2019 Conference Schedule
Planet-scale Climate Science through Art
Tickets!
Venue: All Broto program highlights take place at Pilgrim House
336 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA 02657
(508) 487-6424Check with the hotel for great Broto rates. Code: BROTO2019
Schedule is subject to change.
May 17: Broto 2's Opening Evening
7 PM-10 PM A casual evening of mingling, wine and canapés. Two special keynote speakers - with big picture talks that set the tone for the weekend. And, the return of our audacious, ongoing experiment in mainstreaming climate change through comedy.
7:30 PM Keynote #1: The Need for Aggressive, Artistic Global ActionCraig Altemose, Executive Director, Better Future ProjectClimate change is the world's most pressing and widescale threat, and yet our domestic and global political systems continue to address the problem with little urgency or ambition. Craig explains how climate change is an urgent global challenge, why the current paradigm of 'reducing emissions' has utterly failed to communicate the real threat of climate change, and why we need a clearer, bolder, and more creative global response to the climate crisis.
8:15 PM Keynote #2: Art and its Lens on Hyperobjects
Karl Schroeder, Futurist and author of upcoming novel “Stealing Worlds”
For planetary scale problems such as global warming, art that represents may be insufficient. If we are forced to engage with what Timothy Morton calls ‘hyperobjects”—actors and agents of change that are literally too big to see—art needs to operate on the same scale. This does not mean bigger installations, but bigger ideas and a strong partnership with science. As an example, Karl presents the Deodands Project, an attempt to completely reimagine humanity’s relationship with nature to enable an effective 21st Century environmentalism.
9 PM Roast! Climate Change Comedy
Our ongoing experiment with mainstreaming climate change awareness through comedy. Featuring IMPROVincetown, Provincetown's favorite improv comedy ensemble.
After 10? Explore Provincetown late night -- shows, entertainment, restaurants, shopping.
May 18: Broto 2's Conference Day
8:30 AM - 5 PM A day of workshops, panels, and speakers.
8:30 AM: Coffee Mingle at Pilgrim House
8:45 AM: Opening Remarks by Broto founder Ian Edwards
9:00 AM: Insights Brief #1: Saving the Bees through Art and Science
In this brief “insights talk”, the first of five, Boston/Provincetown bee ecologist Noah Wilson-Rich explains how The Best Bees Company is using art to help the plight of our bees. "If you eat food, then you need bees," he says. "Yet, bees are dying at an alarming rate. Data from urban environments indicate that bees are doing better in cities, but few people seemed to listen…until bee researchers hired illustrators."
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Globalizing Art and Science
Our panel of experts will explore how and why planet-scale art and science might work, with lessons from other global initiatives. What makes art and science global? How do we scope art and science at scale? Panelists include: Stafford Sheehan (CTO, The Air Company), Noah Wilson-Rich (CEO, The Best Bees Company), Julia Buntaine Hoel (Director, SciArt Center), experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats, environmental communicator/visual artist Melissa Fleming, and moderator Craig Altemose, Executive Director, Better Future Project.
10:30 AM: Break
10:45 AM: Insights Brief #2: The Economics of Climate Change
In this brief “insights talk”, Brewster economist Madhavi Venkatesan addresses the need for multidisciplinary engagement, including art and science, to increase empathy and understanding of the relationship between our economic actions and social and environmental justice outcomes. Her talk highlights the need for responsibility in consumption choices, or conscious consumption, and provides the rationale for economic literacy as a means to foster sustainability.
11:15 AM: Insights Brief #3: Fighting Climate Change with Products made from Carbon Dioxide
In this brief “insights talk”, Stafford Sheehan, CTO, The Air Company, explains how his company's goal is to bring products made from carbon dioxide to consumers in a sustainable manner. "In doing so, we need to find ways, like art and culture, to enable people to make the best choices for the planet in their everyday consumer decisions," he says. "This is going to require a change in global culture, bringing science and environmental conservation into our daily lives, to positively impact the environment and world.
12 Noon: Lunch break
1 PM: Insights Brief #4: Reaching the Third Paradise
In this brief “insights talk”, Julia Buntaine Hoel, Director of the SciArt Center in Cambridge, explains that cross-disciplinary collaboration has moved from fad to necessity. How will the convergence of art, science, and technology lead to our Third Paradise? What's that? "The basic idea of the Third Paradise is the overcoming of the current worldwide existing conflict between the two polarities of nature and artifice," says Michelangelo Pistoletto, author of The Third Paradise manifesto.
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Investigating Art as a Vector for Scale
Our panel of experts will explore how art might provide a catalyst for global climate science scale -- learning from, and perhaps outperforming, the efforts of multinational corporations and NGOs, global government and global religion. How do we engage art as a way to take climate science to planet scale? Panelists include oceanographer Hilairy Hartnett (ASU PlanetWorks), Lance Gharavi (ASU School of Film, Dance and Theatre), independent environmental curator Marnie Benney, urban ecologist Elizabeth Cook (The New School), and moderator Peter ter Weeme, EVP, Purpose and Brand Citizenship at Elevator Strategy.
2:45 PM: Insights Brief #5: Port of Mars
In this brief “insights talk”, Lance Gharavi, Associate Professor, School of Film, Dance and Theatre, Arizona State University, explains his work with the Port of Mars project, which is aimed specifically at solutions for human space exploration, but is applicable to issues like climate change. "The project focuses on addressing dilemmas of shared resources, common good, and collective action under conditions of high uncertainty and high risk," he says. "Though the fictive framing of our experiments is human space communities, the insights and knowledge we produce will be fungible," including adapting it for global scale responses to climate change.
3:15 PM: Break
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM Scoping a Global Art-Cli-Sci Installation
In a facilitator-led group discussion, we'll envision what a synchronous, seven-content, art-climate-science installation might look like. What's the art? What's the science? Who are the players? How might it work with credibility? If we can't imagine at planet scale, then we can't engineer at planet scale. Featuring facilitators: Hilairy Hartnett (ASU PlanetWorks), futurist Karl Schroeder, philosopher Jonathon Keats, and Broto founder Ian Edwards,
4:30 PM: Final Recommendations
What summarizes our collective thinking on the subject of art as an unconventional growth channel for climate science? What takes the conversation forward? This is a group discussion toward a "creative brief" on our thoughts about art as an unconventional growth channel for climate science. Featuring facilitators: Hilairy Hartnett (ASU PlanetWorks) and Broto founder Ian Edwards and graphic facilitator Karina Branson.
5:00 PM: Closing Remarks by Broto founder Ian Edwards
Explore Provincetown late night. Among the many options.
IMPROVincetown, May 18, 7 PM, at Pilgrim House $20
Outer Cape Chorale, May 18, 7PM at Town Hall Free
Ptownie has an event calendar that might be useful in your planning.
Sunday -- shows, entertainment, restaurants, shopping. Whale watching, dune tours and Pilgrim Monument and other attractions will be open for the 2019 season!
We want this program to embody mutual and substantive art-sci collaboration, to explore our Collaboration Blueprint model and to engage our community in innovative content that expands the climate change conversation.