fluxArt made multiple appearances at AGU24, the American Geosciences Union’s annual meeting 9-13 Dec, 2024 in Washington DC, showcasing how art-science collaborations can transform our relationship with ecosystem data and help reimagine climate action.
With presentations in sessions across multiple events, fluxArt director Maoya Bassiouni reached a wide range of researchers in the geosciences. She gave an overview of fluxArt and introduced the cohort of artists in residence and collaborators at the FLUXNET townhall. At the catchment science symposium, she gave a pop-up demonstration of pulsing flux data simulations generated by Dyantra, a digital art software developed by artist-in-residence David Glowacki, transforming ecosystem fluxes into mesmerizing digital experiences.
At the Google exhibit booth, AGU attendees experienced 18 // Flux by artist-in-residence Julia Oldham. We were proud to showcase Julia’s work for the launch of FluxBench, an international project consortium, bringing together FLUXNET researchers, remote sensing experts, and data scientists. With 24 frames per second, each frame holding an entire day of forest data, “18 // Flux” collapses thousands of PhenoCam moments, 13 years of information, into a mesmerizing 3.5 min journey of Poderosa pine growth.
fluxArt pieces at AGU revealed how creative expression can transform environmental data into felt experiences of our living Earth, exemplifying the richness of information captured at flux towers sites and in Earth observations and the challenges of bridging scales of understanding and applications.
Another highlight was the session Acknowledging and Sharing Our Climate Grief organized the Scientist Rebellion. Maoya shared a meditation video and invited the audience to consider how the climate crisis is an opportunity that reveals new ways of understanding and being and how unexpected beauty and awe can emerge from the concept of Flux. The session ended with climate grief circles moderated by the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America and this powerful quote by Gus Speth:
Through the metaphor of the biosphere’s breath – the constant exchange of energy, water, and carbon – participants contemplated how ecosystems manifest pure radiant compassion. The invitation was to dissolve the boundary of self and the biosphere and experience Breath, the constant giving and receiving that sustains life on Earth and brings us together.
