Climate Imaginaries at Sea

“The climate crisis is also a crisis of the imagination.” This is how author Amitav Ghosh captures the importance of artistic attention to the ecological crisis we face today. Ghosh is not alone in this call for greater diversity and multiplication of crisis imaginaries. Recent research has pointed out the importance of imagining  future climate change as a prerequisite for accepting change, whether in personal life or in policy changes.  Climate Imaginaries at Sea (2023-25) is a two-year project led by three research groups of three universities of the arts & applied sciences in Amsterdam: LAPS/The City at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (GRA), led by Patricia de Vries, the ATD Lectorate at the Amsterdam University of the Arts (AHK), led by Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca and the Visual Methodologies Collective at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), led by Sabine Niederer. 

 Through the organisation of three artistic research studios, artist-researchers are invited to creative explorations on rising sea levels, paying special attention to the voices and knowledges that are often missing from mainstream climate change debates, namely indigenous, material and interspecies perspectives. The studios facilitate and amplify embodied and situated forms of knowing and experiencing rising sea levels, through practice-led artistic research and non-textual forms, such as installations, sounds, movements, images and objects, without predetermined disciplinary boundaries. The three artistic research studios invite artists, students and participating publics to experience the future with rising water and move from inertia to imagination

Past Events

This event combines listening sessions led by Rajni and Carly Rose, pod sessions exploring Undrowned by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and performances by Joy Mariama Smith and Michaela Harrison.

The panel is curated in collaboration with an ARIAS coalition, Climate Imaginaries at Sea, coordinated and organised by Nienke Scholts.

Partners

Research partners

  • ATD Lectorate, Amsterdam University of the Arts, Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca
  • LAPS, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Patricia de Vries

Project partners

  • Tolhuistuin, Matthea de Jong & Charlotte Verhoef
  • Sound & Vision, Nienke & Rasa
  • ARIAS, Nienke Scholts & Katie Clarke

Educational partners

  • Master Digital Design, HvA, Cintia Taylor and Gabriele Ferri
  • CO+CB Impact Storytelling, AUAS, Marloes Geboers
  • Digital Society School, HvA, Nick Verouden and Anneke van Woerden
  • Master Creative Producing (DAS), AHK, Gwenoële Trapman and Marijke Schaap

Climate Imaginaries at Sea is part of the Route Kunst NWA project ' Bit by bit, or not at all' within the 'Small Projects' scheme funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Climate Imaginaries at Sea is part of the Art Route NWA-project ‘Bit by bit, or not at all’ within the scheme ‘Small Projects’ which is financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Climate Imaginaries at Seahas been made possible by theCentre of Expertise for Creative Innovation(CoECI)

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