Jen Rae | A Profound Reorientation: Art, climate and disasters

We are living in a period of ‘un-ness’ – the complex unprecedented, unexpected, uncertain, unstable, unpredictable, unknowable and the unimaginable. The climate emergency is here unfolding multiple interwoven ‘permacrises’ across the globe. The portmanteau combining permanent and crisis denotes a time in human history when we lurch from one ‘unprecedented’ crisis to another. Disruptions within our complex interconnected systems mean that one crisis may trigger a sequence of compounding other crises, affecting the ecological, economic and social fabric of everything on a planetary scale. It is starkly apparent that the challenges climate change poses are far more severe and complex than anticipated, with existing systems and ways of thinking poorly equipped to manage. Without the luxury of time, there is an urgency to bolster collaborative capacity across sectors and communities, embrace emergent and experimental practices, and shift the paradigm of climate emergency engagement, disaster risk reduction and resilience to be more inclusive and accessible.

The climate context also presents the greatest threat to the arts + culture ecosystem. How artists practice and the resources that support livelihoods and well-being are finite in a future impacted by climate change. Now is a critical time as a sector for us to reconsider how to reorient practices through collaboration and partnerships, sharing expertise and resources, and untethering from conventional ways of working to adapt to the challenges ahead…

...holding urgency in one hand and relationality in the other.

The lecture will draw on the experiences and lessons learned through Art House’s REFUGE project (2016-2022) - a multi-year transdisciplinary project - where artists, emergency service providers, local government and communities rehearsed climate-related emergencies and explored the impact of creativity in disaster preparedness; the creative methodologies underpinning the work of the Centre for Reworlding; and, how speculative practices and Indigenous pedagogies might offer valuable insights in how we prepare for a future impacted by climate change.

Jen will also introduce the Centre for Reworlding's project BILYA, an innovative relational mapping platform in development as part of the H.C. Coombs Creative Art Fellowship.

Jen Rae (PhD) is an award-winning artist and researcher of Canadian Scottish-Métis (Indigenous) descent living on unceded Djaara Country (Castlemaine) Australia. She is recognised for her practice and expertise situated at the intersections of art, speculative futures and climate emergency disaster adaptation + resilience – predominantly articulated through transdisciplinary collaborations, multi-platform art projects, community alliances and Indigenous pedagogies. She is a Co-founder and the Creative Research Lead at the Centre for Reworlding, a member of the National Task Force for Creative Recovery, and was awarded a prestigious 2023 Creative Australia Fellowship for Emerging and Experimental Art. Jen is ANU’s 2024. H.C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellow developing the next stage of BILYA with collaborators Claire G. Coleman, Lee Shang Lun (PlayReactive) and researchers at ANU.

Image: REFUGIUM, 2021. Jen Rae and Claire G. Coleman, Short film (digital still) Photo credit: Centre for Reworlding

This event will be held both on-campus and online via Zoom (a link to the online stream will be sent to registered attendees).

The School of Art & Design Seminar series will continue weekly on Tuesdays from 1-2pm, between 13 February and 14 May 2024. 

To see information about upcoming speakers and to register to attend please follow this link https://shorturl.at/guw67

The School of Art & Design Seminar Series is co-convened by Dr Alex Burchmore, Alia Parker, and Elisa Crossing.