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Ecomedia
How the Natural World is Transforming the Nature of Media.
This weblog is not the usual blog of daily events. It contains a series of notes/thoughts designed to make connections between science and media art.
Sometimes these ideas are tied in with current events, but most of the time this blog is not in any particular order. It serves as a central area for a detailed examination of ideas first published in a 1999 Leonardo Journal article entitled 'Active Vision' that I hope to develop into a book that will discuss some of the current developments in science, ecology, media and society and how they inform and are informed by new technologies. The book will be written for artists working with digital media and anyone who is interested in future directions of the medium.
http://www.andreapolli.com
last modified Sep 7, 2006 at 13:00
A couple of interesting articles related to women and climate change, both past and future:
In the December 12th NY Times magazine section 'The Cold-Weather Theory of Witchcraft' by Christopher Shea:
"In the Winter 2004 issue of The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Emily Oster, an economics graduate student at Harvard suggests a more banal explanation of witch mania: the weather. From 1520 to 1770, according to Oster, spikes in witch trials coincided with sharp drops in temperature. Cold and harsh conditions may have devasated crops, she theorizes, leaving Europeans starving and looking for someone to blame."
And, in 'Up in Smoke, Threats From and Responses to the Impact of Global Warming on Human Development' a recent publication by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:
"Despite their minimal, per person contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change wil disproportionately affect people living in poverty in developing countries...About 70 per cent of the 1.3 billion people in the developing world living below the poverty threshold are women, yet gender issues receive little attention in the climate change debate....Ensuring greater gender equality will benefit society as a whole and help promote sustainable development. However, getting gender issues into debates on climate change and sustainable development is happening piecemeal, extremely slowly, and often as an afterthought. This is in part due to the lack of participation by women in decision-making at all levels. This must change, because climate change policies will be unsuccessful if women have no opportunity to influence decision-making, build their capacity, lower their vulnerability, and diversify their income sources."
The report goes on to say that neither the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change or the Kyoto Protocol mention 'poverty', 'deprivation' , 'women', or 'gender' and calls for a focus on women's knowledge of local adaptation.
"The play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."
Hamlet (II, ii, 633)
In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, there is a scene in which the character Hamlet stages a play within a play, a silent drama in which the corruption of the king is performed. This 'master metaphor' is designed to expose the guilt of the court in the murder of Hamlet's father.
The use of metaphor as a way to expose corruption or, what one might call 'mirroring' in this case, can be seen in contemporary cultures with oppressive regimes. For example, in Iran there is a long history of the use of metaphor in art and some scholars have indicated that this technique is a way to present a coded critique of the regime. The fantastically rich photographic, video installation and film work of Iranian artist Shirin Neshat (images of her work: http://www.artnet.com/ag/fineartthumbnails.asp?aid=12480) is one contemporary example.
Often it seems that the news media also uses metaphor as a way to 'humanize' political debates. The overwhelming public obsession with the story of Scott and Laci Peterson, for example, was not only an incredibly tragic story, but presented a dramatic illustration of a debate that was playing out the the courts and in congress on the rights of the fetus versus legal abortion.
As I watch the post-election events unfold in the Ukraine on American television news media, I can't help thinking about Hamlet's play-within-a-play.
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