Program on the Environment

We are impacting our environments at an unforeseeable scale; our global collective actions in just the next two decades will shape the future of humanity. This paper discusses the current gaps between scientific knowledge and the lack of public environmental awareness and advocacy. To accelerate the trajectory to a more sustainable society, creative solutions in environmental communications must be made. This paper follows the new interdisciplinary movement that integrates arts with the natural sciences to better communicate environmental issues to the public. I first highlight how and why visual art and photography can be an effective medium to raise environmental awareness. This study was conducted through a showcasing of my own art installation with the Center for Creative Conservation and three case-studies of how science-based art is being utilized: Chris Jordan’s ALBATROSS, an unconventional environmental documentary, Current Conservation, a sci-art magazine based in Bengaluru, and PlanetVision, a new model to sustainability and environmental education. The implications of the sci-art field may invoke the cultural and spiritual shift necessary to provide convincing grounds on which humankind can justify the transition towards a better future. The greatest challenges to sustainability cannot be solved only by facts and traditional, jargon-loaded science, but requires the integration of art to better translate to people, our cultures, and histories.