The Crevice Dwellers: Using Image and Story to Communicate Climate Change
Abstract
Because climate change has become a widely discussed topic, it is important to think
about how the scientific knowledge of climate change is received by the general public.
Up to this point, science has not always been effective at communicating climate change
to the general public. Because it is an issue that requires public support and behavior
change, it is important that we use all the tools available to us to communicate climate
change. One tool that is often overlooked is art. Art has the power to connect emotionally
and can translate complicated and abstract ideas into images and stories that can
be understood by those not trained in science.
In this project I explore the artistic communication of climate change by participating
in the dialogue. I created several communications pieces focused on the Green Salamander,
a North Carolina species that is threatened by climate change. The research is driven
by the creative process and the journey of the project becomes an important part of
the project itself. Through literature reviews, interviews, and case studies of artistic
representations of climate change I explore the possibilities of expanding climate
change communication to use image and story and therefore better connect people to
the reality of a changing climate and the potential outcomes.
The results of the project come in the form of several creative pieces that explore
how one might go about communicating climate change in this way. The work uses photography
and writing in several different formats to explore how different genres and different
presentations affect the audience’s response to the work. Each piece helped to illuminate
the benefits as well as the limitations of using image and story to communicate climate
change. I conclude that the collaboration of artists and scientists in communicating
climate change has the potential to, not only increase awareness of climate change,
but to connect people to emotionally to the effects of climate change.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6759Citation
Hoogerwerf, Colin (2013). The Crevice Dwellers: Using Image and Story to Communicate Climate Change. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6759.Collections
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