Art meets Science to talk climate change
Canadian artist Peter McLeish will address aspects of his video art-work interpretation of what climate change could mean to people living in the polar regions during a national tour in support of CSIRO/Cosmos Magazine’s SCINEMA Festival of Science Film.
Entitled Polaris Terrarum (from the Latin, Stella Polaris, meaning ‘Pole Star’), the multimedia video employs images shot from high-altitude aircraft and the Space Shuttle to explore the psychological effects of climate change.
“When seen from above, there is a disturbing response we feel for our shrinking ice fields,” Mr McLeish says.
As part of National Science Week celebrations, this year’s SCINEMA Festival of Science Film will play in 120 towns across Australia.
Mr McLeish is a Montreal-based painter, multimedia artist and film-maker whose work has appeared in museums and art forums internationally, including: Chicago’s Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, Milan’s Spazio Oberdan, Argentina’s Neuquén Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
He visited Australia in 2004 to speak at the SCINEMA Festival about his work on Red Sprites (lightning that travels up rather than down) – his previous science-art collaboration with the ill-fated Columbia Space Shuttle crew.
Mr McLeish will present addresses at the following venues: Aug 12 – University of New South Wales, Sydney Aug 13 – University of Melbourne & RMIT, Melbourne Aug 14 – LaTrobe University, Melbourne Aug 15 – Discovery Science & Technology Centre, Bendigo Aug 16 – Ballarat Observatory Aug 18 – University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba Aug 19 – Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane Aug 20 – College of Art at Griffith University, Brisbane Aug 21 – Amazing World of Science & ANU School of Art, Canberra & Australian Museum, Sydney Aug 23 – South Australian Museum, Adelaide
His tour is supported by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research through its National Science Week program.
Background information available at:http://www.csiro.au/scinema/program/guest.html