“Transforming Paradigms (Art-Environment)” presented by Farra

The equilibrium between a healthy environment, the energy our society needs to maintain or improve this lifestyle, and the world’s interconnected economies, could pass more quickly than expected from the current complex balance to an entirely new reality where human beings would need to be more creative than ever before to survive. The frequency and severity that certain weather and climate-related events are having around us are increasing, and the ability of human beings to modify our adjacent surroundings has turned into a power capable of altering the planet. Do the electronic arts have a role in all this? Do [electronic] artists have a responsibility in this context?

Traditional disaster management approaches are not enough to deal with the rising risks, and new forms of collaboration are needed to inspire people and organizations to link knowledge with action. We need to develop innovative ways to facilitate a paradigm shift toward a sustainable future. Three initiatives were launched aiming to use electronic art as a catalyst, with the intent of engendering a deeper awareness and creating lasting intellectual working partnerships to help with solving our environmental crisis: The Balance-Unbalance conference series, the “art! ? climate” contest, and the online EChO network.