In this interactive piece I used appropriated photos from the National Geographic public archives and original photos from the RISD Nature Lab’s “Tiny Town” to create a piece that intends to spark a discussion about climate change and the ramifications that our new presidential administration will have on the natural world.
56 images of climate change in action are placed on microscope slides to represent the percentage of Congress that is Republican, as the Republican Party’s leadership and platform includes both policies and politicians that deny human-made climate change and refuse to act to stop it. These 56 photos are accompanied by 56 quotes by prominent Republicans denying climate change or validating inaction. On the other hand, 44 slides of prominent Democratic quotes and microscopic images of organic specimens represent the belief that climate change needs to be addressed as a pressing threat.
By choosing to divide the slides up by the political stances of our legislative branch, I intend to portray the way in which “truth”, and therefore policy, is so often dictated by bureaucracy and corruption as opposed to scientific facts. This is not a 50/50 debate where each side has a valid point, nor is the government representative of the 97% of scientists who believe in man-made global warming. The real world is left in the hands of a divided government that devalues scientific evidence.
In order to perceive the full detail of the images and to discern images of microscopic lichen from images of oil spills, the viewer must engage in an intimate scientific discovery themselves; looking at the images beneath small mock-microscopes. Ironically, those who deny science now may soon have to rely on carefully preserved specimens under a microscope to understand the ecosystems that their own denial led them to lose.
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