Performing Climate
Climate change’, argued Carolyn Merchant in 2015, ‘[is] the most widespread catastrophe for the human future’.1 In 2018, as ice melts, seas rise, people die or are displaced and made homeless by catastrophic weather, and extinctions spiral, we need hardly be reminded of the precarious future for human and non-human communities on the planet. Yet as Merchant also points out, what makes reiteration of the fundamental crisis a moral imperative is climate-change denial. Merchant outlines how unpredictable climate requires new ways of living in the everyday. Modern science in centuries past was based in prediction and certainty. Today we live with something she calls ‘the cascade effects’ of climate; the unpredictable, chaotic, unanticipated impacts on everyday life of cyclones, earthquakes, droughts and heatwaves caused by industrial humanity.
A growing body of research and practice identifies the potential of the creative arts to lead a response to Carolyn Merchant’s claim that responding to climate change and global warming is our moral responsibility. Operating naturally between academic, public, and industry domains, the visual and performing arts have never been more important for influencing imaginative and visionary modes of public engagement with planetary problems. If people are not listening to scientific warnings based on data, then the arts can draw them in through the imagination, combining mysterious symbolism and ritual with clear narratives about suffering and isolation caused by climate, and, in the process, bridge boundaries between people and understanding.
Animateur of ‘Composed Theatre’, Michelle St Anne, has adapted her practice to the social imperative of communicating the increasing impacts of heatwaves on the everyday lives of ordinary people. To do this, she works between academic, artistic and public spheres. Performing for... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
The Living Room Theatre, Lola stayed too long, 2018. Photograph Dagmar Reinhardt.
The Living Room Theatre, Lola stayed too long, 2018. Photograph Dagmar Reinhardt.
