Both art and architecture are forms of creative communication that can have a collective impact on social injustice, culture, the climate crisis, and human actions. Both consumers and creators must work in balance to win the battle for sustainability. Sustainability is not a game to win; it’s a battle we need to balance.
If carbon is the culprit, we need to catapult consciousness around sustainability. Art revolves around wilder imagination, observation, experimentation, and improvisation, but we have to include the reality of sustainability. Awareness and action need to change in order to address climate change, yet the question remains, “How?
Art can act as a medium of expression to showcase the urgency of action. Not everything is discovered. Not everything displayed is discussed. We can make art by using sustainable materials and methods or by spreading social awareness by pressing issues.
Some artists and some practices are shown below to bring us into action.
Margot McMahon
Life exists both on land and in the ocean. There are questions that we can’t answer, but arts can evoke the sense of questioning yourself in the quest for sustainability. “Corals an essential building block of oceans,” said McMahon, explaining that only 1% of the ocean floor is made up of coral, but it sustains 25% of ocean life.
‘Why is there one place in the world where this coral thrives? And what can we learn from that? How can we learn from this coral?’”, McMahon says.
Source credit: https://margotmcmahon.com/coral.html
Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet
Telling the story of the climate crisis to breed awareness and action through art is a movement. Earth is a biodiversity that coexists because of cooperation. Nature has its own task force to maintain the flow. Bees are the pollinators that are essential to the people and the planet. A third of the world’s food production depends on bees.
“Our globe looks like a giant piece of pollen. We’re trying to give humans the perspective of a bee, to bring awareness to the decline in bee populations, the colony collapse, because of pesticide use and other factors.” Working alongside Ethan Li, a design major, Robinson is covering the globe in an earthy yellow, while another student adds flocking to give it the fuzzy texture of pollen.
We need awareness and action to protect the pollinators.
Source credit: Ethan Li, left, and Lynn Tu work on one of the Cool Globes. (USC Photo/Ron Mackovich-Rodriguez)
Kintsugi-upcycling is a way of sustainability
Giving meaning to broken things and accepting things with flaws is the philosophy of wabi-sabi. Kintsugi is a Japanese artistic way of repairing broken pottery and a method of mending the area of breakages to promote sustainability.
This historical approach can give us modern solutions to restore the balance between creativity and sustainability.
Source Credit: An example of kintsugi repair by David Pike. (Photo courtesy of David Pike)
Until we reach the goal of net zero, we have to ask ourselves continuously and act accordingly to bring it to zero.