Arts, Media and Culture (AMC) Colloquium: On Roles for Art in Societal Challenges: Artistic Strategies for Engaging Environmental Issues
Speaker: Nora Vaage, response by Miriam Meissner
When: Wednesday 29 November, 15.30-17.30
Where: Spiegelzaal, Soiron building, Grote Gracht 80-82
Abstract
In our contemporary era, artworks engage directly with issues of climate change, species extinction, and other grand challenges. This is done in a variety of ways, aimed at different audiences and stretching, to some extent, the familiar roles for art. In this paper I discuss the historical development of some established views of art, focusing on the idea that fine art is autonomous from political, economic and societal demands, and how this view was increasingly challenged. I pose the question of what art does, in our time, and provide a partial response through discussion of various strategies pursued by environmental artists.
