forthcoming Fall 2021) to be released in coordination with Montes-Michie's first solo institutional exhibition.
Related Link:
Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought: https://riversinstitute.org/
Jacqueline Austermann
Assistant Professor at Columbia University and part of the Seismology, Geology, and Tectonophysics Division of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Jacqueline Austermann studies sea level changes ranging from the past glacial cycles to Millions of years ago in order to infer ice mass changes and ice sheet stability as well as constrain the Earth's rheology. Austermann also works on geodynamic and plate tectonic problems dealing with plate driving forces and dynamics of the Earth's deep interior.
Related Link:
The Earth Institute at Columbia University: https://www.earth.columbia.edu/
Jacqueline Austermann’s website: https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~jackya/
Torkwase Dyson
A painter whose compositions address the continuity of movement, climate change, infrastructure, and architecture, for Torkwase Dyson these subjects in relationship to each other produce abstractions that explore the history and future of black spatial liberation strategies and environmental racism. Through abstract paintings, Dyson grapples with ways space is perceived and negotiated particularly by black and brown bodies. Explorations of how the body unifies, balances, and arranges itself to move through natural and built environments become both expressive and discursive structures within the work. Dyson builds the paintings slowly, accumulating washes and configuring minimal geometric elements through a process of improvisation and reflection. The paint-handling producing various surfaces using brushwork and other tools is made poetic by a juxtaposition of dense marks and scored, diagrammatic lines. This compositional rigor imbues the works with an architectural presence and optical gravity. In Dyson’s work the residue of grids and the evidence of hand moving in space creates a productive tension. This precarious arrangement along with subtle use of atmospheric color, contour lines, scale shifts in the paintings invite the eye to consider the conceptual and corporeal knowledge of space in real time.
Related Links:
Torkwase Dyson in conversation with Robert R. Shane: https://brooklynrail.org/2020/09/art/TORKWASE-DYSON-with-Robert-Shane
Torkwase Dyson’s website: https://www.torkwasedyson.com/
Profile at Pace Gallery: https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/torkwase-dyson/
John Gerrard
Breaching the divisions between portrait, landscape, and history painting, generating moving images that no longer belong to ‘time-based media,’ rethinking the monumentalism of land art in the age of Google Earth, and now exploring an expanded arena of choreography and performance, the innovative form of John Gerrard’s work keeps pace with the subtle complexity of its subject-matter. Gerrard has developed a sophisticated method of trans-historical collage, overlaying terrain, figure, image, and gesture captured from real bodies and sites using satellite data, intensive photographic documentation, 3D scanning, and motion capture. The resulting works are sculptures that exist in virtual space, within environments that include complex algorithmic choreographies, multiple moving viewpoints, and realistic cycles of day and night that unfold in ‘real time’ over the course of an entire year. (Bio text by Robin Mackay)
Related Links:
John Gerrard’s website: http://www.johngerrard.net/
Profile at Pace Gallery: https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/john-gerrard/
Laurie Goldman
Director of Public Engagement at The ClimateMusic Project, Laurie Goldman is a veteran public policy professional who has held positions in government, industry, and academia. Laurie most recently served as Deputy Director of UC Berkeley’s Global Engagement Office overseeing the development of partnerships with international universities and advising the campus on best practices for global engagement in a higher education context. As head of Global Trade Policy for Levi Strauss & Co., Laurie advised on global trade and development issues. Laurie has always been passionate about working with institutions committed to a greater good and has sought out opportunities to engage on global concerns. Laurie holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from George Washington University and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Tufts University.
Related Links:
The ClimateMusic Project: https://climatemusic.org/
Dr. Andrew Jones
Science Advisor at The ClimateMusic Project, Andrew Jones is Deputy Director of the Climate Readiness Institute and a research scientist in the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he leads the Society and Integrated Earth Systems Program Domain. His research uses quantitative Earth system science tools––computer models, statistics, etc.––to gain insight into how humans affect the climate and vice versa. Andy is currently leading a project to examine how climate change will interact with urban heat islands in the Bay Area to alter the frequency of extreme heat events. He is also an amateur musician. Andy holds a doctorate from the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley.
Related Links:
Climate Readiness Institute at UC Berkeley: https://www.criberkeley.org/
Earth and Environmental Science Profile: https://eesa.lbl.gov/profiles/andrew-d-jones/
Eve Ó Donnell
Irish composer, vocalist, creative producer, and curator Eve Ó Donnell lives and works in Brooklyn. Since receiving her Bachelor of Music Degree in Composition in 2012 she has worked in New Music internationally. Eve is the curator and producer of the Irish musical discovery platform #IrishOriginSeries, and she is a founding member of the Os Ensemble choir, for which she composes regularly on the topic of environmental impact through climate change. As the Artistic Producer, Composer Initiatives at National Sawdust, Eve produces the emerging composer mentorship initiatives; the Hildegard Composer Competition for female, trans and nonbinary composers; and the Blueprint Fellowship in partnership with The Juilliard School, which is dual track career and mentorship initiative, that provides a commission, live performance and professional development resources to emerging composers.
Related Links:
Eve Ó Donnell’s website: https://www.eveodonnell.com/
Miranda Massie
Director and Founder of NYC’s Climate Museum, the first climate-dedicated museum in the US, Miranda Massie has organized a NYC-wide art installation, the five-month exhibition Taking Action, youth performance programs, science education, a monthly discussion series on climate and inequality, and much more. In the pandemic, the Museum has developed a slate of programs and advocacy tools to provide diverse constituencies with opportunities for connection. The Museum’s goal is to encourage broad civic engagement, so that the public feels empowered to take action on the climate crisis rather than feeling outscaled by the magnitude of its devastating consequences. Miranda is a regular guest lecturer in design, museum studies, and climate-focused graduate and undergraduate courses. She speaks frequently on the need for climate-focused programming in the cultural sector.
Related Link:
The Climate Museum: https://climatemuseum.org/
Andrew Revkin
One of America’s most honored and experienced environmental journalists, Andrew Revkin is the Founding Director of the new Initiative on Communication and Sustainability at Columbia University's Earth Institute. At Columbia he is building programs, courses, tools, and collaborations bridging communication gaps between science and society to cut climate risk and boost social and environmental resilience. Revkin has written on climate change for more than 30 years, reporting from the North Pole to the White House, mostly for the New York Times. He has held positions at National Geographic and Discover Magazine and won the top awards in science journalism multiple times, along with a Guggenheim Fellowship. Revkin has written acclaimed books on the history of humanity’s relationship with weather, the changing Arctic, global warming, and the assault on the Amazon rainforest, as well as three book chapters on science communication. A lifelong musician, he was a frequent accompanist of Pete Seeger and is a performing songwriter.
Related Link:
The Earth Institute at Columbia University: https://www.earth.columbia.edu/
Lea Luka Tiziana Sikau
Mezzo-soprano, scholar, and cultural impresaria Lea Luka has carved a niche for herself at the nexus of critical inquiry, media art, and music. She is currently working with Marina Abramovic on the opera production 7 Deaths of Maria Callas and previously worked for the new music incubator National Sawdust in New York City. She has learnt from, worked, or performed with: Jörg Widmann, Ai Wei Wei, Andrey Boreyko, Sxip Shirey, Johanna Doderer, Sarah Maria Sun, Axel Kober, Hans W. Henze, Edda Moser, Jay Scheib, Sir Peter Jonas, Barbara Bonney, Brigitta Muntendorf, Paola Prestini, Joan Punyet Miró, Marina Abramovic, and Anthony Roth Costanzo among other artists.She was awarded with the Bavarian Cultural Award 2020. Lea Luka is an Alumna of Harvard's Mellon School and conducted research at MIT on art science collaborations.
Related Link:
Lea Luka Tiziana Sikau’s website: https://www.leasikau.com/
Erik Ian Walker
Since 1982, Erik Ian Walker has been writing and recording music for theater, dance, film, and television in the Bay Area. Drawing on his knowledge of the science of sound in his compositions, he includes sounds from the everyday and from nature as part of his soundscapes. His extensive collaborations include experimental theater/dance performance, film, and rock and jazz ensembles. His latest releases include Climate by the Climate Ensemble and numerous singles as Hash Brown and the Red Eyed Rangers. Erik runs WackoWorld Music in San Francisco, a recording and teaching studio. He produces for local artists and teaches musicianship, improvisation, synthesizer madness, and piano for all ages at the studio. Erik holds a degree in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Related Link:
WackoWorld Music: https://wackoworldmusic.com/bio#bio
Climate by Erik Ian Walker and the Climate Ensemble: https://climatemusic.org/our-music/#climate
Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky)
Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, is a composer, multimedia artist, and writer whose work immerses audiences in a blend of genres, global culture, and environmental and social issues. Miller has collaborated with an array of recording artists, including Metallica, Chuck D, Steve Reich, and Yoko Ono. His 2018 album, DJ Spooky Presents: Phantom Dancehall, debuted at #3 on Billboard Reggae. He is an Editor-at-Large at the Brooklyn Rail.
Related link:
Craig Santos Perez
Indigenous Pacific Islander from Guam, Craig Santos Perez is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Habitat Threshold. He teaches environmental poetry at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa.
Related Link:
Craig’s website: http://craigsantosperez.com/