https://earth-our-home.siggraph.org
The capacity of humanity to make choices and impose those choices on the environment without critical consideration of the consequences has resulted in an imbalance in power, where the destiny of the earth, our home, is controlled by humanity. Human agency and continued existence rely on a balanced alliance with our natural world where the relationship shifts from master (human) / slave (environment) to a cooperative agreement to co-exist in harmony. The earth is home to a wide variety of species and provides the necessities to support life in its various forms. Our ecosystem is a complex network of biological communities and abiotic factors that, when left on its own, promotes a natural evolution of life and equilibrium. When the system is impacted by short-sighted, rapacious human intervention, residents of this planet often experience displacement, extinction, and suffering. It is here that we find ourselves.
Artists, scientists, technologists, and social practitioners have the power to critically respond to the imbalance by engaging in practices and producing artworks that seek to understand and work in harmony with the natural world to re-imagine a better future. This exhibition showcases creative works that investigate, question, and/or propose critical action to reestablish a sustainable and balanced relationship with the earth, our home.
Bonnie Mitchell is a new media artist, online archive developer and a Professor at Bowling Green State University in Digital Arts, in Bowling Green, Ohio, USA. Mitchell is a member of the ISEA International Advisory Committee and ACM SIGGRAPH History and Digital Arts Committee where she focuses on the development of their online archives. Her current creative practice focuses on development of physically immersive data visualization environments that showcase climate change over time. Mitchell’s artworks explore spatial and experiential relationships to our physical, social, cultural and psychological environment through interaction, abstraction and audio. She often collaborates with Elainie Lillios, a composer, to create abstract visual music installations and animations that have been shown in hundreds of venues world-wide. Bonnie Mitchell was also an early net-artist producing numerous large-scope international internet art projects that were shown at ISEA, SIGGRAPH and online starting in 1992, garnered an Honorable Mention from Ars Electronica in 1995.
Jan Searleman taught Computer Science at Clarkson University for 37 years, retired in 2015, and since retirement has been an Adjunct Research Professor at Clarkson. Her research areas are Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence. In 1979, Jan, along with colleague James Lynch, established a major in Computer Science. She was also instrumental in creating Clarkson’s MS and PhD in Computer Science. Jan created and taught a variety of CS courses, including Artificial Intelligence in 1979, and Computer Graphics in 1980 (in the days of a green dot on a black screen). In the 1990s, she created a student lab in Virtual Reality, and introduced a course on Virtual Environments. A senior member of the ACM since 1976, and of SIGGRAPH since 1978, Jan established Clarkson’s ACM student chapter in 1980. She also created Clarkson’s ACM SIGGRAPH student chapter. She advised both chapters until her retirement.