- Title
- Can the principles of entropy, with a focus on climate change, be explored through art?
- Creator
- Redwood, Deborah
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- Masters Research - Masters of Philosophy (MPhil)
- Description
- The world is facing a climate emergency. Teenage activist, Greta Thunberg declared when she urged UN world leaders to act on climate change: “Our house is on fire”, “I want you to panic, I want you to act”. In recent months many Australians have found their houses have literally been on fire. Increases in man-made C0₂, caused by burning coal and other fossil fuels, and the resulting increase in global temperature is the cause of both extreme weather events and the sixth mass extinction or Anthropocene extinction. As Kathryn Yusoff says “coal—animates life in the engines of the Anthropocene”. The focus of this discussion together with its accompanying creative works is an exploration of how we can enable people to better understand and accept the science of climate change and take action. The formal question is: How can the scientific principle of entropy, with a focus on climate change and environment, be explored and understood through art? In order to understand climate change in a broader sense, I have reframed it within the concept of entropy. Entropy as defined by the Tate in its glossary of art terms is “the steady deterioration of a system or society”. Now is a time of deterioration of many systems such as climatic, environmental and economic. The idea of entropy as ‘heat waste’ adds a hitherto rarely addressed issue to the discussion of climate change. The visual arts have been used throughout history to help explain complex scientific ideas through a combination of visualisation and in the form of remediating experiences found in both gallery and outdoor public settings. I have approached my work with the intention of remediation and this is reflected in the following discussion. In workshops using either recycled/waste materials to create sculpture or natural materials to create ephemeral installations, the anti-entropic nature of art-making is revealed and is used to highlight the effects of climate change. The research occurred during four artist’s residencies in Cairns, Australia, Gloucester (Boston), USA and Kenya, Africa (two residencies). Using social learning situations available during slide presentations, workshops and exhibitions, information can easily be spread and clarified. New information gained by participants can then generate new ideas for pro-active approaches towards climate change. The residencies become case studies to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach. The methodology used both quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to expand on these surveys.
- Subject
- entropy; climate change; waste
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1419578
- Identifier
- uon:37471
- Rights
- Copyright 2020 Deborah Redwood
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
- Hits: 1641
- Visitors: 1906
- Downloads: 302
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 5 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 198 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |