Summary

Speakers
Carolina Aragon, Artist and Professor, UMass Amherst
Vladimir Djurdjevic, Climatologist and Professor, University of Belgrade 

Moderator
Marjana Brkic, Acting Director, Center for the Promotion of Science 

Introduced by
Mauro Buonocore, Head of Communication at CMCC

Roadshows, installations and sculptures meet data, climate models, and scenarios. Artists are more and more committed to the search for ways to convey the urgency of the climate emergency. It is a creative process that starts from science because it is from science that the climate comprehension of the climate crisis starts. How are artists and scientists working to find common ground to share knowledge and creativity?

The webinar brings together artists and scientists, as well as those working at the intersection of the two, to explore the potential for their collaboration and to reflect on how interdisciplinary approaches can yield new insights and solutions to enhance public awareness of climate change challenges.

The panel features two distinguished speakers, artist Carolina Aragon and climatologist Vladimir Djurdjevic, each bringing their unique perspective to the discussion of climate change and its intersection with art and science.

Recipient of the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra,” Carolina Aragon will showcase her art installation depicting Boston’s changing shorefront in response to rising sea levels. Vladimir Djurdjevic, full professor at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Belgrade, will present “The Climate Capsule”, an experimental installation of an apocalyptic scenario of the world in the year 2057 where society did not take action on climate change.

The moderator of the panel, Marjana Brkic, will also present the Climateurope2 Roadshow – an innovative approach to empowering local citizens to climate action.

The panel will create a bridge between the art and science communities and examine how to effectively communicate complex scientific concepts to non-scientific audiences through art,  encouraging climate action and sustainability preservation.

The event, jointly organised by the Climateurope2 project and the CMCC Foundation – Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, is part of the series of online events “Foresight Dialogues” in which writers, artists, journalists, scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs discuss the role of communication, in its various forms, in accelerating the climate transition. The Foresight Dialogues series is organised in the context of the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra” initiative.

Carolina Aragón is an associate professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the director of Art for Public Good Group. Her award-winning creative work blends artistry and transdisciplinary practices that bring together research, craft, and community engagement to address issues of climate change and environmental justice. In 2021, her FutureSHORELINE project was awarded the Climate Change Communication Award “Rebecca Ballestra” by the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change. Carolina was named as one of the top 25 Creative Revolutionaries by the CODAworx organization in 2020. Her artwork has been displayed at the World Bank’s Art of Resilience Exhibition 2019 in Washington, DC, as well as showcased in multiple venues, including the U.S. National Park Service’s video: 100 Years of Arts in the Parks.

Vladimir Djurdjevic is a full professor at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Belgrade. He has also been a visiting scientist at NOAA (USA), INGV/CMCC (IT), IST (PT) and ICOD (MT). He participated in research projects funded by MPNTR(RS), EU H2020, EU-FP, JRC, IPA, MOC-UNESCO, UNCCD, GEF and GCF. He also participates in the Med-CORDEX initiative and is a member of the IPC of the Pannex initiative. As an expert, he was a contributor to the National Communications on Climate Change within the UNFCCC for Serbia, BIH, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Brazil. He was awarded, WMO Borivoje Dobrilovic Trust Found Research Award, the annual award of the Faculty of Physics for scientific achievements, and Konstantin Jireček Medal – Die Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft. His expertise is numerical climate modeling and climate data analysis. In addition to his academic career, he co-founded greenartincubator.org and is a regular public speaker on climate change, actively advocating for the global transformation to a zero-carbon society.

Marjana Brkic is Acting director of the Center for the Promotion of Science, Serbia. She earned her PhD in 2019, in the field of Neuroscience under joint supervision of University of Belgrade, Serbia and University of Ghent, Belgium. From 2012 she is actively involved in science communication. Marjana was a local coordinator and team member of several Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects, covering topics from STEAM education to climate action. Particularly, he was local coordinator of TeRRIFICA project, which was built on cocreation methodology, and currently she is local coordinator of Climateurope2 project.