Looking at the future of the planet
I coordinated operations for the fifth Marfa Dialogues symposium, a three-day event examining climate change through artistic practice, environmental policy, and climate science. Artists, climate scientists, policy makers, and theorists explored "Changing Circumstances" at The Menil Collection, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
The symposium was part of the FotoFest 2016 Biennial exploring "Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet," examining climate change from the hyperlocal to the hyperobject. Key participants included Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, who delivered the keynote address; Rice University professor Timothy Morton, author of "Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World"; photographer Dornith Doherty, whose "Archiving Eden" project documents biodiversity preservation efforts; environmental artist Gina Glover, co-author of "The Metabolic Landscape"; and experimental music group Lucky Dragons from Los Angeles. The program also featured presentations from the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) and a great environmental justice discussion with Juan Parras from Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services that put risk and proximity in plain sight.
The events extended the reach of Marfa Dialogues, established in 2010 by Ballroom Marfa Artistic Director Fairfax Dorn and Hamilton Fish, while maintaining its commitment to public engagement with complex challenges. Working between New York, the small desert town of Marfa, and major Houston museums made clear how geography and institutional scale can collaborate rather than compete.
The program’s approach created entry points for understanding climate issues that no single discipline could achieve alone. Artists offered ways of seeing that complemented scientific data, policy frameworks gained texture through creative interpretation, and science found new languages for public engagement. Rather than separate conversations, each perspective informed and enriched the others.
Connected Projects: Prada Marfa, NASA Artemis Moon Tree, Emerging Technologies presentation for Museum Computer Network at The Andy Warhol Museum.
Insights: This gathering represents another moment in the trajectory of futures-thinking, where cultural institutions serve as spaces for imagining different relationships with environmental change. Transdisciplinary dialogue creates new ways of understanding planetary challenges that complement traditional policy and scientific approaches.
Applications to future work: Framework for cultural institutions addressing planetary futures, methods for bridging creative practice with climate crisis, model for collaborative programming across geographic distances.
