Emotional Climate
2024, site-specific, participatory, video, audio, community activations
Emotional Climate is a site-specific, participatory artwork that has at its center short statements from a wide variety of people in the state of Queensland, Australia, expressing the emotions they are experiencing in response to climate change and its impacts. I chose Queensland due to the unique constellation of environmental and economic factors the state encompasses, as home to vulnerable ecosystems in its tropical rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef, as well as its economic reliance on industries that contribute to climate change impacts, such as coal extraction, beef production, and tourism. The outcome of this work was a series of anonymous statements displayed in public facing spaces as text animations on screens and projections, and through print and audio. The project also included two community activations prompting creative responses to the topics raised by the project, conducted with students at St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School and with residents at Benevolent Living Aged Care in Rockhampton. Emotional Climate was made possible through a 2024 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award and with additional support from Central Queensland University.
