PLANET A
A collection of artistic media relating to Climate Change futures and histories, and a place for imagination to run free
There are many stories that make up this work, they can be single scenes, isolated characters, or vast emotional epics spanning space and time. The more emotionally and conceptually we become invested in our descriptions and observations of the world the more we can understand how we imagine our world, and reveal our assumptions and interests.
The stories come from my experience working and studying and are made through a unique process of image and writing generation, where both inform each other.
These reveal Simplified Research Methods with original art, focusing on tackling personal bias and anxieties about participating in scientific research, politics, and self-expression! Highlighting the value of art, stories, and our personal experience in fields that study topics like climate change, or health, that have impacts on our lives. Inspired by the works of science fiction writers like Margaret Attawood, or researchers like Robin Wall Kimmerer, and experience working in environment restoration science.
“The Mind is a Lawless Land”
This project began, in part, from crazy conversations with my friends, where we suspended our beliefs and rolled up our sleeves to let our hopes and dreams not just be hopes and dreams.
Introduction
What in the World is this Art Stuff about?
The core of the comic book will be composed of about 20 short stories. The stories will explore different ecosystems, social structures, organisms, and infrastructures in the context of a world with dramatically changing climates. It will serve to illustrate the system-level impacts of climate change, and the implications for what adaptations will be necessary, and the consequences of both inaction and improper management practices. It will provide a basis for conversations about climate change and our thoughts and experiences with different aspects of our environment, including our social systems, and redefining them by more accurately gauging the freedom, a person has, to engage with ideas and processes of change.
The concept of change will be central to the story and the project. The artwork is a living document, with the short story format, and the methodology of observation-based narrative creation can be taught and used by other people. Merging observation and story allows people to connect with, to anchor their attention to and create a mental landscape of, the outside world. Art can help in people’s attempts to imagine what they believe, perceive, and reflect on how they engage with society, the environment, and selves.
I’ve seen this with my own family and my community. I was a part of the Klamath Siskiyou Art Center and have gotten to see how art can create conversations, alter an entire room, and disrupt the traditional roles of behavior people settle into. Especially if the circumstances and environments they have access to encourage these behaviors, so many examples come to mind of ways people can be trapped in situations or supported by their surroundings.
Purpose.
Can we break down our traditional understandings of art and use it as a tool to help clarify the human experience?
Can we connect people with strange forces just beyond the comprehension of the human brain, but yet at our fingertips?
Depicting Earth's Past, Present and Future.
What shapes our life on earth? And how do we think we can shape our social and physical worlds from the present?
Dangers of Creating Art.
The human brain is sensitive, illustrious and vast. To imagine worlds means to imagine all parts, the grim and the hopeful. Fear is the undercurrent of our actions and the acknowledgement that reality is not a playground hangs over our heads.
Take warning.
Inspirations
I am a fan of art across all medias and disciplines, I am heavily inspired by the work of those that came before and the beauty of the natural world. I hope this joy of creating is clear in my work and that other people get a chance to see you don’t need to do any one particular thing to be an artist, or scientist, or activist.
The world is so rich and full of many ways of being. I think it is important to take lessons from those who came before, I get lost in art history and find myself wanting to reach out and feel the texture of the painting made in hundreds of strokes by someone hundreds of years ago. Art can travel through time to be right in front of your face, and can carry with it messages that if we just take one second to stop and reflect on and listen to, can change how we see the world.
Process
"Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but
queerer than we can suppose…
– J. B. S. Haldane 1892–1964
Scottish mathematical biologist
My comic book is currently a collection of observations of the natural and social world to be researched, translated, and illustrated into narratives. It is an exploration into how the human brain collects information about the nature of the world and the question of how our worldview, and knowledge about our environment influence our feelings, beliefs and behaviors.
The goal of the comic book is to illuminate the environment and saturate the experience of the individual, creating imagery and conceptual elaborations that course through people’s perceptions, and coax reimagining of the possibilities of their lives. I am curious if there is media, imagery, or a synthesis of different forms of art, storytelling, or interaction with the human senses, can bring about brain changes, such as disabling of the default mode network by stimulating the cognitive processes involved. I have curiosities about the biology behind and cognitive functions of cultural productions. I am interested in the visceral and emotional content that they can carry, and how that would show itself in the subjective experience.
Contribute
Make Your Own...
Are you curious, kind-hearted, a day-dreamer, a hopeful thinker, a downer, a debutante, a drifter?
This is a desert on the digital landscape. It is up to you to populate it with your art, ideas, and interests. (I’ll do my part too!)
What do your eyes tell you?
Do you believe them?
How do these images make you feel?
What images will you make?