London South Bank University’s Sustainability & Climate Action Event Series 2020
Climate, Carbon, Energy & Resources
22nd June-26th June 2020
David Blandy will be showing his film “The World After” followed by a Q&A
Tuesday 23rd June, 4-15-5:15pm
“The World After:, David Blandy, 2020
Commissioned by Focal Point Gallery & New Geographies
LSBU's Sustainability & Climate Action Event will focus on Climate, Carbon, Energy and Resources. The energy we consume creates carbon emissions that damage the planet through global warming. The Australian fires and Indonesian floods this year are the consequence of 250 years of industry using toxic energy sources. With the UK committed to be carbon neutral by 2050, and all nations aiming to reduce greenhouse gasses by 40% by 2030, how can we go green, more quickly and what will that mean for architects, engineers and the built environment?
Full Programme here
‘The World After’, was commissioned by Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea and New Geographies. Comprised of a film, installation and game, ‘The World After’ is a fictional tale which imagines a world after the Anthropocene era, a time in which humanity’s activities had detrimental effect on earth’s climate and environment. In this future world, human influence on the planet has faded following a catastrophic man-made ecological crisis, with those who remain having to find new ways to survive and form kin.
The project emerges out of New Geographies, a three-year partnership across arts organisations in the East of England to commission site-specific work that responds to a series of publically nominated locations across the region. As one of nine commissioned artists, Blandy’s project took inspiration from the unique post-industrial setting of Canvey Wick on Canvey Island, Essex.
Formerly the site of an oil refinery that was only partially built in the early 1970s and never operational due to the oil crisis of 1973, Canvey Wick has for the past forty years been reclaimed by nature. Managed by nature conversation charities RSPB and Buglife, it is one of the most biodiverse areas of the UK with nearly 2,000 invertebrate species recorded on this quiet corner of the Thames Estuary.