U of M students from the Making Sense of Climate Change: Art, Science and Agency class, Surrender: What are We Willing to Lose?, Mill Ruins Park, Northern Spark 2016. Photo: Dusty Hoskovec.
U of M students from the Making Sense of Climate Change: Art, Science and Agency class, Surrender: What are We Willing to Lose?, Mill Ruins Park, Northern Spark 2016. Photo: Dusty Hoskovec.
U of M students from the Making Sense of Climate Change: Art, Science and Agency class, Surrender: What are We Willing to Lose?, Mill Ruins Park, Northern Spark 2016. Photo: Dusty Hoskovec.
Surrender. Image: Xavier Tavera Castro.
Making Sense of Climate Change class. Photo: courtesy Christine Baeumler.
What have we lost as a result of climate change? What might we still lose? Have we surrendered to climate change? The steady rise of atmospheric CO2 levels is a clear sign that we have…so far. As the global temperature rises, we continue to make choices that signal our surrender to the inevitability of climate change. In the face of earlier and earlier ice-out dates on Minnesota lakes, we choose strong returns in our investment portfolios thanks to fossil fuel extraction. As plants and animals struggle to adapt to rapidly changing habitats, we choose to prioritize tax cuts rather than investment in clean energy or efficient infrastructure.
Surrender: What are We Willing to Lose? challenges visitors to examine their choices, literally and symbolically raising the white flag of surrender to climate change. In our installation, surrender has a dual meaning. Participants are encouraged to contemplate actions they take everyday that signal they have surrendered the future to climate change. However, the future is not set in stone and we have the choice to stop climate change. To that end, participants are invited to add flags that offer a new meaning of surrender: “What am I willing to surrender to fight climate change?”
Surrender: What are We Willing to Lose is a collaborative public art project of the undergraduate and graduate students in the course Making Sense of Climate Change: Art, Science and Agency at the University of Minnesota. This Grand Challenges Course is an interdisciplinary class that considers climate change through the combined lenses of art and science.
Students include Mikaela Buscher, Olivia Caringi, Xavier Tavera Castro, Claire Forsman, Lewis French, Ricardo Bennett-Guzman, Theresa Hunt, Lisha Kirpalani, Nathan Michielson, Gloria Mueller, Reb Limerick, Maleena Patel, Alex Peterson, Jacob Rorem, Kyle Samejima, Nels Shafer, and Joseph Whitson.
View more photos of Surrender: What are We Willing to Lose on the Northern Spark Flickr here!