Can conversations mediated through AI and art change the way the religious and the non-religious engage with sorrows arising from the climate crisis? Can they evoke that much needed pieta to bring the climate transformation?
Climate Pieta:
Abhishek Anupam (India), Pranshu Chaudhary (India) & Saransh Sugandh (India)
Mentor: Meredith Thomas (Germany)
Concept Note
There are many sorrows in this world but our response is not the same to all of them. It is mediated by our context, our own set of unique experiences and above all the common shared mythologies- the degree of linkage we feel to the grief defines our response. The changing of climate is birthing many a grief but our response is selective. Climate scientists have been crying hoarse about how we need to act now. One of their principal opponents is the right-wing groups, steadfast in their denial and strong in their faith.
While one has grown bitter in the face of the denial, would it serve climate activists better to engage with people’s faith? While communicating to the common man, could one do better if one were to use faith as an axis to the conversations? Religion teaches us to value what is sacred. Climate science is urging us to respond to a crisis, to protect what all religions ask us to cherish- life on earth.
Through our project, we are drawing intersections between these two articulations of sacred that naturally overlap. Art has always been the meeting ground for religion and philosophy. Through the use of AI, existing video footage and our conversations with the faithful from a number of different religions and backgrounds, we have created images and videos that bring forth the intersecting joys, terrors, empathy but also indifference in the face of the biggest challenge that mankind has ever faced. Our artwork represents different but convergent ideas of sacred. Going forward, selected images and videos from these iterations would be hosted on a social media platform. The site can become a site of prayer, reflections and ultimately taking action.
PROJECT LINK: The following link is a link to a private video where AI-generated footage shall be integrated. This will be hosted on the website; the images below are representative of the nature of the website we are building.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: People of faith, atheists, art-enthusiasts, climate change deniers.
Detailed Description
Conversations can alter realities. The spread of different religions all across the world has been a testament to that fact- whether it was the teachings of Christ, the sermons from Buddha or the message from Prophet Mohammad; they changed the perception of reality for many and thereafter shaped lands, kingdoms and several ordinary and extraordinary lives.
Climate Change is a collective experience, yet the response to the crisis has been extremely fragmented. While many have resonated with the political and ethical crisis so deeply embedded in it, it has not been enough to take sufficient actions to halt climate change. Could the power of religion and its ethical teachings once again be harnessed to reshape reality?
We have been hosting conversations at the intersection of climate change, faith and people’s meaning-making process of the entire experience. Do they, first of all, know about climate change? Do they believe it is real? How do other members of their faith around them view this time/ crisis as? What are the associated stories from their mythologies that they can relate with respect to this crisis? We have been talking to Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and people from many other faiths from different parts of the world (India, Brazil, Mexico, United States of America).
These conversations have deepened the manner in which we have been wanting to engage with our audience. Using these conversations, we have generated images (VQGAN+Clip) and videos and arrived at various iterations of these. We have manually summarised the conversations and this amalgam of conversations and the visual interpretation by AI are being presented to the audience as part of the ‘Climate Pieta’ showcase. Further, we are integrating these videos with real-life footage of Extreme Weather events, vulnerable species, sites of faith set to music from various faiths (for eg, Ave Maria). One of our early iterations of this video only shows sites of faith and real-life footage that will be reworked with the AI-generated images ( Link in the ‘Link to Work’ section below). The name of all the original creators (music, video, interviewee, if they want to reveal) will also be shared with the videos.
Our idea would be to engage the audience in a similar participatory process through conversations or other techniques (Quizzes based on AI-generated images). The idea would be to constantly contribute to this collective reflective process whereby the power of faith can be harnessed to evoke the sense of calm, empathy and ultimately action towards preventing climate change. Upon launch at the showcase, selected images and videos will begin to be hosted at instagram.com/climatepieta.
Bibliography, References and Tech Stack
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00808-3
https://parliamentofreligions.org/sites/default/files/docs/faith_for_earth_call_for_action.pdf
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0134868
https://smarthistory.org/the-black-death/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0
https://instagram.com/sashastiles?utm_medium=copy_link
Intended Technology & Integrated Tools
- Projection space (at least a 12- 10 ft wide and 8-9 ft high wall) or a ceiling as well ( where an individual can lie down to view the scene being projected from the ground below)
- A projector
- Speakers
- An interactive booth to be set away from the wall and the ceiling (24 inches wide monitor with a keyboard, mouse/ touch screen and a pair of headphones)
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