{"id":5199,"date":"2018-01-15T17:44:21","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T22:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=5199"},"modified":"2018-01-15T23:13:51","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T04:13:51","slug":"andi-sutton-catherine-dignazio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/01\/15\/andi-sutton-catherine-dignazio\/","title":{"rendered":"At MIT, Artists Look At How Global Warming Will Put A Lot Of Boston Under Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the end of this century, how will global warming and rising seas have changed Boston?<\/p>\n

A lot more of it is expected to be under water\u2014much as it was before human construction reshaped the city\u2019s coastline. \u201cWhen we looked at the climate change predictions for Boston for 2100, those maps look very much like the map from 1788,\u201d artist Catherine D\u2019Ignazio said during a talk at Cambridge\u2019s MIT Museum on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

She was discussing \u201cBoston Coastline: Future Past,\u201d<\/a> an installation documenting a walk she and artist Andi Sutton led around downtown Boston in 2015. It\u2019s on view as part of the museum\u2019s exhibit, \u201cBig Bang Data,\u201d<\/a> exploring the intersections of culture, technology and society in our digital age, through April 1.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/a>
Map of Boston’s coastline in 1788 and what it might look like due to global warming in 2100. From Andi Sutton and Catherine D’Ignazio’s “Boston Coastline: Future Past” project on view at the MIT Museum, Jan. 6, 2018. (Courtesy of the artists)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe had a lot less land in 1788,\u201d D\u2019Ignazio said. \u201cWe filled it in. We came in and chopped off a lot of hills in Boston and filled in the Back Bay, the harbor area.\u201d The coastline was also filled with gravel hauled in from 50 miles distant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe areas that we filled in, the areas that are human-created, are the areas most vulnerable to climate change,\u201d D\u2019Ignazio said. Their map predicting the 2100 Boston coastline includes a 7-foot storm surge\u2014something like what greater Boston experienced in the recent Jan. 4 bombogenesis blizzard. \u201cThis is the worst-case scenario of water rise plus storm surge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Catherine<\/a>
Catherine D’Ignazio leads the “performative walk” called “Boston Coastline: Future Past” that she and and Andi Sutton offered on June 19, 2015. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To \u201cmake people understand that with their bodies,\u201d Sutton explained, they led a walking tour on June 19, 2015, beginning at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square and ending at Boston Common. \u201cWe called this a \u2018walking data visualization,\u2019\u201d D\u2019Ignazio said.<\/p>\n

At stops along the way, performance artists, scientific experts and policy makers stood on a step ladder, at the height of projected sea level rise for that spot, and spoke about how human activity has changed Boston\u2019s coastline historically and continues to alter it. \u201cAs you\u2019re listening, climate change becomes much less abstract,\u201d Sutton recalled.<\/p>\n

\"Eric<\/a>
Eric Gordon, director of Emerson College’s Engagement Lab, speaks during Catherine D’Ignazio and Andi Sutton’s “performative walk” “Boston Coastline: Future Past,” June 19, 2015. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 40 participants in the 2015 walk were also invited to pick out wooden stencils to wear that spelled out \u201ctheir hopes, fears and grief for the future.\u201d Sutton wore signs reading: \u201cI hope that \/ Fracking \/ will go extinct by the year 2025 A.D.\u201d Others assembled signs saying: \u201cI fear that \/ Bees \/ will go extinct by the year 2035 A.D.\u201d; \u201cI fear that \/ Arctic Ice \/ will go extinct by the year 2070 A.D.\u201d; \u201cI hope that \/ Our Obsession with Consumerism \/ will go extinct by the year 2075 A.D.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re creating a cultural history of the future based on extinction,\u201d Sutton said at the MIT Museum. At the end of the walk, the messages were temporarily stenciled along a sidewalk in Boston Common using biodegradable pigmented sand, she said.<\/p>\n

\"Andi<\/a>
Andi Sutton (left) and Catherine D’Ignazio speak about their “Boston Coastline: Future Past” project at the MIT Museum, Jan. 6, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe reason I choose a poetic medium,\u201d Sutton said at MIT, \u201cis what motivates me is opening up conversations, opening up possibilities and kinds of futures, opening up a space of vulnerability where we can then move towards a place of conversation.\u201d She said, it\u2019s \u201ca bridge to find a way in and find a way through all the messy, complicated things that make us not want to think about it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

One audience member asked what the city of Boston is doing now to address threats from global warming. \u201cEven just since this most recent storm, there\u2019s interest in building a seawall,\u201d Sutton said. Though, she noted, that a seawall could push the storm surges onto poorer communities north and south of Boston. She said an MIT group has ideas for designing parklands to store and absorb more storm water and promote biodiversity. \u201cThat\u2019s one engineering and design solution that\u2019s giving me hope. I haven\u2019t heard of a concrete political solution yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Help us keep producing our great coverage of local arts by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Andi<\/a>
Andi Sutton and Catherine D’Ignazio speak about their “Boston Coastline: Future Past” project at the MIT Museum, Jan. 6, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the end of this century, how will global warming and rising seas have changed Boston? A lot more of it is expected to be under water\u2014much as it was before human construction reshaped the city\u2019s coastline. \u201cWhen we looked at the climate change predictions for Boston for 2100, those maps look very much like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,100,104],"tags":[37,42,53,218],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5199"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5224,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199\/revisions\/5224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}