Article by Carolina Aragon, Artist and Professor at UMass Amherst, and Ezra Markowitz, environmental social scientist and Professor at UMass Amherst, authors of FutureSHORELINE, the winning project of the 2021 edition of the CMCC Award.
Sculptures made of data, fluctuating structures on the water, and an exploration of the effects that climate art can have on people’s engagement. This is an example of how the scientific approach and the artistic process can bring us to a better understanding of how the climate is perceived by public opinion. An artist and a social scientist explain the way the art installation FutureSHORELINE integrates different perspectives and provides shared knowledge.
Initiatives to communicate climate change are multiplying as never before, involving different platforms, tools, and approaches to engage the public. The open question that needs to be further explored is what role each of these forms of climate change communication has in triggering action and change at all levels of society.
Just as the CMCC is welcoming applications for the second edition of the Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra”, launched at COP27 last month, we reflect on how a scientific approach can also be applied to the most creative part of the climate issue, that of dissemination, to increase its impact. This is the approach taken by the authors of FutureSHORELINE, the winning project of the 2021 edition of the CMCC Award. A project that emerged from distinct yet overlapping approaches to climate change communication: the one of Carolina Aragon, a public artist, and Ezra Markowitz, environmental social scientist.
FutureSHORELINE is an integrated public art installation and social science research project that visualizes the place-based impacts of sea level rise due to climate change over the course of the 21st century. Specifically, FutureSHORELINE aimed to depict future flooding and its proposed adaptation strategies in Boston, Massachusetts, a city ranked eighth globally for the costs associated with flooding risk.
