Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet at the Academy
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Launched last year in Chicago, "Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet" is a public awareness campaign dedicated to describing solutions to global warming through public art. Cool Globes has chosen San Francisco to be the next city and the Academy is a featured venue. |
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Local artist, Lauren Davies was selected to create an original globe inspired by Academy research, collections, and sustainability programs. Davies incorporated photographs of butterfly specimens from the Entomology Department, along with hurricane images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) into a whirling mosaic design.
Davies’ globe, labeled The Butterfly and the Tsunami, poetically demonstrates that, regardless of how small something is, it remains part of a larger system of connectivity. Davies asks: Could the simple beat of one butterfly’s wings affect large-scale natural systems? If the butterfly became extinct, would weather patterns change? By understanding and protecting the organisms that make up these systems, the destructive effects of climate change can be abated.
The Academy’s globe will be exhibited on the public grounds from August 5th until January 7th when it will travel to other cities in the Cool Clobes national tour. Visit coolglobes.org for more information.
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The species and ecological systems that are essential to life on our planet are all interconnected. From tiny butterflies and other pollinators that are essential to our entire food system, to the expansive oceans and forests that regulate the climate, if one part of this system falters, adverse consequences are felt by all. Academy scientists work to document and describe the organisms that are the backbone to Earth's life support system. This knowledge allows us to understand how climate change is affecting even the smallest species that share our planet and find ways to effectively protect them. Lauren Davies’ whirling mosaic design illustrates that by understanding and protecting the organisms that make up these systems, the destructive effects of climate change can be abated. Think global when you go green! |
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Exhibit
August 5th, 2008 - January 7th, 2009
The San Francisco debut of "Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet" opens August 5th at Crissy Field and runs through October 13th.
The Academy's globe, just one of forty globes - each 5 feet in diameter, will be on display at the Academy of Sciences through January 7th, 2009.
Each globe was designed by artists to celebrate solutions to global warming.
Click to download [PDF - 2.7mb]
About the Artist: Lauren Davies
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Lauren Davies is a San Francisco artist whose work focuses on our strained relationship with the natural world. Combining mixed-media sculpture and installations with drawing, Davies meshes dark humor with a "do-it-yourself" approach to materials and construction. Curiosity about slightly oddball hobbies and vocations such as correspondence course taxidermy and pedigreed dog breeding have been explored as subject matter. Scientific processes involving the counting of elements found in the natural world is also a preoccupation. Identifying the number of spots on a leopard or keeping a tally of how many icebergs are floating about in the Arctic oceans are of interest. Specific subject matter aside, each of these various projects combine labor-intensive studio processes with unusual materials. Learn more about Lauren at nearlyreal.com.
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