Jeff Thurston
Bio
Jeff Thurston previously taught GIS, photogammetry and GPS at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Upon moving to Europe, he began a second career as a writer, co-publishing a geospatial book and working for several well-known geospatial publications for many years. Jeff holds a Masters degree in geographic information science from Simon Fraser (Canada) and Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). Now retired he is an avid painter working in acrylic mediums and colored pencils, often incorporating a unique geospatial perspective on landscape spaces. "People relate to the earth differently through maps and aerial imaging, because these 'see' what people cannot normally view," he says.
Art abstract
Rugen Island lies in the Ostsee central to many European countries. One can see Rugen from a distance, identified by the striking cliffs known as the 'Kreiterfeltsin' which straddles the island. This acrylic painting is meant to display the long island from the sea at a place near Sassnitz. One immediately sees the beauty of a spectacular island in relation to the sea. Although captured from a ship, one can easily imagine the sounds of the sea and island through the picture and - hopefully - a sense to protect that beauty. While painting this picture you will note the layered approach I used. It originates from my past work in geographic information systems and geospatial remote sensing that is aimed to capture the essence of a place through simple layering, and map-like coloring. I try to impart geospatial relationship into otherwise unseen areas.
Grayson Cooke and Dugal McKinnon
Bio
Born in New Zealand and based in Australia, Grayson Cooke is an interdisciplinary scholar and media artist, Associate Professor of Media at Southern Cross University. Grayson has exhibited and performed at major galleries and festivals internationally including the Japan Media Arts Festival, WRO Media Art Biennale and Imagine Science Film Festival in New York, and he has published widely in academic journals. He holds an interdisciplinary PhD from Concordia University in Montreal.
Art abstract
"Himawari" is an art/science work by media artist Grayson Cooke and composer Dugal McKinnon, featuring data from the Himawari 8 satellite.
The Himawari 8 satellite is a weather satellite run by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Himawari 8 orbits at the geostationary orbit, and it scans the entire visible disc of the Earth every 10 minutes, focused on the Asia-Pacific region. Its sensor, the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI), is a multispectral imager that records 16 separate bands of electromagnetic radiation, ranging from the visible well up into the thermal infrared.
Bands 8, 9 and 10 are used in this project; they are all water vapour bands, tracking the movement of water vapour around the planet, at low, middle and high altitudes. Rendering bands 8-10 to the blue, green and red channels of an image results in this stunning picture of the circulation of water in the atmosphere. A watery Earth, with barely a landform visible. And because the images are formed from infrared channels we see no difference between night and day, simply the constant circulation of clouds and water vapour, and the huge upwelling storm systems of the equatorial regions, unceasingly powered by solar radiation.
This work - which actually uses data from a larger project designed for planetarium projection - uses satellite data to gaze back at Earth from thousands of kilometres into space, and in so doing it invokes one of the important findings from the early years of space travel, the “overview effect”, the rise in environmental consciousness experienced by astronauts when they first view the Earth from the outside, as a fragile orb floating in space. This project seeks an experience or response akin to the overview effect in its configuration of different views of the Earth, and especially of the atmosphere. It prompts thinking about climate and how it affects the planet, and how it is changing."
Susen Reuter
Bio
- freelance visual artist & author
- university study: Geography | distance study: Journalism
- since 2007: nationwide exhibition activities and international study trips
- since 2017: Member of the Federal Association of Visual Artists e. V. and of the Association of Visual Artists Thuringia e. V.
Art abstract
Since a few years, a former professor of mine - Prof. Dr. Christiane Schmullius, German Geographer, Geoinformatic scientist and University teacher - and I myself decided for an extraordinary project: GEO ART - EARTH FROM SPACE. As a freelance artist and former geography student, it just developed naturally to find a way and link art with science. The shape, forms and colours of false colour composites are just fascinating to me! So I decided to choose false color composites of certain research projects and transform them to big sized canvas paintings. The first real exhibition with these artworks will take place by the end of this month at the University Jena.
Research work by the remote sensing / geoinformatics chair is the basis for the artistic work. In this way, art should function as a door opener to science. Another aim is to use the large-format art paintings to show that the work of the German scientists in South Africa makes an important contribution to the fight against climate change (keyword soil erosion, vegetation changes, etc.). The Jena geographers and their partners are developing a scientifically based method for assessing land degradation in South Africa. For this purpose, degraded areas and their changes are analyzed in their vicinity with the help of earth observation data from the European ESA satellites Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2. These recordings are the inspiration and creative basis for the creation of the paintings.
Tara Illgner
Bio
Graduate student at UVA studying atmospheric chemistry, focusing on Carbon Capture, science-communication, and policy. My international upbringing taught me four languages and the urgency of addressing preventable disasters through science-communication. I also hold a master’s in education and spent a few years as a teacher, and am a parent of a son, a daughter, and more recently, a foster-daughter. Our family loves animals! We have 2 cats and a ferret, babysit dogs regularly, and foster many animals through the SPCA. Most recently: working with legislators on science policy and EJ, published several Op-Eds, and Issue Brief, and an article in Medium. I am also a business owner, painter, voracious consumer of news, and an avid cook.
Art abstract
Sitting in this place, I feel Earth's pulse. Trees are the lungs of our planet. Generously, lovingly and silently, they provide innumerable services to all life on Earth. The delicate ecological dance between the soil, insects, vegetation, hydrology, create a simultaneously stimulating and soothing cradle for life. I sat at this very place, on the bank of a creek near my home, on a cool October afternoon, and marveled at the comfort, beauty, and power of the symbiotic life force emanating from every crevice of our Earth. This painting was created using oils on canvas.
Timo Kuokka
Bio
A Finn inspired by wonders of nature
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In the morning of October opening the curtains in my kitchen in Helsinki i was astonished by the beauty and variety of colours drawn by mother nature.
Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
Bio
Mohammad Rakibul Hasan is a Dhaka, Bangladesh-based documentary photographer, filmmaker, and visual artist. His work explores human rights, social development, migration, gender violence, and the environment. Hasan was nominated for many international awards and won hundreds of photographic competitions worldwide, including the Lucie Award, Human Rights Press Award, and Allard Prize. His latest exhibition was on ‘Gender Violence and Migration,’ organized by the UN in Thailand. His photography projects exhibited in Photo Basel, Shanghai Photo Festival, NordArt Festival, Berlin Photo Festival, Belgrade Photo Month Festival, and many other galleries worldwide. He studied a One-Year Certificate in Creative Practices at the ICP – International Center of Photography, New York, with the Director’s Fellowship. Hasan holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Photography from Falmouth University, UK, and an Undergraduate Certificate in History of Art from Oxford University. He also pursued a Postgraduate Diploma in Photojournalism from Ateneo de Manila University and graduated in Film & Video Production from UBS Film School at the University of Sydney. He is represented by ZUMA Press, Redux Pictures, and °CLAIR Galerie. He is currently pursuing an online MA in Global Film and Television at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. He is a contract photographer for Thomson Reuters Foundation and contributing photojournalist for the Daily Star. He is a Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Fellow and was a TEDx speaker.
Art abstract
The Last Savings at Bengal Delta
Arati Biswas, a 70 years old widow who lives at the shore of the Bay of Bengal, doesn’t know the “Climate Crisis” and why her food storage is getting shorter day by day. She doesn’t even have any idea about global or local economic recession due to Novel Coronavirus spread. Her husband died 35 years ago. She had the only married daughter, and her husband is a street hawker, and they had three children to feed. Arati lives with her daughter; every day, she makes crackers and walks miles after miles in villages to sell her product as her daughter cannot work due to illness and the daughter’s husband has a spinal injury, none of them can earn their living. These crackers are the food by selling she buys food to feed her family. She lives in the world’s most catastrophic zone at the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, where hundreds of Royal Bengal Tigers nested their home. Still, the frequent cyclones cannot sustain anyone, not humans, animals, or other species. The scientists forecasted that the seawater would drown the whole coastal belt of Bangladesh around the Sundarbans by 2050.
We’re one step ahead to embrace the apocalypse for the sake of building worldly wealth, the so-called development of civilization, maneuvering the structure of the earth by supplying to the demand hyper-consumption. The recent data from the Global Carbon Project shows that the top five countries China (28%), the United States of America (15%), India (7%), Russia (5%), and Japan (3%), produce the most of the carbon dioxide [1]. This culprit gas is causing the world's temperature to rise and bring adverse climate experiences affecting human survival and destabilizing ecological harmony. The rest of the world only produces 23% carbon while Bangladesh emits non-significant but already has become a scapegoat of the climate crisis.
[1] Global Carbon Project. ""Global Carbon Budget 2019,"" Page 1811. Accessed Nov. 27, 2020.
Arnaud Quesney
Bio
Arnaud Quesney got his Phd in remote sensing 25 years ago. He has been working for twenty years on Earth monitoring technologies in collaboration with international space agencies (ESA, CNES, VITO, NASA) to increase hydrological, agricultural, oceanographic, and atmospheric knowledge. He joined a private company 10 years ago where he currently holds the position of Scientific Lead. Along the course of his professional career, he developed both a broad vision and refined skills about remote sensing of the Earth surface and its applications.
For many years, Arnaud Quesney has been struck by the beauty of satellite images, an aspect that always remains on the fringe of their useful information content. Since April 2020, following his intuition that satellites images have an enormous emotional power, he’s started to exercise his creativity to reveal this potential and has engaged in an artistic activity during his free time. He describes himself as an observer, a witness, and a sentinel of natural spaces.
His artwork stems from Sentinel-2 images, processed through his own treatment chains relying on Artificial Intelligence and most recent algorithms, requiring refined skills in satellite imagery processing that he happens to master.
The spatial morpho-structures of his work are of natural origin. Colorimetry & luminosity are remapped based on aesthetic and emotional criteria to offer a deeper experience, one that refers to a percept, according to the proposal of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. The resulting artwork intends to provide a heightened perception of the Earth seen from a different perspective, an emotional encounter that triggers environmental awareness and empathy towards the Nature. He wishes to use art to develop a new narrative about our Mother Earth, to mediate the messages that are seen on Gaia’s skin.
Follow him on Instagram: @so_amazing_earth
Art abstract
This image has been designed from Sentinel-2 L2A images (source: ESA SciHub), located at the border between Gabon and the republic of the Congo. It is highly contrasted scenery with a fractal hydrographic network (brown and yellow parts) surrounded by dry Savanna (blue areas), revealing how the ecosystem evolved according to the presence of water. Through an artwork on colorimetry and luminosity, the hydrographic network suggests a vegetal cover with branches and leaves attracted towards the Sun. It is as if a network of veins running under Earth’s skin replicates the organic arrangement of trees morphology. It illustrates the generic fractal nature of Mother Earth self-organization at different levels. As organic arrangements with inner fractal networks (pulmonary alveolar system, blood vessels, neural networks) we, human being, can identify ourselves with this organic vision our planet Earth.
However, this photograph is indeed taken somewhere on Earth, which provokes questions, reflections and emotions through an innovative remote sens(ory)ing experience.
Engaging into this artwork allows me to connect closely to our Mother Earth; I can see it, zoom in all her details, and witness her abundance, her diversity. This creation process leads to a genuine immersion into her resilience as well; I can hear her life force and the sound of trickling water, of rustling leaves, of hot breezes… Through visual emotions, I wish this work to contribute to raising our level of consciousness and I seek to provoke a greater involvement; I feel mesmerised by her beauty, concerned by the fragility/temporary nature of wildlife and humble face to something greater than me.
This image is available at high resolution (300 dpi) and should be printed ideally on large format (at least 60x60 cm2 up to 120x120 cm2) to appreciate the overall pattern while having access to explanatory details as you get closer. An acrylic glass coating is also suggested so to get a glossy rendering and an even greater depth of image.
Inhoi Heo
Bio
"Africa Data/GIS specialist specialized in quantitative and spatial data visualization. Skilled with spatial analysis, and a statistical package/language. Highly experienced communicating with global high-level officials, bridging the gap between technical and non-technical audience. Passionate about improving accessibility in the developing world. Currently working as a spatial analyst in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Art abstract
The image shows night-time lights on the African continent in 2019. A comparison is made between two different night-time satellite images taken in August 2012 and in August 2019. The resulting image is then superimposed over the map of africapolis agglomerations. Lights in dark yellow indicate night-time lights that existed in 2012. Areas in light yellow show night-time lights that appeared between August 2012 and August 2019. Grey points indicate agglomerations where no significant nightlight is detected. When a light's emission is greater than 0.8 nanoWatts/cm2/sr pixel within a built-up area, the corresponding agglomeration is considered to have significant nightlight.
John McDonald
Bio
I was born in Everett, Massachusetts and have long held an interest in architecture and the depiction of architecture in models, photography, drawings and painting. I have been drawing and drafting since childhood, and painting in oils for over thirty years. My work has shown in group and solo shows in California, Oregon, New York and Hawaii. I have a degree in astronomy and currently work at the University of California as a space flight engineer, having lived and worked also in Boston, San Diego and the Island of Hawaii.
Art abstract
In summer of 2020, the SCU complex became the largest wildfire in California history, to be surpassed only the following year by the Dixie complex fire. When it burned through grass, brush and forest near the Calaveras reservoir, it left behind a vast blackened landscape, which is just beginning to recover over a year later. This work depicts a portion of that fire scar, just days after the fire passed through, and with the thin gray blue haze still hanging low in the sky. Wildfire season has become a near-year-round event in California, due to climate change and the pressures of development. It leaves haunting and frightening images of blackened landscape behind, but also harbors the remarkable resilience of nature and its ability to recover.
Laurie Penland
Bio
Laurie M. Penland serves as Smithsonian Institution’s Assistant Scientific Diving Officer to the Smithsonian Scientific Diving Program which involves providing oversight to Smithsonian research diving activities worldwide. Penland has traveled the globe providing scientific diving support, training, as well as underwater photography and videography. In addition to her diving career, Penland has more than 30 years of experience as a professional photographer. She has captured images of the Amazon, the Poles, and many places in between. Penland's combined passion for the underwater realm and photography culminates in her career as Diving Safety Officer and underwater photographer.
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A Reef and A Research Station
The juxtaposition of the Smithsonian Research Station at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize to this patch of Elkhorn coral, a subject of study, codifies the dynamic relationship between marine science and Mother Earth. To achieve measurable long-term research, scientists must regularly navigate a multitude of barriers. This image reveals the beauty of one such barrier. The cerulean waters surrounding the island can either warmly embrace, or skillfully batter. We are at Her mercy.
Decades of scientific diving have revealed Mother Earth’s power and passion for change. No dive is ever the same. Over time I have witnessed transformations dealt by humans and by Mother Earth: from nurse sharks nudging into nooks (and scuba divers) seeking lionfish (an invasive species), to an ocean filled with so much trash one cannot avoid swimming in it to accomplish the day’s work. It is reminiscent of a battle between the Gods, one which we humans are sure to lose.
Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata), once abundant on the Meso-American Barrier Reef is now an endangered species. This patch of Elkhorn coral is monitored, in situ, by researchers as is evident by the brightly painted square with #247 marking its base. These living specimens, along with many others surrounding the island, are part of a long-term study to better understand the health of our oceans.
The vulnerability of marine species, and those who study their environment, are embodied by the remoteness of this tiny island in Belize. When visiting the research station, I am struck by how Mother Earth always surprises. It is impossible not to interpret nature’s spontaneity as a reminder, directly by Her, that all species on this planet are subject to Her mercy and Her grace.
Mother Earth, I see you, I hear you, I feel you.
Emmanuel Dare
Bio
Emmanuel Dare hails from Aiyedun in kwara state of Nigeria, west Africa. He developed interest in art from his elementary school days. His passion for art was rekindled in his high school days. In furtherance of his Education he studied fine and applied art at osun state college of Education, Ila orangun. He expresses himself in mediums such as acrylic , oil. He seeks to explore thematic subjects such as the relationship between man and other organisms in the ecosytem , hence tackling the menace militating against balance in the ecosytem. He has participated in group exhibitions and art programmes.
Art abstract
Man is the engine that drives and move the earth. When man drives the earth towards a destructive path with practices such as poor minning activities, oil spillage, pollution of water bodies through discharge from industries, poor farming methods , smokes and burnings that pollute the air and goes upward to wreck havoc at the ozone layer , consequently, all these endanger the mother Earth leading to desert encroachment, flooding, Erosion, loss of soil fertility, diseases, famine, animals going into extinction. Both aquatic and terrestrial organisms are endanger. However, when man drives the mother Earth in a positive direction , the earth blossom, the plant and animals will yield their best , species of animals will be preserved , food scarcity will be prevented. Practices such as forestation, Afforestation, safe and modern tecniques of farming and minning should be adopted, the old and crude methods should be done away with. Industrial activities should be well managed , Governments, NGOS and private individuals should set up programmes to enlighten the society on ways of preserving the mother Earth. No matter our colour or our race , no matter the gender or our age, let us preserve the mother Earth.
Ashley Claire Li
Bio
A high school student who is passionate about drawing and painting.
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Depicting the action of flowers joining back into their original homes, mother nature.
Ellie Biggs
Bio
Ellie Biggs is a fine artist based in Western Australia. With a background in environmental geography, Ellie seeks to represent the vibrancy and beauty of the natural world, particularly the amazing landscapes of Australia, in her paintings. Ellie captures scenes through landscape and macro photography and she uses these photographs as a basis for depicting the natural environment through her art. She primarily uses acrylics as a medium and often provides geographically informative, sometimes poetic, descriptions to accompany her artworks. Ellie holds advanced degrees in Geography and Environmental Sciences and has many years of experience developing her cartographic skills for digital map making. She has a diploma in photography, but beyond a high school art education she is a self-taught painter. Ellie started her art business in 2020 and she regularly teaches relaxed acrylic painting classes for complete beginners. She has exhibited selected artworks in Western Australia, including two solo exhibitions last year. Ellie has been selected as a finalist for several local awards in the city of Perth. To find out more see her website at www.elliegeoart.com or follow on Instagram/Facebook @elliegeoart.
Art abstract
Swan storm sky. A panoramic acrylic painting of the Swan River meandering its solitude through the city of Perth, Western Australia. Calming ripples below beams of the day's final rays, warming the greys of saturated rolling skies. A kayaker’s-eye view from a clearing between winter storms evoking a strong sense of tranquillity. Nothing but the silence of the setting sun, sheltered from unusually slight westerly winds, and a light lapping of water ripples against the craft’s bow. Sounds occasionally pierce the air with the squawks of the resident gulls, plops from the cormorants diving for fish, and passing swoops of the pelican’s sweeping wingspan. Floating on the river in this transience conjures a profound feeling of a life so still, where time converges towards static. Yet nature always provides a timelessness reminder of her melodious eminence. Wonder, awe. Even in the middle of a city. You just need to remember to listen.
Philip Samartzis
Bio
Philip Samartzis is a sound artist, researcher and curator with a specific interest in the social and environmental conditions informing remote wilderness regions and their communities. His art practice is based on deep fieldwork where he deploys complex sound recording technology to capture natural, anthropogenic and geophysical forces. The recordings are used within various exhibition, performance and publication outcomes to demonstrate the transformative effects of sound within a fine art context. He is particularly interested in concepts of perception, immersion and embodiment in order to provide audiences with sophisticated encounters of space and place. Philip is the recipient of three Australian Antarctic Territory Fellowships which he is using to construct a sound map of Eastern Antarctica.
Art abstract
In 2019 I was awarded a fellowship by the Swiss National Science Foundation to undertake a series of sound recordings of the High Altitude Research Station at Jungfraujoch (HFSJG) to register the increasingly stark relationship between rapid industrialisation, human actions and the alpine environment. The project emerges from the work I am doing mapping the effects of global warming in Antarctica to reveal the changes occurring in a place central to the health and well being of our planet.
I travelled to Jungfraujoch with a completely open mind as to what I might encounter there. I was particularly fascinated by the science undertaken at the research station, and how one might frame it within a sound art context. I often think of my practice as an extension of Italian Futurist art movement who embraced social and technological disruption as a way of charting the dynamics of progress. I therefore perceive the Bernese Alps as a construct of the built world understood through the infrastructure and technology used to monitor it from a safe vantage point. By this I mean that the alps are as much defined by its roads, tunnels, bridges, cable cars and trains as they are as its peaks, glaciers, rivers and valleys, which together coalesce to suggest complex ways in which the topology may be interpreted.
During fieldwork I used omnidirectional microphones to register wind, snow and ice as well as social, material and industrial sound emanating from the train terminus, businesses and viewing platforms. I deployed hydrophones within water and ice to record geophysical sound resonating within the frozen environment. I attached accelerometers to various metal surfaces and structures to record solid vibration generated by high velocity wind, snowfall and the process of melting and freezing. Additional sound recordings were produced around the base of the mountain range to capture related habitat, glacial carving and snow melt, and additional anthropogenic sound caused by tourist operations, agricultural producers and ambitious new building projects.
My composition Atmospheres and Disturbances is designed to place audiences deep inside an extreme environment to afford embodied experiences of alpine ecologies under duress. Within the composition Bise and Föhn winds dynamically converge to express the precarious nature of life on the exposed ridge. The composition also offers an encounter with the specialist scientific instrumentation used to register upper atmospheric gasses which are central to understanding the long-term consequences of greenhouse gas emissions. Inhabiting these extremes is the research station itself transformed through stress and fatigue generated by extreme climate and weather events and expressed through sonic artefacts produced by hard and permeable materials and surfaces. It is within this framework that Atmospheres and Disturbances offers a portrait of a place in which a future without ice may be a fait accompli. Its sounds like its glaciers similarly at risk of becoming mere apparitions within a spectral landscape.
This project is supported by Creative Victoria; High Altitude Research Station at Jungfraujoch; Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology at the ZhDK; RMIT School of Art; Swiss National Science Foundation.
Helen Wood
Bio
After a career in science and technology, Helen Wood, a resident of Bethesda, MD, USA, studied drawing and watercolor before moving exclusively to pastels. She has studied with a number of internationally recognized pastel artists and is a member of several art associations. Her work has been well received in juried art shows and by private collectors.
Art abstract
The view of Cape Point, South Africa, in early Spring hints at the majesty of the Earth. The beauty of such scenes should inspire us to restore, protect, and preserve our home planet.
Klara Maisch
Bio
Klara Maisch is a visual artist living and working in Alaska. Mountains, glaciers, and geologic forms are common features in her large, landscape-based oil paintings. Klara specializes in painting outside in remote areas for extended periods. She is passionate about transdisciplinary thinking and expression through art, science, and the outdoors. In 2021, she created paintings on-site while embedded with a research team studying vegetation and climate change in Arctic Alaska. Her artwork has been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout Alaska, Washington, California, and Hawaii. She is currently creating a series of paintings about wildfires and landscape change in collaboration with the Bonanza Creek LTER through the "In a Time of Change" program. She is also finishing work for a solo exhibition titled "GroundTruth" for the International Gallery of Contemporary Art in Anchorage, Alaska, on display in February 2022.
Art abstract
My work as an artist is rooted in firsthand experiences with weather, light, and land. I am fascinated with the interactions of glaciers, geology, weather, climate, and the visual traces of geophysical events we can't directly see or access. I painted on a glacier for the first time in the winter of 2018. This foundational experience inspired me to develop a lightweight art kit to ski and hike into remote areas to paint throughout the seasons. This approach has become the core of my art practice. When I paint outside, I share the unique conditions of a specific geographical position in time. I see the massive forms of a valley carved by a glacier, the intricate patterns of sediment deposition, and the charcoal black basalt dikes revealed by a contracting body of ice. I hear rocks tumble, water running, and the soft sound of snowfall. I feel shifts in the wind, temperature swings, and the texture of the ground beneath me. I use all of my senses to tune into the unique movements and tempos of my surroundings and translate these embodied experiences into marks on the canvas. Painting outside challenges me to constantly readjust my understanding of place. By creating artwork about landscape change, my goal is to make complex Earth processes tangible and help people re-connect with the vast natural systems we all impact, depend on and share.
In 2020 I started a repeat painting series of the Gulkana Glacier in the Alaska Range, a location I have returned to year after year as an outdoor educator, skier, and artist. The top painting is from September 2020, and the bottom is from the same site and timeframe in 2021. Together they represent the first two years of an ongoing repeat painting series of the Gulkana Glacier. I chose this specific place because it is a visual landmark for measuring climate change. I see more rock and less ice on every visit, so my experiential-based estimate is that the icefall on the left of the nunatak will be gone within a decade. By hiking or skiing to paint in the same place every year, this work is equal parts performance and visual art. Although a repeat photograph is more accurate, I am interested in the expressive power of art and sharing the experience of sitting with a glacier over an extended period of time. The Gulkana is one of two USGS benchmark glaciers in Alaska, meaning there is ongoing data collection and decades of mass-balance monitoring and research. I hope that this project adds a qualitative layer to the scientific understanding of how and why the Gulkana Glacier is changing.
Image description: Two stacked panoramas of oil paintings measuring 16" x 44" each. The top painting was painted on-site over three days in September 2020. The bottom painting was painted on-site over two days in the same timeframe in 2021.
(Please note I am happy to provide higher resolution imagery of the artwork if selected, but I won't have reliable enough internet to do so before the Nov 15th deadline due to travel and lack of internet infrastructure. I really wanted to apply, and I apologize for the inconvenience!)
Amin Dezfuli
Bio
Amin Dezfuli is a climate scientist working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He has a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the Florida State University. His research focuses on climate change and extreme events, their causes, and impacts over different part of the world. As a hobby, he uses amateur visual art in an attempt to "humanize" climatic phenomena, hoping that effort would help better communicate climate science with non-specialists.
Art abstract
Coincidence of necessity and advances in computational resources has inevitably turned many climate scientists, including myself, into pseudo-programmers. Consequently, the exhaustion of all-day long programming often propagates to the after-work hours. At one point, I felt the need for some hobby to disengage my mind from “DOs and IFs”, at least during my personal time. So, I pursued this idea that I had for some time to transform the weather and climatic features into some forms of human-like objects through amateur drawings. I wrote an Opinion Piece for the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS), telling my story about “Climate-inspired Drawing: How I Enjoy Amateur Art”. Two of my drawings are shown in that piece: “Mr. Hadley Cell, who has a mustache” and “Convective Stroller”. In the latter, I have tried to incorporate a negative/positive vertical shear associated with an easterly jet and cold pool resulting from a mature convective cell. Such features can be seen in West African monsoon system. I recognize that my so-called art may look primitive, but this effort has been a pretty effective distraction for me, when needed, and it has initiated interesting conversations with people beyond the climate community. Therefore, I advocate for other scientists to be an “imperfect artist” too.
Here is the link to my Opinion Piece: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/101/9/BAMS_1019_745-760_Nowcast.xml?tab_body=pdf
Rhea Eason
Bio
Rhea Eason has a diverse professional background, which gives her a unique outlook. Because of her diversity, her experience has touched many different worlds of design and those worlds have also touched and inspired her. Always learning and exploring different facets, she has sparked creativity in others. She bridges the technical into the conceptual, and at times into the whimsical. Her imagery has been published within the educational industry, magazines, books, textbooks and other types of print internationally.
Art abstract
Mother Earth has been given wings! A playful triptych of three multicultural Mother Earths. This symbolizes that no matter where we are from, we are all a part of planet earth. These renditions have leaves as wings to suggest a stronger connection between earth and sky as we discover earth from space.
Kikioluwa Isimi
Bio
A graphic designer and a child environmentalist
Art abstract
I am a pencil artist. I draw face portraits in black and white and live portraits, graphics
Jordi Sandalinas
Bio
Born in Barcelona, at the age of 9, Jordi entered the Barcelona Music Conservatory where he studied music theory, piano, and choral singing but preferred to leave the piano for the electric guitar. In 1992 and 1995 Jordi went to the United States to study music at the Music School in New Milford, Connecticut. Alla inspires in the roots of American blues and rock where he shares classes with artists of the stature of Rik Emmett or myths like Ronnie Earl. Jordi was part of several rock groups on the Barcelona music scene with whom he did not achieve much importance until in 2004 Jordi decided to record an album in Göteborg (Sweden) to record his musical testimony creating the group that carries his Last name: Sandalinas.
Then everything went on... embracing a music career of almost eleven music albums and tours, Jordi Sandalinas has channeled his creativity through music, a true passion.
Art abstract
Song 1: This is a song that is called Fly to the Sun, a trip to the universe, from the album also called Fly to the Sun. Music and lyrics by Jordi Sandalinas. The song is inspired by the launching G forces coming out of a booster rocket into outer space!!!"
Song 2: It's a piece of music inspired by a story where the crew of a spaceship finds themselves floating into outer space, where they say... "It's full of stars!!". Written and edited by Jordi Sandalinas.
Fazal Ur Rahim Awan
Bio
Industrial employee since 1980, Researcher, blogger, entrepreneur, master trainer, designer of green products and winner of three times green journalist, agahi and social media awards.
Art abstract
My lovely earth trees are your ornaments which are forcibly taken away from you; your beauty is trampled underfoot by heaps of filth on you and I see your atmosphere being polluted with different kinds of dust smokes and gases. I hear your voice in which you are shouting and saying let me be clean. Destroying your natural environment also makes the sky tremble. Temperature changes and nonseasonal rains and hailstorms caused me to feel this change in the weather. After these observations, I decided to do research on the use of your resources in products so that the things that are considered useless can be converted into products and become a means of economic growth.
Soheil Rastan
Bio
Soheil Rastan, PhD, P. Eng.: Over 20 years of studying and yet learning the challenges and opportunities in valuing the free goods and services of ecosystems, the linkages between socioeconomic data and the environment, between urban planning and wastefulness, to the concept of killing the elephant to save the ants ----the myth behind policies that adhere to short term penny conservation practises at the expense of long term sustainability-----.
Art abstract
"While on a UN Geo-informatics capacity-building mission to some of the islands of the pacific, I decided to walk along the shoreline of one of the Pacific Islands on my way to work. The path I took was not on my google map. I just decided to follow the shoreline, a venture rarely taken by a non local. Along my way I reached a squatter settlement. I saw many children playing. I went to them and I asked: "why are you not at school". They said "not all of us go to school". Then one of the older ones, a teenage girl, came close to my ears and whispered: "Do you see that boy, he can not go to school because his parents use the money to drink Cava! I see the boy, I hear the boy, and I feel they boy."
Christian Klepp
Bio
I am a professional landscape photographer and geoscientist from Hamburg, Germany. Being an avid adventurer, I amalgamate my 20 years of professional experience in Earth System Science and Climate Research with my 26 years of dedicated landscape photography into a geoscientific journey to evoke awareness of how Earth functions and perpetually changes and evolves through the eons of time. To reawake respect and awe for our home planet, to reconnect people with Earth’s spirit and to protect the diversity of our planet is nearest and dearest to my heart and defines me and my way of life.
I photograph pristine landscapes and nighttime starscapes because I love to capture and share these intimate moments of nature's beauty. With my geoscientific background, I blend them with the majestic stories written in the ancient rocks that lie at our feet. My artworks are an amalgamation of reviving our collective awareness for how precious and unique our home planet is.
I continuously push my camera equipment beyond its technical limits to capture images in ways unseen before. I photograph multi-row multi-image panoramas and use my mobile star-tracking device to convey the sheer vastness of the landscapes and the arc of the Milky Way twinkling above a nighttime landscape. This continuous learning process yields ultra-high resolution images that allow for printing in highest gallery quality with no image noise or loss in sharpness. My star-tracking device prevents star trailing and allows photographing myriads of pointy stars with six-minute exposures. A Milky Way arc landscape panorama takes about seven hours to shoot.
In my shooting process, I meticulously plan my images, explore the remote wilderness for locations and plan image composition. Patiently waiting for this fleeting moment of magical light requires dedication and frequent revisits to the location. Some of my images fell into existence only after five years of continuous failed attempts. The moment when finally all conditions align for that perfect display of light, I become so overwhelmed with emotions and feel so deeply connected with Earth’s spirit that I do not even realize how the images fall into existence. It just happens as if it would happen through me.
My aim is that this extra dimension radiates from my images. These photographs are my love poem to our planet and I want them to evoke the bliss of that moment.
Dr. Christian Klepp
Where Geoscience Meets Art
www.christianklepp.com
mail@christianklepp.com
Art abstract
Photo 1: Reconnecting to Earth's Spirit
It is an overwhelming adventure, a time of wonder with light and thunder, to experience a monsoon thunderstorm wave rolling across the Grand Canyon at sunset. Surrounded by storm cells with heavy rain and far too close lightning strikes of a highly active thunderstorm behind, the multiple echoes of the rolling thunders were deeply impressive. The panoramic view at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon near Cape Royal extends from Vishnu Canyon past Wotan's thrones into the sunset in Clear Canyon. The eponymous streams of these canyons cascade their muddy-brown rainfall torrents towards the Colorado River, visible on the far left in the rock gap. The South Rim is located on the opposite side of the Grand Canyon, at a distance of 16 km (10 miles). The Grand Canyon incises 1800 m (5800 ft) deep into the Colorado Plateau. Accordingly, the bottom of the canyon, where the Colorado River is flowing, is up to 18°C (32°F) warmer than the North Rim.
It is impossible to predict when or where, or how often thunderstorms will occur. Therefore, if you want to photograph a thunderstorm scenery at the Grand Canyon at sunrise or sunset, you need either a lot of fortune or a great deal of patience and endurance. Monsoon waves, however, are larger scale weather events and can be predicted up to two days in advance. However, even in these cases the exact time and place of the thunderstorm formation is determined by chance, because the extensive monsoon waves consist of individual multi-cell storms. Monsoon waves therefore increase the probability to experience the desired thunderstorm situation. A temporal restriction to sunrise or sunset, on the contrary, limits the probability of such a situation considerably. In this case, the monsoon break lasted for three weeks in August 2018, during which the sky was mostly clear or partly cloudy. The forecast for this intensive monsoon wave came only one day in advance and the weather phenomenon lasted exactly 24 hours.
The chance meeting between the magnificent beauty of the Grand Canyon and the natural forces of the monsoon storm is further enhanced by the incredible age and geological story of the rocks. The yellow sandstones at the rim of the canyon are 250 million years old and were deposited in a shallow sea near the coast. The canyon floors around Wotan's thrones are already about 500 million years old marine sediments, containing fossils of the first animals ever to crawl across the ocean floors. But beyond these canyons, where the Colorado River flows, the rocks date back to times when bacteria were the only inhabitants of Earth. They are incredible 2000 million years old and consist of alternating layers of sediment and volcanic lava.
It was an unforgettable experience to witness this magnificent scenery at sunset, being surrounded by active thunderstorm cells with lightning strikes in the immediate vicinity. Such moments of great sublimity revive deeply rooted connections to our home planet. These impressions awaken our instincts and with them the irreversible realization how unique our planet is and how closely we are connected to it.
I can supply the original image size if winning.
Canon 5DSR, Rokinon 14 mm, f/16, 0.5 to 4 seconds, 180° panorama from 72 images, 103 megapixels, ISO 100, tripod
Photo 2: Catching Stardust
The Cracked Eggs of the Bisti Wilderness in northwestern New Mexico are among the most otherworldly landscapes on our planet, when viewed under the starry sky of the Milky Way. The almost two meters long (6.5 feet) formation of the Cracked Eggs particularly stimulate the fantasy. One could easily recognize crawling prehistoric creatures in them. In fact, however, what we are looking at is 73 to 70 million year old mud from a shallow ocean. This ocean covered large parts of the central North American continent in the Cretaceous period, during the age of the dinosaurs. It connected the Gulf of Mexico with the Arctic Ocean. Sand, mud, and clay were deposited in alternation in this sea called the Western Interior Seaway. At this time, the Bisti Wilderness, located on its western margin, was a braided landscape of rivers, streams, and lakes with swampy forests teeming with dinosaurs. The Bisti Badlands are therefore rich in dinosaur bones and fossil tree logs. The differential rate of weathering created the bizarre structures of the Cracked Eggs.
In August, monsoon storms frequently develop in the region of the Colorado Plateau, whenever humid air enters the plateau from the south. By dusk, the thunderstorms left the horizon covered in clouds. As darkness fell, distant lightning brightened up the horizon. The impressively bright starry sky far from any city lights paired with the absolute silence in this surreal landscape made a deep impression. In such moments, I humbly merge with nature, becoming one with the landscape and the starry sky.
With my star-tracking device I photographed pointy stars in a four-minute exposure just to add another 30 seconds of back-rotation of the star-tracker, which is equivalent to two and a half hours of star trails. This resulted in a fascinating combination of tracked stars and star trails, with Polaris remaining pointy at the center of the rotation. The remote lightning of the thunderstorms lit up the horizon in diffuse yellow while the clouds stood out in black against the starry sky, completing this image to a unique composition. It seemed to me as if primordial creatures were chasing the stardust falling from the sky.
After finishing my exposures, I switched on my headlamp and recognized a cougar track crossing my own track at right angles. I found the imprint of his paw in my own footprint. This intense and humble feeling of being a visitor in the home of a cougar flooded through me. I felt my silent question, am I welcome here? I did not get to see this majestic mountain lion, but his paw imprint in my own footprint not far from my tripod signaled his answer: I know you are there, I recognize your humility, and I tolerate you in my territory. Had it been otherwise, the cougar would have shown himself and signaled to me that I would not be welcome.
I can supply the original image size if winning.
Canon 5DSR, Rokinon 14 mm, f/2.8, composite of static and dynamic exposures of 4:30 minutes each, 15.312x5.753 pixels, 88.1 megapixels, ISO 1600, Manfrotto 055CB tripod with Manfrotto 410 geared head, AstroTrac TT320 digital star tracking device.
Photo 3: The Wild Embracing Silence
Emerald Lake in Bear Lake Basin of Rocky Mountain National Park is a unique place to enjoy the splendor of the Milky Way.
In August, the Milky Way rises at four in the morning in the gap between the 3877 m (12.720 ft) high Hallet Peak on the left and the 3756 m (12.324 ft) high Flattop Mountain on the right. Because of its perspectively protruding rock needles, however, this mountain appears anything but flat on its top. One day before the new moon, the crescent moon bathes the scenery in an enchanting light. The summer triangle, consisting of the three very bright stars Deneb, Vega and Atair of the constellations Swan, Lyra and the Eagle gleams in the band of the bright Milky Way. The Milky Way itself is traversed by a dark band of interstellar dust hiding the light of the stars behind it.
The trough between the mountain peaks holds the Tyndall cirque glacier, a small remnant of a once impressive valley glacier, which nowadays consists mostly out of frozen boulders and debris to form a rock glacier. Tyndall Creek flows through a number of beautiful lakes on its way into the valley, which include Emerald Lake, Dream Lake and Bear Lake. The cirque forms in which these lakes are located were scoured out by the Tyndall glacier during the last Ice Age.
The mountain range forms the continental divide of the Rocky Mountains, and Emerald Lake is located on the dry eastern side. Tyndall Creek therefore discharges its waters east into the Atlantic Ocean, while all streams west of the divide flow into the Pacific Ocean. When it rains along this ridge, the paths of neighboring rain drops and snowflakes falling west and east of the divide separate ways for a very long time.
Technically, this starscape photograph of Emerald Lake is a 180° horizontal and 180° vertical composite of 9 static landscape images and 9 dynamic star-tracking images, each taken with 14 mm focal length and 4 minutes exposure. The image features a resolution of 171 megapixels.
A night out under the Milky Way at Emerald Lake is such an emotional experience and so far away from our everyday world that the perspective for the essential becomes obvious and apparent again. Our planet is such a unique and enchanting place in the depths of the universe and home to all of us. Such a night teaches deep respect and awe, and implements the sustained desire to rethink.
I can supply the original image size if winning.
Canon 5DSR, Rokinon 14 mm, f/2.8, composite of 9 static and 9 star-tracked dynamic images with 4 minutes exposure each, ISO 1600, Manfrotto 055CB tripod with Manfrotto 410 geared head, AstroTrac TT320 digital star tracking
Photo 4: Storm Reverb
The panorama of the Aletsch Glacier and the Fiescher Glacier in the Swiss Alps belongs to the most spectacular mountain landscapes in Europe. The promising thunderstorm conditions of this day were ideally suited to photograph this panorama from the summit of the Eggishorn (2,869 m, 9,413 feet). The active thunderstorm line was still about 6 km (3.7 miles) away while these images were taken. This seemingly left enough time to shoot this 220° panorama and to start the descent from the summit in time.
However, what was not visible, not even to my trained meteorological eyes, that a new thunderstorm cell formed directly above the Eggishorn. Working behind the sturdy metal tripod I first noticed a tingling sensation running from my feet up to my head, whereupon my hair stood up. Intuitively, I threw myself to the ground. At the same moment there was a deafening bang as the lightning struck and the thunder rolled through the wide glacial valley and echoed back from the opposite mountain walls. As I slowly rose, I noticed flames of St. Elmo's fires sparkling from my fingertips. These rare and ghostly light phenomena, caused by electric charges, gleam blue-violet due to the spectral lines of the atmospheric gases oxygen and nitrogen. I could literally smell and taste the electric charge inside and around me while my body was flooded with adrenaline. In feverish haste I finished the missing two shots of the panorama and rushed down from the summit, when the next lightning bolts already struck way too close. On the way down the heavy rain finally poured down on me.
With a length of 22 km (13.7 miles) and a width of 1.500 m (4.900 feet), the Aletsch Glacier is the biggest and longest glacier of the European Alps. Its melt waters flow through the Massa gorge into the Rhone. The glacier has its origin at Konkordiaplatz in the Jungfrau region at an altitude of 3.800 m (12.467 feet). Its cold accumulation zone can be seen where the pale-yellow light of the sun illuminates the glacier. The numerous dark bands that give the glacier its characteristic appearance are medial moraines. They are formed where the individual glaciers that form the ice stream meet and merge. Where these bands first become visible up-slope, the equilibrium line is located at which the air temperature averages 0°C (32°F). Below this line lies the much larger and warmer ablation area. This is where more ice melts than is supplied by the accumulation area. The view upon this ice giant thus reveals that its mass balance is in poor conditions. The darker the ice surface becomes, the more its surface warms up and the faster the ice melts. This self-reinforcing feedback effect causes the ice to melt ever faster as temperatures continue to rise. Climate change is leaving its clear imprint on the Aletsch Glacier. Its condition reflects the global thermometer of our planet.
The feeling of experiencing this stormy atmosphere on the summit of the Eggishorn high above the Aletsch Glacier was intoxicating. The looming light of the scenery and the incisive experience of almost being hit by lightning made the adventure behind this shot unique and unforgettable.
I can supply the original image size if winning.
Canon 5DMkII, Rokinon 14 mm, f/16, 1/30 to 1/125 seconds, panorama from 57 frames, 12091x3629 pixels, 44 megapixels, ISO 100, Manfrotto 055B tripod with Manfrotto 410 3D geared head
Wieland Kuenzel
Bio
Travelling to Asia after secondary school and joining a Greenpeace vessel inspired me to study Geography. I then worked in development projects for almost 20 years, as volunteer, expert and project manager. The topics evolved from environmental education and agroforestry to nutrition, then health information systems, disaster relief, tsunami early warning and finally satellite navigation. I retired in 2019 but are still active in a range of volunteer projects.
GIS and sailing are my hobbies, building a sustainable future is my ambition. Your Geo Art Competition allowed me to put it all together.
Some points of my bio:
1977 - Crew on Greenpeace Vessel “Fri”, Sri Lanka, India, Mauritius
1980 - United Nations Volunteer, Thailand
1986 - South Pacific Smallholder Project, Tonga
1990 - Ph.D. in Geography
1990 - Fiji-German Forestry Project, Fiji
1995 - Pacific Regional Agricultural Program, Kiribati
2002 - Health Information Systems, Dominican Republic
2005 - UN Humanitarian Information Center, Pakistan
2007 – Tsunami Early Warning Project, Germany and Indonesia
2008 - Galileo Control Center, Germany
2012 - European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency, Belgium, France and Czech Republic
Art abstract
“Be the change you wish to see in the world”. The words by Mahatma Gandhi represent a long voyage. “Being” the change requires ambition, courage and determination. Making it have an impact calls for advocacy and collaboration. But before that, the desired change needs to be seen and felt. It needs to be defined and understood.
My artwork is a map that illustrates this voyage. “The journey starts here” is the point where I actually live in Rostock, Germany. The route passes by various stages of curiosity, exploration, understanding and analysis. It cruises by the machinery to promote and advocate (a shipyard in real life). It also navigates past the dangers of bickering and confrontation, however, as well as the path leading to demoralization and disregard. But the charted and desired course is clear. Using courage and determination, it leads to renewal and regeneration and towards a sustainable future. The guiding lights of innovation and transformation are points that exist in real life as well. They are the Warnemuende lighthouses.
I use a Geographic Information System (ArcGIS by ESRI) and Open Street Map Data, which I simplify - removing layers upon layers of detail until just a simple base map with selected points, buildings and spaces remains. I then join these items with new labels. The map is therefore a visual representation of what stands behind it. The vectors and databases that created the map. The contributions of all the people who assembled the Open Street Map data for general and copyright-free use. The canvas of a city and a port that really exist at the Baltic Sea.
And, I hope, a digital twin of a positive path towards a better future, using science and appreciation to achieve this goal.
Raquel Santiago
Bio
Raquel Santiago is an international dancer and an environmental dancer originally from Barcelona, Spain, she lives in Nevada City, California.
Her creative process relies on a deep listening to the body in a state of complete presence in the here and now, which allows for the emergence of an expanded consciousness, and for the channeling of creativity and healing. Her explorations in this space have allowed her to develop Alchemy Spinning™, an accessible, pleasurable, and powerful guided practice, inspired on Sufi Dervishes, that takes your body, your mind, and your spirit through a journey of self discovery, expanded consciousness, and higher potential.
Raquel thinks of her work as a service to people and planet, fostering personal and collective healing and transformation. She has been dubbed by the press as “the New Isadora Duncan of the Environment”, because her projects often have a message of consciousness and transformation. She has been performing about different environmental problems as climate change and plastic pollution. She's worked with UNESCO and other nonprofit organizations, and performed at environmental conferences and transformational gatherings, such as San Francisco Green Festival and the Boom Festival in Portugal, for AlbatrossTheFilm, at TEDxCibeles Events, among others events.
She collaborates at ElPlásticoMata, a non profit organization that brings awareness about plastic pollution.
She's trained in a wide variety of dance styles such as Contemporary, Middle Eastern, African, Butoh, Body Weather, Creative Dance and Danza Duende. She has taught dance and yoga for many years.
More at https://raquelsantiago.es/
Art abstract
Dry Tears
Earth dances in circles and cycles. As she spins, so do I; and as she suffers, so do I. Tiles of parched earth paint a fractal dancefloor where I whirl. Pinned to my spot in the cosmos, I seek to transmute my grief into active hope. Into an ineffable transformational power. Each turn brings me closer to myself, echoing the nested orbits of planets, stars, and galaxies, and the spirals of life all around me, and all inside of me. There is a one-syllable-word that I refuse to utter. A word that brings dry tears to my eyes. It speaks of passing clouds that bear no fruit. Of dry winds that loft plumes of dust into the air. Of shriveling plants and screaming trees. Of fishbones scattered over empty lake beds. Grandma says it's never been this bad. At night she sits on her porch and watches satellites fly across the starry night. The old radio announces clear skies and no forecast of rain. Temperatures will be on the rise. She, too, won't utter the one-syllable word. A word that tastes like wildfire smoke and chapped lips. A word that brings dry tears to her eyes, to my eyes, to millions of eyes.
Tears are invisible from above, let alone from space, let alone dry tears. But these tears can be felt and heard and tasted and smelled everywhere these days.
Earth dances in circles and cycles. As she spins, so do I; and as she suffers, so do I. Each turn brings me closer to the ineffable power that lurks behind every dry tear, echoing the planetary dances, the atmospheric dances, the eddies, the nested whirling of ocean currents and tradewinds.
How many more turns before our grief becomes active hope?
This video was filmed on a dried lake on Sacramento's river watershed during a severe drought in California.
Dance: Raquel Santiago
Camera: Velcrow Ripper & Nova Ami
Video Edition: Raquel Santiago
Music: Silhouettes by Tambour [Moderna Records]
Rosalyn Acosta
Bio
Rosalyn Acosta (she/her) is a proud wife, mother of three, dancer and sustainable tourism professional. She has a Masters in Ecotourism and over 15 years experience creating and managing programs that support community-based ecotourism, arts preservation, sustainability and diversity integration. She has conducted fieldwork in various locations such as Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica, and Colombia and has co-authored in Landscape Ecology and UNWTO publications. Her contributions to cultural and environmental work include for entities such as the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, CREST at Stanford University, World Wildlife Fund, and The Nature Conservancy.
As a dancer, Rosalyn has performed with various collaborators such as Nol Simonse, the Suhaila Salimpour Dance Company, Carlos Santana/Michelle Branch, among others. She has taught at numerous institutions including Dominican University, DanceBase, the University of Edinburgh and Stanford University. Her pieces have been performed at the San Francisco International Arts Festival, LEVYDance, Yoshi’s San Francisco, Deborah Slater Dance Theatre, and other locations. With such a multidisciplinary background, Rosalyn thrives on uniting diversity, sustainability and art in all her work.
Art abstract
The goblet dance encompasses all-natural elements - earth, water, air, fire, and ether. I first performed this dance in 2005, and since then, my approach has evolved, and I continue to push my boundaries each time I step on the goblets. Dancing on top of glass goblets is humbling, exhilarating, and precarious. It forces me to explore the spiritual and ethereal qualities that arise when tapping into this unique dance's form, construction, feeling, and truth.
Earth - I feel Mother Earth reverberating her vibrations through the goblets and sustaining my balance by connecting me to her core.
Water - I see this fluid, life-giving, and unpredictable force and attempt to embody the dichotomy between dynamism and placidness.
Air - I hear the spiraling and circulating force that carries me to the realm between Mother Earth and ether.
Fire - I see, hear and feel every mesmerizing ember of destruction and renewal.
Ether - I attain ultimate stillness and am one with all living beings, elements, and Mother Earth.
*Photo credits in collaboration with Cherlyn Wagner Photography, Nol Simonse, Miss Velvet Cream Couture, Andres Acosta and our 3 children Alileo, Arianu and Ara.
Athit Kid
Bio
Primary School Grade 3
Art abstract
Drawing of the Earth, after Al-Biruni
Peter de Vries
Bio
From a young age I have always been aware of pollution and the impact it has on our environment and wildlife. During the period of 01/02/2010 to 30/08/2011 I was part of a team of fishing data collectors walking the coastline between East London harbour and Gulu river mouth in East London, South Africa. It was during this period that I noticed the impact of nylon pollution on our coast. I started collecting all the nylon I came across on my walks and decided to create this ball to represent the polluted earth.
Art abstract
This ball of nylon weighs 16,9kg. I collected this nylon with the idea of bringing awareness to people all over the world of the deadly impact nylon has on our environment and our wildlife.
Yuan Qin Tee
Bio
Yuan Qin is a high school student keen on producing more digital artwork.
Art abstract
A reminder that humankind are not the only earthlings roaming this planet and that our animal companions are also facing the immense effects of climate change. We are the cause of climate change, so we have to be the end of it.
Mother Earth is full of vibrancy and life, and as long as there is life, there is hope. We must do our part.
Yunchen Yu
Bio
Yu Yunchen,age 8, is a pupil of Fuzhou Chayuanshan Central Primary School. She likes playing the violin and belives that Mother Earth protection begins with the heart and the action.
Art abstract
Let us try our best to protect our beautiful Mother Earth from today. Our Mother Earth is so beautiful. I love her so much. However, severe weather conditions, natural hazards, environmental pollution, PM2.5 in the air, serious shortage of water resources, the desertification and so on are happening. I am worried a lot that our Mother Earth might be ill. We have to do our best to protect her from now. Otherwise, we may lose her one day, and then the aliens come. The aliens are sighing how beautiful the earth used to be and how dirty it is now. They are all sorry for what people have done on the earth. Aliens throw the saplings into the nutrient solution, guide the bottle of nutrient solution to the earth, and the earth becomes lush again. But where are people? This shall not happen! Let us try our best to protect our beautiful Mother Earth from today.
Malú Cabellos
Bio
"Visual artist with a BA in Sociology (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos) and an MA in Photography (Centro de la Imagen). For more than 10 years, she has worked as a photojournalist and photography editor in Lima’s main news publications. Since 2007, she works as audiovisual director for the documentaries produced by Guarango Cine (www.guarango.pe). In addition, Cabellos has directed short and medium-length films, which have received national prizes (DAFO-Ministry of Culture). Also, she has worked as second unit director in De Ollas y Sueños, a feature-length film that opened Lima’s Film Festival in 2009.
As a photographer, Cabellos has participated in various group exhibits and in two individual exhibitions: Memoria Inca (2007), or the shared memory of the last Inca in Peru’s Andes, and Isla Azul/Rebelados (2018), which focused on the Amazonian city of Iquitos and the history of rubber. In October 2019, Rebelled participated in Portugal’s Imago Lisboa Photo Festival thanks to the endorsement of the Peruvian ministries of Culture and Foreign Relations. Peru’s Ministry of Culture awarded Rebelled economic funding and recognition in 2019.
Today, she is now developing the Fever Tree Project, a multimedia web page about cinchona, which also received the support of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture in 2020.
Cabellos is Mamut Art’s co-director and is in charge of a transdisciplinary team for various art, film, and advertisement projects. www.malucabellos.pe @malucabellos on Instagram
Art abstract
TORRENT
Life in the Amazon Rainforest has been violently shattered through various historical events: conquests, massacres, the exploitation of natural resources, territorial domination, and the pollution of rivers and forests; thus, harming local communities, their cultures and traditions. This is a massive blunder: today’s society, which considers itself advanced and civilized, is devastating life in an essential space for the survival of all of the planet’s beings.
Torrent is a series that symbolizes those fundamental places that are endangered; particularly, water, its beings, and collective cultural memories. These images --each a blue sphere, such as the Earth-- are created through the juxtaposition of medicinal plants, naturalist photographs that I have taken, and historical archives related to indigenous nations that were enslaved during the economic boom of rubber between the 19th and 20th centuries.
All that is driven and churns with violence is a Torrent, but --at the same time-- it’s that creative force that I have discovered when I have sunk my feet into the waters of that great river, feeling its pure and savage current descending from the Andes. It’s a feeling I can’t draw myself from. And, from there, I have started imagining and creating images, spaces and experiences that propose new discourses on Amazonian territories, its rivers and communities.
Within the sphericalness of each piece, time’s corrugated and there are imprecise references of faces, elements, plants, and animals; as if framed in an aquatic world that relates to the phenomenon of muyunas, or the whirlpools that border riverbanks and that are considered, by many cultures in the Amazon, as entry ports to a spiritual dimension.
Today, women leaders of the Kukama nation have presented a legal demand to consider the Marañon River, one of the Amazon’s main affluents, a living being; moreover, they have identified, as part of their argument, muyunas in satellite images and have linked these to stories about their ancestors and interdimensional mythological beings. This worldview opposes grand infrastructure projects, such as the Amazonian Hydro-Highway, which --if carried out-- would have a significant ecological and systemic impact. This case explains why a river is not simply a matter of water, but --rather-- how rights (natural and human), existence, and cosmovision are lived.
Moreover, Torrent seeks to evidence how these conflicts concur through the ambiguity of dimensions: it’s not clear whether images belong to microscopic or air views, or if they are an abstraction of the world we live in, every day; or if they are mythological. Also, whether they witness tragedy or generation: an image can be seen as a continent or as an open pit; or another may symbolize how roots meet, but also resemble a set of cut trees. These myriad interpretations reflect simultaneous processes and the paradoxes of humanity in its inharmonious relationship with nature.
TORRENT
Technique: Cyanotype printed on llanchama, a vegetable bark, Dimensions: 40 cm diámetro.
Yiannis Christakos
Bio
Born in Athens, he is assistant professor at the University of Ioannina. He studied graphic design at TEI, Athens (1984-1988) and painting at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Thessaloniki (1989-1994). He continued with postgraduate studies in Britain, obtaining an ΜΑ (1998-1999) and a Doctorate in Fine Arts (2003) from the University of East London, studying on a Greek State scholarship. In 2000-2002 he taught at the University of East London. He is a founding member of the “Capsule” art group with which he has exhibited multimedia installations (sound and image) in Athens and London. He has had 16 solo exhibitions in Greece, Britain and Cyprus and has participated in numerous group shows in Athens, New York, Florida, London, Nicosia, etc. His works feature in public and private collections such as those of the Ministry of Culture (Athens), the Greek Parliament (Athens), Dakis Joannou (Athens), the Vorres Museum (Athens), Exit Art (New York) as well as in other private collections in Greece, Cyprus, the USA, Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany. His projects have been reviewed in the Greek and international press, while he has published papers on the theory and teaching of art.
http://yiannischristakos.wordpress.com
Art abstract
The word topos stems from the Greek word for ‘place’ and graphein means to inscribe. The ancient Greeks analogized the word graphein with writing and drawing. Consequently, the word topographies is to inscribe a place which is what my panting does through line whether drawn, painted, scratched, or sewn on his supports. I create what appear as maps that at times are imagined but which at others hold a remarkable resemblance to existing geographic locations.
In any case, my topographies are anything but simple maps. My emotive, dynamic lines can manifest in a thorn-like web that recalls martyrdom or even roses and even kite motifs stitched with thread onto the canvas. These delicate interlaced linear networks have a multitude of inspirations including cartography which i studied earlier in my career. They can also be seen in terms of my biography for the stitching found in many of my works such as Mother Earth was inspired by my seamstress mother.
The work Mother Earth, (164x134cm, stitching, mixed media on canvas) presents geographic features from a closer perspective. At the same time as they appear like faults, or inroads they seem to the eye like a cracked earth surface. These amoeba shaped designs are formed on the surface as elements used to identify areas of interest. Underlying the layers of resin and paint is pencil drawing of a very delicate nature that becomes darker in areas perhaps indicating denser populations, and land masses as geologic natural and man-made features. These linear networks formulate elevations in strata as opposed to topographic maps that cover large regions called chorographic and/or planimetric maps that don’t appear as elevations. These types of contour maps serving my works as inspiration are crucial to society not only for planning national infrastructures but also for astute resource utilization.
Seemingly one expanse full of crevices, it is dotted with floral motifs executed in stitches of red and green threads. The linear web spreads out in passages becoming loose and watery as if recalling rivers and lakes. It is in these areas that i stitched my rose motifs, as if saying that water nourishes them, for rose plants need regular feeding and watering and can easily die in tropical heat. I depict heirloom roses that although sensitive to hot weather conditions can thrive if nurtured patiently.
This imaginarily cartography is personal and experiential maps and it intends to highlight the way I think, I feel I see, I hear our Planate. With my work “Mother Earth”, I want to highlight the agony of the constant burden of Earth, our planet by reckless human egocentric activity. Mother Earth is wounded by the thorns of human activities, by the wasteful use of natural recourses and climate change that dries it out. Now is the time to accelerate action to change our behavior towards Mother Earth to heal the soil and bring hope for the future and the next generations.
Daniel Hölbling
Bio
Daniel Hölbling is a researcher and project manager at the Department of Geoinfomatics – Z_GIS, Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS), where he is leading the research group "Risk, Hazard & Climate". He has many years of experience in remote sensing, GIScience and natural hazards assessment. In his research, he focuses on disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and bridging remote sensing and social science methods in an interdisciplinary manner. Daniel studies the interaction between landscape shaping processes such as landslides, rivers and glaciers and the impacts of natural hazards on the environment and society. He closely collaborates with stakeholders and decision-makers to improve science-policy interaction and to foster communication and knowledge exchange with the public and practitioners.
Art abstract
Glacier retreat is one of the key indicators of climate change. Glaciers are retreating all over the world, resulting in significant impacts on the environment and society, such as sea level rise, influences on freshwater supply, or increased rockfall activity due to destabilisation of slopes, to name just a few of the effects. There is a high risk that future generations will not have the chance anymore to see and explore these natural wonders in the field. Earth observation data allows us to study and monitor glaciers and related changes in the landscape from above and provides an outstanding information base for observing the impact of climate change. My artwork called "Fading Away" shows a freely available Sentinel-2 satellite image, downloaded from the Copernicus Open Access Hub of the European Space Agency (ESA), of outlet glaciers of the Vatnajökull ice cap in Iceland. Due to glacier retreat, several glacial lakes emerged, whereby the largest glacial lake in this area, Jökulsarlon with its floating icebergs, became a famous tourist attraction. On top of the satellite image, the hand of an adult is shown, rubbing out the glacier tongue with an eraser and thus forcing glacier retreat and calving, further increase of the glacial lake and more icebergs floating over the lake towards the sea. The adult's hand indicates the negligent behaviour of many of today's decision-makers and policymakers when it is about combating climate change, despite already facing its inevitable impacts. A small children's hand is trying to hold back the adult's hand but has not the power to do so even if using all its strength. This is a symbol of the helplessness of the young generation to convince those in power to take immediate actions and fight climate change to save our planet and to avoid that glaciers are fading away.
Bernard Dissanayake Methuki Nethma Sanindi
Bio
Our Earth, Our Life
Art abstract
Our Earth Our Life.usually we are living on the earth.waterfalls,animals,plants and more are also related to the environment.we make buildings,houses for our need.but we dont think about the environment.we only think about our selves.we make different harms to the environment. it may collect together and make Air pollution,Water pollution and more.but also we make them again they affect us.These all are done by human activities.So we should not do things that harms to the earth we should do the activities that doesn't harm to the earth then we will have a better and beautiful earth.Our earth our mother it's our duty to protect it.
Sophia Kabo-bah
Bio
I am a Polish-Ghanaian National. I am 9 years old and passionate about the beauties in this world. I want to live happily with all the beautiful plants and animals in this world and my dream is to become a renowned scientist promoting healthy living on our Mother Earth.
Art abstract
Our work presents a little story about three friends who are passionate about the world. We present our work saying that, for the world to be better, we need love rather than individual interests. We conclude our story by reciting the song 'We are the world we are the people'. As one people in the Mother Earth, we can only become better and live happily, if we treat Mother Earth with Love. With one love, one Earth, we have all it takes to save Mother Earth.
Fazal Ur Rahim Awan
Bio
Blogger, environmental and social awards winner, researcher and expert consultant.
Art abstract
My dear Earth, I acknowledge the resources that are available in your hills and landscapes for me and all creatures that dwell within you. Your soil is more important to me than gold because I see people benefiting from the useful herbs, mineral waters, oils, mines and other sources. I hear the song of birds in your forests, the noise of water from your rivers and the sounds of other bio diversity. By observations of bird’s sadness, I feel that the waves of the corona virus have affected the people living in you and the climatic changes have disturbed other biodiversity.
Viktor Novikov
Bio
Project manager at Zoi Environment Network, CH (2009-now): nature, climate change, waste, biodiversity. Project manager at GRID-Arendal, NO (2004-2009): nature, climate change, waste, biodiversity.
Art abstract
Central Asia Mountains Biodiversity Safeguards: a collection of art drawings, conceptualized by our team and implemented by Central Asia artists, to help communities understand impacts on Mother Earth and take actions. Available in several local languages and currently being distributed and explained by local NGOs
Emilia Novikova
Bio
Student, 7P
Art abstract
For Snow Leopard Day (23 OCT) I produce art work on snow leopards. In this image snow leopard is exploring its new potential habitat - jungles. Due to climate impacts and shrinking snow and ice habitats, these endangered animals face additional challenges for survival.
Meenakshi Pradeep
Bio
I am Meenakshi Pradeep.I am in 10th standard.Drawing is my hobby..In that main plots are Landscapes ,freehand potraits.
Art abstract
This artwork's name is Mother Earth.In this the factories and buildings shows human deeds which causes pollution.And the river below Earth's leg shows that, Earth is on the verge of getting drown in chemicals.Mother earth is holding the planet in her arms shows that she still doesnt hate human and is providing them with shelter..It shows Earth's love .And the starry sky shows that the future is not yet dark..and we can still save her. Even though we harm our Mother earth she endures it and keep being our one and only home.
Andrea Binn & Daniel Hölbling
Bio
Andrea Binn is a researcher and lecturer at the Research Division Cartography at Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien). Combining art and science, she has created spatial concepts and designs for various interdisciplinary projects in the fields of Psychology, Music and Environmental Science. In her research, she investigates perceptual and cognitive effects on spatial visualizations under different emotional conditions for tailored visual communication.
Daniel Hölbling is a researcher and project manager at the Department of Geoinfomatics – Z_GIS, Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS), leading the research group ""Risk, Hazard & Climate"". He has many years of experience in remote sensing, GIScience and natural hazards assessment. In his research, he focuses on disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and bridging remote sensing and social science methods in an interdisciplinary manner. Daniel studies the interaction between landscape shaping processes such as landslides, rivers and glaciers and the impacts of natural hazards on the environment and society. He closely collaborates with stakeholders and decision-makers to improve science-policy interaction and foster communication and knowledge exchange with the public and practitioners.
Art abstract
A place within a place emphasizes the individual mental space created within a spatial area. Earth observation provides objective spatial information from above, yet living in a place allows for additional perspectives, experiences and knowledge about our planet. In September 2021, we, a group of interdisciplinary researchers who focus on remote sensing and geospatial technologies to better understand natural hazards and tailor visual risk communication, visited northern Norway to study quick clay landslides. A major landslide occurred close to the town of Alta in June 2020, destroying a road and dragging eight houses towards the sea. Quick clay is a specific type of clay that can be found in several parts of Norway. The behaviour of the material can be disrupted, e.g. by heavy rainfalls, and the ground starts to liquify, often on very gently slopes and without any prior indication. This hidden danger is also present along the coastline around Alta.
Earth observation data such as images from the Sentinel-2 satellite, freely available through the Copernicus Open Access Hub of the European Space Agency (ESA), provide a great source for identifying and monitoring regions potentially prone to landslides to understand this natural hazard better. In addition to collecting field data and validating remote sensing-based mapping results, we interviewed residents on their perception of natural hazards and changes they observe in nature to gain insights on the risk perception of locals and their emotions and knowledge.
A place within a place displays objective remote sensing data and subjective perceptions, emotions and observations. The artwork shows an excerpt of in-depth interviews with residents and a Sentinel-2 satellite image (Copernicus Sentinel data [2021]) of the study area. To make details of the region more visible and symbolize another point of view, the representation of the satellite image is in false colours, augmented with information from the interviews. The text in the artwork resembles the scratch book used throughout the interviews, highlighting keywords and actual emotional states of the participants towards the area they live in, natural hazards and climate change. By this approach, we try to encourage the potential of interdisciplinary research to make the effects of natural hazards and changing climate more tangible. We want to foster artistic visual approaches that integrate residents' perceptions, emotions and knowledge together with objective scientific data. Thus, we hope to allow for visual communication that can inform and touch people emotionally to evoke awareness and create closeness towards our changing planet.
Chancy Shah
Bio
I am Chancy Shah from Kutch, Gujarat, India. I have pursued a Masters's in Geoinformatics and a Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering. I have knowledge and skill in Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing, GeoAI, Civil Engineering, and Urban Development. I am the Global Winner of the NASA Space App Challenge 2020 for Best Use of Data. A Global Hackathon hosted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). I am a winner of five National and State Level competitions too. I have completed an internship in Training and Research in Earth Eco-System (TREES) Program in Space Applications Centre, ISRO.
Art abstract
Salt is the ingredient of our food that is consumed daily by everyone. Salt production is, typically, the capturing of saltwater in shallow ponds where the sun evaporates most of the water. The concentrated brine precipitates the salt which is then gathered by mechanical harvesting machines and then refined in the industries. The image represents the salt pans in the Gulf of Kutch, India. Due to the different evaporation rates, the different color layers are visible on the earth's surface like mother earth has painted it. This is a Satellite Image captured from Sentinel-2 in the visible wavelength on 10 November 2021. The Image represents the Brilliance of Salt Pans of Kutch Region, India.
Oliwia Baney
Bio
Oliwia Baney is a PhD student at University of Maryland, College Park studying remote sensing of the polar regions.
Art abstract
For my entry I was inspired to translate satellite measurements to meaning through the art of weaving, to provide a perspective of an islet of the Marshall Islands and tell a story of sea level rise. Yarn is an incredibly tactile material - to weave one must use not sight, but touch. I aim to capture both the vibrant colors of the ocean and land as well as all the dynamic textures in between. Shallow variegated waters of aquamarine are held in by the dramatic drop of the braided reef front into darker, deep waters. Green fluffy wool roving tells the story of incredible life - the trees and vegetation that spring from the flat sandy earth of the islet, thousands of kilometers away from any mainland. My goal is to interpret the digital rows and columns of a raster image into the organic forms and features they represent.
Images of our planet convey both the calm we each crave as creatures of the earth but also a sense of urgency, the sense that this beauty could change and is threatened. This work is no different. By using similar yarn weight (thickness) for the shallow ocean and the sandy shores, I work to convey the low lying elevation, that there truly isn’t much separating the highest point of the island from the very waves that lap its shores. Sea level rise, driven by climate change, is a challenging crisis for the Marshall islands, jeopardizing homes, livelihoods, and the country’s very identity. Just as interwoven strands connect a tapestry together, the connections between human and natural systems are equally consequential, spanning and entwining across the entire planet. It is through recognizing this that we can take patterns from pixels, and from patterns - action towards progress.
Justyna Pazdan
Bio
Justyna Pazdan, graduate of Secondary School of Fine Arts in Katowice, metalwork specialization and Animation at Lodz Film School. A great admirer of the mushroom hunting, aquascaping and queer culture. The author of her own luminescent claymation technique, still under development.
Art abstract
The man practices yoga by a dead tree, glorifies it and tries to establish a spiritual connection. It may seem exalted, but respect for our planet is very important. Disrespect for the nature leads to over-exploitation and destruction.
Laila Zhiyenbayeva
Bio
There is no place like home = Planet Earth!
Art abstract
none given
M Hasan
Bio
I am always inspired by the great beauty of the natural world, and especially the colors of the sky!
Art abstract
Standing on a mountaintop, gazing at the sunset sky filled with stars and a hint of the coming night.