Imagining climate change: The visual arts to the rescue?
Humanity has entered a new era, often labelled the Anthropocene – the human epoch. It poses a significant threat to the ecological integrity of the planet, particularly through human-caused climate change. The abstract and complex nature of climate change makes it a topic that is often framed and visualised in overly scientific and problem-focused ways. Ulrike Hahn’s research studies a promising alternative approach for imagining climate change from the contemporary visual arts.
Climate change and the visual arts
Scholars from the emerging and innovative field of the environmental humanities have started to investigate the role of the visual arts in the climate change debate. Hahn’s PhD research will extend this important work by inquiring how contemporary artists frame and represent the human-climate change relation and, moreover, how they can foster public engagement with climate change through their imaginations.
With this research, Hahn responds to the urgent calls for the further mobilisation of the humanities to find effective solutions for one of the biggest issues of our time.
