Science, Narrative, and Image – Ecology and Climate Change

What is the role of narrative in science and conversely? How do images supplement or displace these narratives? How important are images to the rhetoric of scientific persuasion? How can science itself be narrated or visually represented? This course will examine critical discussions of these questions, focusing specifically on the science, social movements, and aesthetic practices surrounding ecology and climate change. Scientists, politicians, policy-makers, and activists struggle to sensitize global citizens to the threat of climate change. In this nexus, artists and writers work to articulate and propel climate advocacy through creative practices that re-imagine the systems of the world. What is the varied role of the arts as an ecological practice? How do different artistic mediums—literature, visual art, live performance, film and video, site-specific art, and cross-media practices—similarly and differently engage with ecological issues. How do these artistic practices reinforce vital links between the environmental science and longstanding social justice concerns around indigenous rights, gender and sexuality, racism, food security, urban and rural development, and more. In addition to critical reading, students will examine the practices of a range of artists as well as climate arts initiatives on campus, at the UC Field Stations, and at Bay Area arts organizations, responding as cultural critics, emerging curators, and creative-makers as well. Readings and case studies will likely draw from works by Theodor Adorno, John Akomfrah, Emily Apter, Andrea Bowers, Octavia Butler, Carolina Caycedo, TJ Demos, EARTH Lab, Olafur Eliasson, Extinction Rebellion, Jeffrey Gibson, Eduoard Glissant, Allison Janae Hamilton, Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, Ursula LeGuin, Ana Mendieta, Timothy Morton, Kim Stanley Robinson, Anna Tsing, Mackenzie Wark, and more.