Graffiti exhibition to showcase role of climate from space
Street art and climate science will combine at ESA’s Living Planet Symposium to highlight the major role that satellites play in helping to understand our Earth.
Dublin-based street artist, Shane Sutton, who is collaborating with ESA’s Climate Office, will be exhibiting a collection of original artworks exploring the benefits of ‘taking the pulse of our planet from space’ at the world’s largest Earth observation conference.
The Living Planet Symposium will be held in Milan, Italy, on 13–17 May.
Staging the art exhibition during the event aims to draw the scientific community’s attention to ESA’s Climate Change Initiative and the satellite-derived climate data records it generates.
These long-term, global observations help researchers to produce new scientific evidence and inform international decision-making through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The popular appeal of street art is also expected to inspire and engage the next generation of Earth scientists and help to explain the findings and benefits of this initiative to a wider general public audience.
Shane’s collaboration with ESA follows his selection as the winner of the Climate from Space art competition last year, and continues his creative love of space.
His previous works have explored the concept of ‘choices’ on a journey and feature an astronaut character of neutral gender he calls Spacer. The new exhibition will include large-scale signature artworks and further examine the choices humanity is making, through the narrative of the climate and our growing knowledge of how our planet is changing.
He explains that, “The wealth of data collected on our vast oceans, land, atmosphere and even polar regions means humanity can observe how the planet has, and continues to evolve.
“Working with the ESA Climate Office, I aim to celebrate the space that monitors Earth, but also to challenge the audience to consider what our future climate will be like based on the choices being made today.”
Attendees to the Living Planet Symposium will be able to view the exhibition during the five-day conference, and can see Shane in action as he completes the final piece for the exhibition based on the atmosphere monitoring satellite, Copernicus Sentinel-5P.
