In a series of back-to-back interviews, I sat down with three members of the Stanford community, a nano-particle scientist, a master dramaturg, and a classics expert, to discuss, of all things, the environmental crisis. But why wouldn’t they all be talking about the environment? It is, after all, one of the gnarliest problems our global community faces. Specifically, these scholars are focused on the problem of communicating about the environmental crisis.
Dr. Ali Namayandeh, a nanoscience postdoctoral scholar, explains that the environmental crisis is incredibly hard to discuss because it’s a “wicked problem”. Every perceived solution just opens the door for more problems. For example, we can say greenhouse gasses cause climate change. But this answer creates new problems. A simple local emission reduction doesn’t necessarily improve local outcomes. Another issue is that the people producing greenhouse gasses, i.e. wealthy northern nations of the past and present, are not the people most impacted. There is also the massive time scale, the personal vs social responsibility, the nuanced nature of research. To top it off, the pathways available to scientists to communicate are limited at best.
The general public wants answers, but, Ali explains, “Sometimes it's become very overwhelming for us to talk about it, because we don't know what aspects of [a solution] should work. If we tried to fix this one part of it, another part of it goes wrong.” And yet, we have to talk about it. So how do we communicate about something scientists know for a fact is happening, but can’t quite say what it is.
All my interviewees had the same answer - performing arts. When I complained to Dr. Branislav Jakovljević, a Stanford TAPs professor, about the lack of an explanation for the climate crisis, he corrected me saying,
“It can be explained. [...] it cannot be expressed. [...] That’s where I see the challenge, how to express these ideas that science has formulated very clearly, very persuasively - to help translate that into a language that is accessible [...] Art should provide.”
Climate change is so vast in scale and magnitude that most of us can’t conceive of it in its entirety, even if it can be theoretically explained. But reckoning with topics beyond human comprehension is the purpose of Art. Art interrogates the known, but inexplicable truths of the world - things like death, agency, love. The environmental crisis is an inexplicable truth.
Performance art, in particular, is perfect for handling complicated social problems like climate change. Think about Antigone, Hamlet, or Broadway’s Rent. Historically, performances have acted as social commentary, not incidentally, but because, in Branislav words, “drama demands conflict!” For this reason, performance art can handle the complexity of social issues that other communication can’t. It can address ideas narratively, energetically, or metaphorically. There can be literal dialogue between stakeholders. Through live performances, ideas can be situated within real space, time and bodies. And yet simultaneously, a performance is imagined - created in an audience's mind outside of reality.
In this format, so many of the problems of environmental communication fade away. Performance can be grounded in our world, and it can imagine new worlds. Performance can maintain abstraction and concreteness. Performance can convey overarching messages while maintaining multiple perspectives. Performance art is alive. It changes with each interpretation, each performance, each audience.
As a concrete example, take Antigone by Sophocles. As outlined by Professor Rush Rehm, classical theater expert, Antigone is a Greek tragedy in which a dutiful sister, Antigone, buries her deceased brother, a declared war criminal, Polynices, against the wishes of her future father-in-law, King Creon. Rush explains that Creon thinks leaving Polynices unburied “will just be a political signal.” But, of course, Creon is profoundly wrong. His “metaphor” is a literal body.
Rush continued,“Of course [...] the birds and the dogs spread [the remains] all over the city and the city becomes polluted and the gods don’t want anything to do with it.” In classic tragic fashion, most everyone close to Creon dies as a result of a horrible, complicated domino effect caused by his decision. Creon is also hated by all of Greece as a result of the pollution. The story ends with bleak consolation, although the gods punish the proud, punishment brings wisdom.
On reflection, this piece centers the ignorance of a powerful actor who causes environmental destruction in pursuit of an abstract, political gesture. Sound familiar? It highlights the conflicts between legal and moral acts of environmental preservation. It calls for reflection, humility, and growth, but doesn’t promise false hope. Antigone is a beautiful piece of environmental communication, and it was written in 441 BC. 3
Why reinvent the wheel? The current environmental crisis is not novel. Performing arts have a historical precedent for effectively discussing social issues and creating change. Current environmental communication efforts should not ignore the wealth of techniques and frameworks present in performing arts.
And for you, on campus, there are a lot of ways to get involved. The TAPS department regularly hosts environmental performances. Right now, Dr. Namayandeh is working on a community-engaged piece about California Wildfires. Professor Rehm has a piece, Voices of the Earth, that anyone can access online. So participate, attend, and support - for the arts and for our planet.
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Aisling Murran has a deep and unwavering interest in life, from the inner workings of people’s minds to the smallest bugs and critters. In pursuit of this love, she has worked as a biological scientist, a performing artist, and multimedia storyteller. The whole process of science; research, application and knowledge sharing, is what drew Aisling to the Environmental Communications Master’s degree and will continue to motivate her work after graduation.
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