If we were to talk about one of my recurring
dreams, our conversation could not be contained by words. My hands would flail
to try and capture the big, the tiny, the whole world I was just in; I would
take your napkin to try and scribble out the different shapes of feeling and
ideas that just passed before my eyes. Elements of the dream would likely
tether to real things and experiences that I could relate to you; it's just
about stringing together the right relations to get you to see what I saw.
So now let's talk about climate change. And let's be sure not to sit on our hands.
In our work at ECCo, the division of Environment, Culture, and Conservation at The Field Museum, we integrate creative visual techniques in our popular educational materials and ethnographic tools.
Tools like story elicitation, asset mapping, and story collection help our ethnographers survey and facilitate discussion around complicated issues like climate change. The hope is to get people to talk about climate change in ways that make sense to them, by mining through their own experiences to locate how climate change affects them in everyday ways. Asset mapping helps participants to think creatively about the resources in their community that they use to take climate action, whether they learn more about the issue from their library, use their car less by walking to the bike shop around the corner, or share recipes with the neighbor next door. Highly visual methods can lead to conversations that are open ended with less formal prompts, allowing various interpretations, responses, and connections to be drawn. Because when you're trying to have a conversation around an unseen idea, creative methods help visualize that concept without limiting the potential shape it may take.
Not only do creative methods foster open-ended learning, but they can also be employed to realize creative climate action as well. Innovative environmentally-friendly practices emerge where diverse cultural practices, local concerns, and environmental stewardship intersect. ECCo’s most recent project is the Chicago Community Climate Action Toolkit, co-led by Jennifer Hirsch, Arts & Environment XChange Advisory Council member. ECCo partnered with four communities to help them realize their own climate action projects that addressed both local concerns and climate change impacts. The tools help community organizations and residents to both understand the science behind climate change and make it relevant to their own lives. Find them at climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org and start dreaming big climate action dreams.
So now let's talk about climate change. And let's be sure not to sit on our hands.
In our work at ECCo, the division of Environment, Culture, and Conservation at The Field Museum, we integrate creative visual techniques in our popular educational materials and ethnographic tools.
Tools like story elicitation, asset mapping, and story collection help our ethnographers survey and facilitate discussion around complicated issues like climate change. The hope is to get people to talk about climate change in ways that make sense to them, by mining through their own experiences to locate how climate change affects them in everyday ways. Asset mapping helps participants to think creatively about the resources in their community that they use to take climate action, whether they learn more about the issue from their library, use their car less by walking to the bike shop around the corner, or share recipes with the neighbor next door. Highly visual methods can lead to conversations that are open ended with less formal prompts, allowing various interpretations, responses, and connections to be drawn. Because when you're trying to have a conversation around an unseen idea, creative methods help visualize that concept without limiting the potential shape it may take.
Not only do creative methods foster open-ended learning, but they can also be employed to realize creative climate action as well. Innovative environmentally-friendly practices emerge where diverse cultural practices, local concerns, and environmental stewardship intersect. ECCo’s most recent project is the Chicago Community Climate Action Toolkit, co-led by Jennifer Hirsch, Arts & Environment XChange Advisory Council member. ECCo partnered with four communities to help them realize their own climate action projects that addressed both local concerns and climate change impacts. The tools help community organizations and residents to both understand the science behind climate change and make it relevant to their own lives. Find them at climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org and start dreaming big climate action dreams.
Contributor: Lisa See Kim, Visual Communications Specialist, The Field Museum
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