Author: elliegillis

Today, through news outlets; social media; word of mouth; and more, almost everyone is subject to hearing about the losses, fears, and threats, posed to us by climate change on a daily basis. These concerns are often shown to us with an emphasis on the future: What will happen? What will we do about this? When will we see the effects? Much less common, however, is the presentation of current climate change efforts as well as their history where viewers can see how far we’ve come and where we still have to go.

This disparity is offset by the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibit “Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism”, a presentation of climate-aware architecture and its development through decades of growing understanding and care towards the global environment. In a time where climate change activists are fighting to shed light on the importance of sustainability and other climate-healthy practices, the Emerging Ecologies exhibit serves as a reminder of the crises and creativity that inspired many of the sustainable practices we depend on today, and how their implementation aids us in preventing a further decline in the health of the earth. Its pieces inspire a feeling of innovation and capability, reminding viewers that where changing technologies have created problems, they also allow for solutions. In doing so, the exhibit touches on the environmentalist movement, encouraging viewers to get involved.

While the exhibit does not limit its audience in any sense, its message targets younger generations, despite it mainly featuring art that followed the 1960s and 1970s. Upon entering the showroom, you are greeted by a message from the museum—one that reminds visitors that MoMA is currently working to decrease its carbon footprint, a necessary step we should all be taking to preserve our earth. With this, I began my experience at the exhibit thinking about our environment and how it requires our action in order to survive. While most would agree global participation would be best to preserve the earth’s health for future generations, this message is felt most by the people who will live to see fallout of climate change if it is left unaddressed. And, as mentioned by MoMA’s message, current building and architectural methods make a large contribution to carbon emissions and unsustainable practices, making them, and their advancements in sustainability, the centerpiece of the exhibit.

Two pieces in particular encapsulate the encouraging message of the exhibit: “Sun Furnace in Your Attic” and the Women’s Environmental Fantasies Scroll. Printed on the cover of Popular Science, the image “Sun Furnace in Your Attic” (1949), illustrated by Ray Pioch, displays solar engineer Maria Telkes’ idea for a home solely dependent on solar energy. While never being successfully executed, Telkes’ design for the solar home was one of the first to be independent of fossil fuels, like oil, which was facing a scarcity problem at the time. This kind of innovation remained persistent, and eventually led to the harnessing of renewable energy sources, like solar, which is used across the world today, providing energy to many buildings, residential and commercial alike. This sentiment is also shown in the Scroll of Women’s Environmental Fantasies, a series of drawings done by six female gradates of architecture school in pen, pencil, and marker on a scroll of paper. The women’s’ drawings involved integrating buildings, particularly their dream houses, into the environment they are built into. One example, “Jenny’s Happy Time Tennis Place”, shows a home built into a tree with lots of open space around it to be used to play and grow with the environment. By working with the environment, instead of against it, architecture could move beyond deforestation and depleting resources, just like the examples presented by Ray Pioch and Jenny, of the architecture school graduates.

Aside from the pieces themselves, the exhibit’s curation draws attention to the message of sustainability and its importance. The exhibit is dark; the walls are a navy blue, which makes the greens and bright earth tones stand out, looking vibrant and lively. As I progressed through the exhibit, I felt that the pieces progressed as well, moving through time, and highlighting the progression of environmental understanding and creation, which also enhances the viewing experience.

In an era when climate awareness is crucial, seeing the Emerging Ecologies exhibit is as well. It opens viewers to the world of innovation surrounding sustainability and reminds them of the importance of keeping the earth as healthy as possible, for years to come. Without this exhibit, and others like it, the importance of environmentalism would be lost on many, making it a must-see.

When discussing heavy or contentious topics in their work, writers often use comedy as an effective way of cutting tension and lightening the mood of a piece. Taking a comical approach to writing is especially useful when the topics in play reference events or ideas that were or are currently harmful to groups of people. In Ching Chong Chinaman, Lauren Yee employs jokes throughout the play to comment on stereotypes of different marginalized groups in America.

At the play’s beginning, the audience is introduced to the family at the center of the story; Ed and Grace are parents to Upton and Desdemona, all four of whom act and speak in a way that is socially tone-deaf, and laughable. Outside of the four family members, Jinqiang, an indentured servant working for Upton, Kim Lee Park, a 17-year-old girl from Korea that Desdemona is sponsoring, and the unnamed Chinese woman all appear frequently throughout the play.

In accordance with their insensitivity, Upton and Desdemona have a particularly funny conversation about whether Upton should get rid of Jinqiang, who they refer to as “J” due to the family’s lack of understanding for the proper pronunciation of his name. In the 6^th scene of the play, Upton opens by reading from his essay, the topic of which being indentured servitude. In his writing, Upton grossly oversimplifies and glamorizes the plight of indentured servants coming to America for work in the 19^th century. But, after comparing his own needs of completing schoolwork, chores, and other obligations to those of Charles Crocker, and American tycoon responsible for creating the Transcontinental Railroad, Upton is interrupted by Desdemona, who exclaims after realizing that J is Upton’s own indentured servant. In response to this very justified outburst, Upton calmly replies that his private property is protected by the law, an odd thing to say considering it was never mentioned or in question. Then, before addressing the crime being committed by her brother, Desdemona questions how J, a non-English speaker, would even complete his homework. After hearing Upton’s response, Desdemona finally begins to criticize the moral and legal wrongdoings of her brother. She points out that J is being exploited and that Upton should “send him back”, to where she does not say. Following this command, Upton claims that J works for him because he is poor, but he would be poorer if he did anything else, implying that he is kind for allowing J this opportunity. Upton then shows his true, selfish colors by asking Desdemona if she would tell their parents, and she insists she will, until she finds out that J can complete her calculus homework for her. With the situation now benefitting her, Desdemona ironically agrees to let Upton continue using J for his work, just after condemning him for it.

During this scene and much of the play, the audience is reminded of how those who benefit from the harm of others will do nothing to prevent such situations from occurring. Although topics like this would typically making viewing the play uncomfortable for the audiences, Yee’s humor adds levity. Using irony, such as Desdemona’s quickly shifting attitude, and hyperbolic situations, like an average family allowing their son to house an indentured servant, in her writing, Yee sheds light on the average person’s ability to turn a blind eye to tragedy affecting others. By mixing these messages with comedic relief, Yee makes them more palatable and acceptable for audiences everywhere.

Although it is commonly associated with entertainment for children, animation can be used to successfully portray heavy topics, such as those presented in Flee (2021). In the film, directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, the story of Amin Nawabi, a refugee from Afghanistan, is shared through a chronological retelling of events by Amin himself. The animation, in combination with real video footage, evokes a deep emotional response from watchers and creates a sense of sympathy for refugees with stories similar to Amin’s.

At the film’s start, Amin is presented at his current age to begin telling the tale of his refuge, but, shortly after, the audience is shown Amin’s childhood self. By establishing the character as young and innocent, audience members can immediately connect to the story emotionally, as people tend to be more understanding and gentler towards children, especially those in troubling situations, as the circumstances are out of the child’s control. This narrative is reinforced as Amin shares his story, beginning with his father being taken away from his family, never to be seen by them again. Shortly after this, Amin’s family is forced to leave their home country, Afghanistan, permanently. They escape to Russia where they are being helped by Amin’s brother who had left to live in Sweden when Amin was very young. This transitions into a new section of Amin’s life, where him and his family are constantly fearful of being found by Russian police and are searching for a way to leave Moscow to join his brother in Sweden. His family’s desperation is then met with the chance to send his sisters out of the country, an opportunity given to them by human traffickers.

The departure of Amin’s sisters in the story is portrayed using three methods: a more primitive animation done with natural colors and faceless figures, the full color and specific animation used in the majority of the film, and with real footage. This transition in the film provides real context for the terrifying nature of Amin’s conditions, as the scene follows his sisters as they are locked in a shipping container and loaded as cargo onto a ship and left there until it arrives at its destination. It begins with a dark animation with shadowy figures pushing refugees into the freight container and then switches between real images of a ship at sea crashing through waves and the refugees suffering through the journey. Finally, the sisters are shown in full animation, crying. Footage of the ship they boarded coming to shore and being discovered plays afterwards.

The scene moves the audience to feel the fear and sadness that comes with fleeing from home out of necessity. By incorporating each different style of films in the scene of Amin’s sisters’ travels, viewers become more involved in the story and how it encompasses the world around Amin; It brings the audience from just feeling for Amin to feeling with him. It allows for a greater sympathetic connection to Amin and continues to enhance the film as it follows Amin through the rest of his life, where continues to face struggles that now feel more real to viewers, who have a deeper concern for these specific challenges after seeing how they have unfolded for other characters already.

In a world where online sharing has become incredibly popular, feeling essential to most, photography is widespread and performed frequently, even by those amateur to the art. This abundance of sharing, or oversharing, forces everyone to ask the question: What purpose do these photos serve? While every individual may have their own answer to this imposing question, Susan Sontag’s collection of essays On Photography provides a response; Photographs reveal significance.

As stated by Sontag in her essays, in the history of photography, family events and shared occasions hold an important role in the spread and rise of the art. Photography memorializes events and helps people hold onto the moments in their lives that can easily feel fleeting: “As photographs give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, they also help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure”. The desire to capture and immortalize something comes from the fear that it will one day be lost, creating an impulse to capture the things that are important to us. Often, when we know that something is not easily accessible to us, or that it will not be in the future, we take photographs and substitute them for memories and connection.

Also, taking photos provides comfort that you will not lose what you have in that moment, at least in one sense. Thus, those who have dealt with loss frequently feel an out-of-the-ordinary compulsion to photograph their experiences: “People robbed of their past seem to make the most fervent picture takers, at home and abroad”. This craving comes from a desire to hold onto things that hold some importance in that person’s life. Similarly, photography is often taken up by those with an intention to persuade others.  Sontag explains “Like sexual voyeurism, [photography] is a way of at least tacitly, often explicitly, encouraging whatever is going on to keep on happening”. In other words, when events are significant to a person, they may attempt to have these movements persist, and one way to encourage that is by sharing their message through an image that depicts its value.

Photography also serves to capture what is important to a generation, not just individuals. When times and ideals begin to shift, photographs shift with them. Whether through changes in style or subjects, photographs can reveal overtime the things that feel most significance to an age of people, especially when viewed together. For example, when revealing that the current age feels “nostalgic”, Sontag mentions that photographs do as well. Even when representing a larger movement as opposed to an individual, photographs capture what is most valuable to their creators.

Throughout time, photographs may have served tactical purposes, such as documentation, but photographers have never ceased to capture the things in life that are important to them, revealing, through their images, the most significant items and events they have experienced. Though each photographer may have a different motivation in capturing these meaningful moments, every image can be connected to the purpose of showing what is most important in life, as supported by Susan Sontag in her essay.

“Moreover, cultural heritage is not only limited to material objects that we can see and touch. It also consists of immaterial elements: traditions, oral history, performing arts, social practices, traditional craftsmanship, representations, rituals, knowledge, and skills transmitted from generation to generation within a community.”

An important aspect of cultural heritage is its varying implications in the lives who carry it. When that heritage is intangible, it is carried into later generations only through those who continue in its practice. This places a great responsibility of members of that culture to purposefully bring their practices into modern times because, without them, these acts will be forgotten.

An intangible aspect of cultural heritage in my family is the tomato sauce my grandmother makes for our family dinners. The tradition of making this sauce for other members of the family to enjoy comes from my great grandmother, the daughter of an Italian immigrant family. This aspect of our heritage is intangible because the sauce itself is not the heritage but the action of making and sharing it. It is passed down by the cooks in our family, including myself and my grandmother. When I sat with her one day to watch how she makes it, she showed me her process and the tools she uses in creating it, one being a crooked wooden spoon she inherited from her mother, who used it for the same purpose.

When she makes and shares this sauce, it brings our family together. We sit for dinner and talk about or days, share our thoughts, and connect with each other. Without it, our family would be missing an event that connects us, and we would be incomplete without it. As I have grown and taken an interest in cooking myself, my grandmother has shared her recipe with me, and I will continue to make it for others and give my relatives a space to relate to one another. As this skill is passed down, it becomes a part of our heritage.