October 2011 – Kristen Baumlier

Month: October 2011

A Little Cool… The Climate Change Exhibit at CMNH

Posted on October 31, 2011November 2, 2011 by Kbaumlier

This weekend I went to the Climate Change exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

The exhibit has some interactive exhibits, and lots of printed text information which talks about the changing atmosphere, ice, ocean, and land. – and promotes the idea that climate change is the defining issue of the 21^st century.

The exhibit is organized in a roundabout matter – there was not a clear entry or access point – and I observed other visitors entering and exiting from various points of the exhibit. There are some things that are interesting to see – including a large saltwater tank with coral, a stuffed polar bear who appears to be walking on a giant pile of garbage, and lots of exhibits with buttons to push.

Though I found some of displays interesting, I found the use of text to be overwhelming – it was like walking through a book. I also found the layout of the show to be confusing. I ended up wandering around cruising the exhibits – “power skimming” the text and content. I saw lots of kids climbing on the large windmill wing that was on display, and admiring the large buoy at the front of the show while their parents looked on – but I did not hear many people talking about the content.

The show had a 10 minute movie which featured charts, text, and information – and was inline with the information heavy quality of the show.

One engaging interactive piece of the show is a interactive large ipod-like table – where you can interact with a large touchscreen – and pick topics that you would like to learn more information about – and put in your email to get the information sent to you. This piece was added to the show by CMNH. This was a place that I saw many visitors go to and interact with.

The show overall made me think about the power of art – and how art can engage an audience and communicate a message – and not depend on text as its sole point of engagement.

One of the highlights of the show was a exhibit on a curved wall that used small color strips to show temperature change over time. It had a abstract quality to it – and the wall showed strips that were different values of red and blue – The piece was visually interesting and in a quiet, simple way – showed the climate temperature change through color. The strong visual impact of the piece drew me in to learn more – and I read the information, reviewed the charts and maps, and probably learned the most from this exhibit which was at the back of the show.

When I talked to museum staff about the reaction to the show, they said that many visitors avoid the show – perhaps to avoid the topic, or due to disinterest.

Overall, the show demonstrated the challenge of trying to introduce the controversial topic of climate change and do it in a engaging and informative matter.

Seeing this show for me was a reminder of the power of art to engage and inform an audience – and the potential of metaphor, abstraction, and aesthetics as a tool to get visitors interested in a topic.

Links:

See images and read about the Exhibit at the CMNH website

Online aricle about the exhibit with video clips on Cleveland.com

1000 Bicycles – as Never Seen Before

Posted on October 30, 2011November 2, 2011 by Kbaumlier

The Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has a new exhibition at Taipei’s Fine Arts Museum that opened yesterday which features a giant installation made of 1,000 bicycles piled in layers. The work is meant to reflect Ai’s perception about the rapid pace of Chinese social change.

The artist is currently confined to Beijing so the Taipei Fine Arts Museum had daily email exchanges with the artist to get instructions on how to mount and setup the show. The Chinese government says his previous two-month detainment was for tax evasion charges though many believe it was for his openly critical stance against their policies.

The show, entitled “Ai Weiwei, Absent, “ also features will feature 21 works includes photographs, 12 outsize bronze heads representing the Chinese zodiac, and the bicycle installation.

Through his work Ai addresses issues pertinent to contemporary China; including the loss of historic material culture due to rapid modernization and the effects of the global economy on traditional modes of production. His work also investigates broader themes, including perceptions of value, mass production and brand globalization, such as Coca Cola.

The exhibition runs from October 29, 2011 to January 29, 2012.

Links:

Ai Weiwei artist site

Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Free Ai Weiwei site

Kbaumlier quoted in the U.K. Guardian – Miranda July’s movie the Future

Posted on October 30, 2011November 2, 2011 by Kbaumlier

Last week I was interviewed about Miranda July’s film The Future, which opened in the U.K. this weekend.

The movie focuses on the relationship of a couple have been together for several years but their lives are starting to drift into an odd malaise. The couple decides to adopt Paw-Paw, a shelter cat, in a month after he’s healed up, and they see that as the beginning of the end for any dreams they may have had. The story features quirky elements such as time-stopping conversations with the moon, a shirt that can move on its own, and the film is narrated by the cat waiting to be adopted.

The film premiered at the Sundance festival this summer, and is now playing in the U.K. and the rest of the world.

You can read the article which was printed today here on the guardian /The Observer at :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/30/miranda-july-chic-or-indulgence

Links:

The Future – movie website

A clip of Miranda July at the Sundance Premiere

The 7 Billion of Us – All Together

Posted on October 29, 2011November 2, 2011 by Kbaumlier

If you haven’t heard yet – this weekend the population of the world will be 7 billion.

The 7 billionth baby somewhere in the world will be born around Halloween (or maybe if he/she is lucky – on Halloween.)

A study found that it will be possible to feed up to 10 billion people – but that it will not be easy.

The study offers some core strategies to meet future food production needs and environmental changes.

Some of these strategies are:

Stop farming in places like tropical rainforests, which have high ecological value and low food output;
Improve crop yields in regions of Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe where farmland isn’t meeting its potential;
Change farming practices to better manage water, nutrients, and chemicals;
Shift diets away from meat; and
Stop wasting food (up to one-third of all food grown is wasted either in production, transport, or after purchase).

What is the carbon footprint of a baby born this weekend?

Over his/her lifetime, each American born in the 1990s will produce an average of:

3.1 million pounds of CO2 (same as 413 plane trips from New York to Tokyo)
22,828,508 pounds of water waste (the equivalent of 48,060 10-minute showers)
16,372 pounds of yard waste (enough to fill 442 large garbage cans)
7,249 pounds of food waste (as much as 16 households produce in a year)
She/he will eat 1,654 chickens, 74 turkeys, 25 pigs, 11 cows, two sheep, and 18,675 eggs.
And she/he will use 1,870 barrels of petroleum (enough to fuel a Subaru Outback for 822,800 miles).

Ecowatch.org, The Cuyahoga River, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks

Posted on October 28, 2011November 2, 2011 by Kbaumlier

Yesterday I went to a public event that celebrated the launch of Ecowatch’s new nationwide news service website. EcoWatch, publisher of EcoWatch Journal which has a distribution of more than 80,000 copies across Ohio, launched its new nationwide news service which will be based in Cleveland.

The website—www.ecowatch.org—went live the morning of Oct. 27 and will unite the voice of the grassroots environmental movement. This will be the first media source to focus exclusively on environmental news from more than 700 environmental organizations across the country.

The site focuses on five critical issue areas—water, air, food, energy and biodiversity—and covers topics including renewable energy, water and air quality, sustainable agriculture, fossil fuel depletion, solution-based sustainability projects, species protection, global warming, climate change and pending legislation.

The site of the event was in Rivergate park, which is near the historic site where the Cuyahoga River caught on fire 42 years ago in June of 1969. This event played a major role in starting modern-day environmental movement and creation of the Clean Water Act.

The event started with short speeches from Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson; Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman; the George Gund Foundation’s Senior Program Officer for the Environment, John Mitterholzer and the Cleveland Foundation’s Program Officer, Nelson Beckford. The speakers commended the work that Ecowatch has done for Ohio, and talked about the potential that the new nationwide website will do for the country. Joe Cimperman showed support for Cleveland saying that, “Cleveland is a place that learns, earns, and shows why the best is yet to come.”

The keynote speaker at the event was Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., founder and president of Waterkeeper Alliance. Kennedy talked about how the environmental movement is not about protecting animals – but people. He talked about how the parks, rivers, and waterways are assets of the community – and assets of the people. “We don’t have to choose between good environmental policy and good economic policy – we can have both,” Kennedy stated. He then talked about how the environment is an investment and will create economic prosperity in the future.

He talked about the power of grassroots organizing – and talked about what it was like before Earth Day in 1970. Lake Erie was called “dead,” you could not swim in the Hudson and other rivers, large cities had smog so bad that you would get black soot on your clothing, and most waterways were polluted. He talked about the Cuyahoga River burning in Cleveland – and that this was the catalyst for 10 million people going out into the streets demanding rights to clean waterways and fisheries.

Kennedy mentioned throughout history – all tyrannies take away public access to wildlife and waterways – and that it is time for us to take this back. He went to say, “At this time all of the Great Lakes have fish that are deemed to be uneatable, and we need to continue to fight the polluters!”

After the event, I was able to walk by the banks of the Cuyahoga River in the park, which had a quiet but strong presence at the event.

Links:

Ecowatch – www.ecowatch.org

Water Keeper Alliance

Rivergate Park