Toxics in the visual arts, air pollution, ubiquitous use of unregulated chemicals, MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity). These topics were research interests during my time at York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies. In 2011, I spoke at a conference in Montreal, organized by Association pour la santé environnementale du Québec / Environmental Health Association of Quebec (ASEQ-EHAQ).
Papier Mâché Asthma Puffer for Hamilton
This community arts project conceived and led by Louisa was supported by Environment Hamilton and their Good Neighbour Campaign, hosted at the Hamilton Art Crawl in 2010. Community members, including many families, helped to build a giant asthma puffer made of papier mâché.
Louisa coordinated several musical events during Climate Action week in 2019, and led a ‘climate ensemble’, a string septet that performed the string composition ‘Planetary Bands, Warming World’ (by Daniel Crawford and Scott St. George) in front of Guelph City Hall, while Karen’s hand-operated ‘clock’ counted down the years from 1880 to the present day. String players were: Louisa (violin 1), Chi & Kalyna / Sophia (violin 2), Jeffrey & Cady (violas), Cali & Elliot (cellos).
Watch the video here. Starts at 3:10. Music starts at 5:40.
“Utilizing 133 years of global temperature measurements from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Science, Crawford and St. George designed each note in their composition to express the average temperature of four different zones of the globe’s Northern Hemisphere. Rendering scientific research of the anthropocene to a string quartet, comprised of two violins, a viola and a cello; each instrument reflects data from the Arctic, high, mid and equatorial latitudes.
This work of art draws viewers into what the creators describe as: “a visceral encounter with more than a century’s worth of weather data collected across the northern half of the planet.” St. George explains how: “Listening to the violin climb almost the entire range of the instrument is incredibly effective at illustrating the magnitude of change — particularly in the Arctic which has warmed more than any other part of the planet.”
Credit: Alex PedersenOctober 31, 2015