Artists, Activists and the Anthropocene

ARTISTS, ACTIVISTS AND THE ANTHROCOPENE

Tamar Kelly

Critical Path respectfully acknowledges the Gadigal, the traditional custodians of the land where the organisation is based and this publication was compiled.

The first volume of this, the 11th edition of CRITICAL DIALOGUES, was born out of a Choreographic Laboratory at Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) in January 2019. A Critical Path initiative, it brought together five artists with a choreographic practice to participate, along with a critical thinker of their choosing, in a laboratory or forum responding to the ‘Anthropocene’. The laboratory was co-developed with Strange Attractor and presented as part of Sydney Festival.

In this second edition we expanded our reach and invited four artists from three continents to share their thoughts and work on the Anthropocene. We coupled them with an educator and producer, who are both dedicating their lives to climate activism. Rather than an academic response to the Anthropocene, we asked them to write a ‘feeling response’.

It is now beyond doubt that we are facing a climate emergency. There is plenty of data on the tangible effects of too much CO2 in the atmosphere; an increase in wildfires and accelerating sea rise, to name but a few examples. Just in the last five years we have seen migrations of people around the globe (primarily although not exclusively in the Pacific) but it is hard to see how this is influencing our cultures at large. Children are walking out of schools in protest but that doesn’t seem to have an impact on election results, or what the average Westerner aspires to - luxury goods and travel. For those concerned with climate change it is disheartening to say the least.

Viewing the Anthropocene, of which the climate crisis is just a small part, is both more and less confronting. On one hand, the Anthropocene offers us a broader landscape to view. Humans are just a blip in the timeline of Earth’s history, a fraction in time, which can make us feel insignificant. On the other hand, our impact on the earth, its atmosphere and biodiversity, is measurable, significant and horrifying.

Let’s discuss the term ‘Anthropocene’. Just the word itself can be problematic. Climate scientists, geologists and geo-engineers have different ideas of when the Anthropocene began and how we might effect, reduce or (though it’s unlikely) halt climate change. This is discussed at more length in the previous volume and further explored in this one.

Since it is the catalyst and spring board for thinking in this 11th edition we should examine it. The term ‘Anthropocene’ was popularised by atmospheric chemist and Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen in 2000. Many stratigraphers argue that the evidence for a new epoch (a move on from the Holocene) is not clearly evident in the rock strata they study. Do we really need to argue about these geologic-time terms? Is it not enough to say we have had an effect, regardless of the exact time it happened?

Undeniably, agricultural signatures can be found deep within the rock strata which mark mankinds departure from a nomadic life to one built upon cultivating and manipulating the earth to sustaining human existence. The earliest evidence is found in the Fertile Crescent in Jordan and Israel, a region also known as the southern Levant, and dates back 11,000 years. Much later, with the dawn of the atomic era, traces of radiation were laid down in soils around the globe and in the oceans. temperatures without triggering the usual

Humans are having a measurable effect on the earth, one that is out of scale with the effect of the other creatures with which we share this world. In order to explain this in more detail let’s look at the concept of ACTION AND REACTION.

The world shaped us. We responded physically, adapting and evolving to suit our environments. For example, in cold climates we typically find peoples with stocky builds. The reduced surface area compared to weight allows more body heat to be retained. By comparison, a thin, long-limbed build is typical of humans in hot regions. The more expansive skin surface compared to weight allows for body heat to disperse more readily. Further, people living in hot, humid climates tend to have broad, flat noses that allow inhaled air retained. While people inhabiting hot, dry regions typically have narrowed, projecting noses. This allows the nose to reduce the amount of water that is lost from the lungs during breathing. Additionally, Indigenous Australians living in the Central Desert have an unusual physical adaptation . On cold desert nights the temperature can drop to freezing for short periods. In response they have evolved the ability to drop their body

to be moistened and that moisture to be reflex of shivering[1].

We adapt to survive. ACTION REACTION.

However, humans also react in ways separate from the principals of adaptation and evolution that all beings are held to. Now, let’s consider some cultures which have had more impact on the earth than others? First Nation cultures, for example, seem to be able to adapt to and appropriately use resources available within their habitat without abusing it.

Philipp Blom in his 2019 work, “Nature’s Mutiny”, gives this example: In the year 1400, global temperatures began to drop and by the 1500s had dropped by a full 2°C, resulting in extreme weather events. In

‘ ...we are no longer expanding human potential but vastly endangering it.’

England a freezing winter followed by a dry spring and hot summer dried out the largely wooden structures of London resulting in the Great Fire, in which 80,000 lost their dwellings[2].

Harvests also failed during this period. Peasants starved, social systems collapsed and anarchy threatened as a social world largely centred on grain production struggled to recover. Blom suggests that the crisis in agriculture led to a vast reorganisation of social structures, more efficient production and the advent of long-distance trade. Whole continents full of natural resources were identified and systematically plundered. This was the new age of colonialism. The world was pulled towards ‘Westernisation’ and ‘Modernisation’, whether the people wanted it or not.

ACTION REACTION.

Blom summarises: “The medieval acceptance of human economic life as cyclical and stable was rejected in favour of the idea of continuing economic growth based on exploitation…built on relentless imperial and industrial expansion….”[3] He argues that contemporary economies operate largely on the same model. However, those natural resources once thought to be infinite are now known to be exhaustible. With the industrial revolution, global expansion and energy wars driving an increase in atmosphere-altering CO2, we are no longer expanding human potential but vastly endangering it.

As beings we have been masterful in REACTING. So, it is dumbfounding to observe the INACTION on climate change.

For powerful, meaningful, measurable change we need concrete policy change at the highest levels of government, infrastructure and commerce.

WE NEED ACTION.

Sadly, humankind is short-sighted. If someone is struggling to put food on the table, pay school fees, rent or mortgage, they are probably not thinking about the melting permafrost, the effects of rising sea temperatures on plankton, the effects of fracking on bore water or sonar on dolphins. This is why we need government action. Incentives are needed to support people to make difficult transitions.

The writers contributing to this issue are diverse. They come from different professional backgrounds and are spread over four continents. One thing they have in common is that they are AWAKE. They are more than conscious of the current situation - they are looking forward to the future and preparing for a time and place which will, very possibly, not include humans. Some are listening in, some are feeling, some are planning and strategising for survival; others are preparing for the grieving process in response to the great loss of life - human, animal and plantbased. Their reactions are varied, but they are looking at this earth and our impact on it and REACTING. They are not asleep, they do not look the other way. They are awake.

This is where the artist can be of service, the artist as ‘agent-provocateur’. Artists awaken the masses. It is time to make personal and individual change. It is also past time to shake things up. It is time for ACTION. Please open your mind, let these artists stir the contents of your brain. Allow response. REACTION for CLIMATE ACTION.

[1] https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/science/ human-evolution/how-have-we-changed-sinceour-species-first-appeared/

[2] [3] Blom, P. 2019. Nature’s Mutiny: How the Little Ice Age of the Long Seventeenth Century Transformed the West and Shaped the Present, WW Norton & Co.