Planetary health and Visual culture - David Cross
A brief presentation, as part of a public conversation on Intersectionality and Planetary Health with Janine François for UAL Research Season 2021.
Author: David Cross
The Covid-19 pandemic and the climate emergency are both symptoms of the underlying social-ecological crisis. If this complex of wicked problems originates in what Fritjof Capra termed, “a crisis of perception”, then how might artists and designers respond?
David Cross
David Cross is an artist and Reader at UAL, engaging with the social-ecological crisis through visual culture. Recognizing the conflict between his internationalism and environmentalism, he stopped using jet travel in 2005. In 2012, following the Artist Placement Group, he designated his role at UAL as an artist’s placement, proposing that UAL switch to an ethical bank. With students, David campaigned for UAL to divest £3.9 million from fossil fuels, which in 2015 it pledged to do. David is now advocating that UAL integrates decarbonization and decolonisation as a start towards regenerative ecology and restorative social justice
