Group Members: Kaven Cao, Ahmad Choudhry, Axel Tolpina

Roles:

  • Kaven Cao: Writer of the Erasure Poem
  • Ahmad Choudhry: Creator of the Globe on “Fire”
  • Axel Tolpina: Main Spokesperson for the Presentation & Writer of a Brief Summary of the Project

What We Might Make:

We want our work of art to outline the horrors of climate change and the impact it can have on the planet. Therefore, we would like to transform a traditional globe to show the many effects caused by climate change. We want to represent how specific regions of the planet will be affected by climate change and we want the overarching theme of the art work to “scream” that the Earth is warming up rapidly/unusually.

We intend to use a hollowed out, preferably metal, globe. We would attach LED light strips inside the globe and would use an Arduino to program it to mimic the light given off by an actual fire. To add a more realistic “vibe” to the artwork, we would bring in a small speaker that would give off the ambient noise that a fire would. The noise might be hard to hear due to the hecticness of the event, but those who will notice it may appreciate our attention to detail. 

Though the globe will serve to be the centerpiece of our STEAM project, we also want to include an erasure poem. The original content of the erasure poem will be of the statement given by President Donald J. Trump on leaving the Paris Climate Accord. The statement can be found on the White House’s website (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-trump-paris-climate-accord/). The United States leaving the accord not only puts the planet at risk, but also harms our nation’s ability to adapt to greener and more efficient types of energy.

The  Federal Government will not be playing a supporting role in the move to a non-fossil fueled economy. This is in total contrast to what governments of all other countries plan to do and are already doing. The U.S is in a clear disadvantage when it comes to energy and the environment. Countries like France are heavily advancing footing in the nuclear energy sector and major polluters like India are thinking of ways to become more green. As the world moves forward, we are unfortunately falling behind. Thus, we want our erasure poem to show that. We want to dissect the speech to show its faults and effects on the country and the world. 

The erasure poem will most likely be on a poster paper and the globe will most likely sit on top of the paper. The erasure poem will surround the circumference of the globe but will not overlap with it.

How It Relates to the Themes and Readings of this Semester:

Our STEAM project relates to multiple themes and readings of this semester. Miwon Kwon’s One Place after Another is the primary reading that relates to our project. Her book highlights the three paradigms of public artwork: art in a space, art as a space, and new genre public art. The artwork we intend to create will mostly resonate with the new genre public art paradigm since it inherently has characteristics of activism and its purpose is to deliver a clear message to the audience. Our project also draws inspiration from the erasure poem posts we did on the blog.

Display at the STEAM Festival:

Better to just show a simple model (from our imagination):

Nothing is concrete yet and we are probably going to go through changes before reaching our end goal.

Materials: