We ask members of the Somerset House Creative Community what they're thinking about this Earth Day
Channel is Somerset House’s new curated online space for art, ideas and the artistic process.
Blog
Share
Eva Mendoza, Ananas Anam
What are you thinking about this Earth Day 2020 in relation to the role of arts and culture in climate action?
We are greatly influenced by the Philippines’ culture and traditions, such as T’boli Dream Weavers. Being inspired on thousand-year-old traditions, we can adapt or enhance ideas to be able to address growing concerns ecologically. By using waste and materials coming from nature, we can help eradicate poverty and valorise waste.
Can you recommend a recent article/book/artwork/resource related to environment that has informed your thinking?
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.
Ananas Anam is a resident organisation of Somerset House
Christoph Warrack, B Foundry
What are you thinking about this Earth Day 2020 in relation to the role of arts and culture in climate action?
I’ll be spending this Earth Day listening to the fuller birdsong the pause in human activity has released, and writing the business plan for B Foundry, a climate innovation fund. This will house the two creative ventures I’ve built so far and those of many others, as so many pivot what they do to the climate effort.
Can you recommend a recent article/book/ artwork/resource related to environment that has informed your thinking?
I’ve just finished the novels Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol, which are transporting in a time of lockdown, a portrait of of some of the very human issues upriver of our current crisis, and filled me with bouquets of their loveliness. Reading them alongside the originals has also helped me work on my French language.
B Foundry is a member of Somerset House Exchange
Tom Greenwood, Wholegrain Digital
What are you thinking about this Earth Day 2020 in relation to the role of arts and culture in climate action?
I think that arts and culture has a unique opportunity to capture people's imaginations in ways that facts and figures alone cannot. It can make the often abstract issues of the environmental crisis more relatable and connect with people on a deeper level - emotionally and spiritually. It can inspire change.
Can you recommend a recent article/book/ artwork/resource related to environment that has informed your thinking?
The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac is a rare, optimistic book about climate change that encourages us to not just look at the problems, but to visualise and create the more positive future that we want, and that is still possible.
Wholegrain Digital is a member of Somerset House Exchange
Makerversity
What are you thinking about this Earth Day 2020 in relation to the role of arts and culture in climate action?
From thought-provoking artworks to pioneering solutions. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Makerversity designers are producing PPE with sustainability at the forefront. 3D-printed PPE face-shield prototypes were made using recycled plastic filament and visors are being fabricated from reclaimed Caribbean ocean plastic. Saving lives does not have to come at the expense of the planet.
Can you recommend a recent article/book/ artwork/resource related to environment that has informed your thinking?
Makerversity members’ Covid-19 response pop-up Slack channel. Responding to the crisis as a collective, openly sharing insight and never losing sight of the overall impact of their actions on the Earth, is the most inspiring initiative we have seen recently."
"I think that arts and culture has a unique opportunity to capture people's imaginations in ways that facts and figures alone cannot."
Tom Greenwood, Wholegrain Digital
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Somerset House Studios
What are you thinking about this Earth Day 2020 in relation to the role of arts and culture in climate action?
Locked inside, many of us are suddenly yearning for nature, which “normally” we don’t have time for. Our future return to normal must be anything but that. We’ve shown we can radically change our lives for an imminent risk, but climate breakdown is an even greater risk. Can art be a tool to help us recreate what's normal?
Can you recommend a recent article/book/ artwork/resource related to environment that has informed your thinking?
I bet everyone would list Staying with the Trouble… so I’ll suggest Naming Nature - The Clash Between Instinct and Science by Carol Kaesuk Yoon, which I’ve enjoyed recently!
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is a resident artist in Somerset House Studios
Jonathan Reekie, Director, Somerset House
What are you thinking about this Earth Day 2020 in relation to the role of arts and culture in climate action?
Twelve months ago we helped launch Culture Declares, stopping the traffic on Waterloo Bridge. Now there is no traffic and our current pause is giving us an enticing glimpse of a different world - one of bird song, less noise, cleaner air. Artists will help ensure that in relation to climate post-pandemic, we don’t just return to where we left off.
Can you recommend a recent article/book/ artwork/resource related to environment that has informed your thinking?
I’ve started to read Guy Standing’s Plunder of the Commons. The pandemic is a reminder that not only do we depend on each other but also the environment around is a shared resource.
"We need radical change - to our behaviour, consumption, and thought"
Markus Reymann, TBA-21 Academy
Markus Reymann, TBA–21 Academy
What are you thinking about this Earth Day 2020 in relation to the role of arts and culture in climate action?
We need radical change - to our behaviour, consumption, and thought. Artists are the ones who have, throughout history, worked with and circulated revolutionary ideas and practices, and culture needs to play an integral role in the vision for communal climate action.
Can you recommend a recent article/book/ artwork/resource related to environment that has informed your thinking?
Ingo Niermann's Sea Lovers. The short film proposes poetic exercises to build a stronger relationship to the sea by means of care and technology, working towards a sea of love where all inhabitants of the water and land celebrate each other.
https://ocean-archive.org/view/730
TBA-21 Academy is a member of Somerset House Exchange
James Bidwell, RE_SET
What are you thinking about this Earth Day 2020 in relation to the role of arts and culture in climate action?
This will be the strangest of Earth Days. Perhaps pivotal in the struggle to stave off catastrophic climate change. As we look across the world and see, amongst the suffering and anxiety, a planet which is coming back to life - birdsong is heard in quiet skies, fish are swimming in formerly polluted waters, the city air is clear and nature is taking back her rightful place. This is a chance to reflect, before the 'great reset’ and as ever the artistic and cultural communities are not only the first to realise this but also the lightening rod to encourage action through creativity and empathy. Let Earth Day 2020 spark the change we so need.
Can you recommend a recent article/book/ artwork/resource related to environment that has informed your thinking?
Mark Carney wrote an excellent piece for the Economist this week which framed the tension between capitalism and the environment brilliantly. He is an important and credible global advocate. Project Drawdown remains my go-to for most of the key issues in one place. And of course Springwise, where we publish the latest sustainability innovations each day
John Elkington, Founder of Volans
What are you thinking about this Earth Day 2020 in relation to the role of arts and culture in climate action?
We need a cultural revolution to cope not only with the COVID-19 crisis but the climate emergency. We cover elements of that in our new book from Fast Company Press, Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism. Read more here.
Can you recommend a recent article/book/ artwork/resource related to environment that has informed your thinking?
This New York Times article, on Denis Hayes, the founder of Earth Day. Our interview with Denis can be found here, including his response to our presentation to him of the third Green Swan Award.
Volans is a resident organisation of Somerset House
Superflux
What are you thinking about this Earth Day 2020 in relation to the role of arts and culture in climate action?
We’ve spent the past five years thinking about how to mitigate the shock of climate change by making tangible the lived consequences of a world transformed by climate extremities (Mitigation of Shock, London). More recently, we’ve been thinking about a call for a different kind of politics – one which allows us to invent new practices of more-than-human care, humility, imagination, interdependence, resistance, revolt, repair, and mourning. For more, do check out co-founder Anab Jain's talk "Calling for a More-Than-Human Politics".
Can you recommend a recent article/book/ artwork/resource related to environment that has informed your thinking?
1. "Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime" by Bruno Latour
2. "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins" by Anna L. Tsing
3. "Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene” by Donna Haraway
Superflux is a resident of Somerset House Studios
