Speakers: Christiane Gerstetter (DE), Beatie Wolfe (US), Konstantin Mitgutsch (AT)
Moderated by Miha Turšič (SI/NL)
The time for climate lawsuits is now: between 2020 and 2022, around 500 climate lawsuits were filed worldwide. Climate lawsuits are one of the many political challenges of the coming years, as they are used as an instrument to demand effective climate protection from both state and private sector actors. Increasingly replacing demonstrations and activist blockades, climate lawsuits and legal actions are supporting transformational change and creating more awareness and acceptance in the fight for climate justice and responsibility of governments and industry.
This panel brings together and showcases various initiatives that represent forms of action as well as possible incentives and approaches for empowerment in order to create climate literacy and climate justice.
ClientEarth is an international environmental law charity, working across borders, systems and sectors, using the power of the law to change the system and to ensure that every company becomes a good environmental citizen.
Artist Beatie Wolfe demonstrates how in the backdrop of advertising slogans deployed by the Big Oil industry to “Deny, Doubt and Delay”, climate data — specifically rising methane levels — has been obfuscated for decades to prevent regulation.
Game designer and play researcher Konstantin Mitgutsch explores how viewing life and dealing with challenging topics such as climate change through the lens of popular games can help us understand and navigate its complexities. This is because popular games represent different life challenges, from strategic competition to luck and absurdity.
Bios
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Photo: Mario de LopezBeatie Wolfe
GB/US
Beatie Wolfe “musical weirdo and visionary” (Vice), has beamed her music into space, been appointed a UN role model for innovation and held a solo exhibition of her “world first” designs at the V&A Museum. Named by WIRED as one of “22 people changing the world,” Wolfe is at the forefront of pioneering new formats that bridge the physical and digital. Recent projects include two award-winning art pieces concerning climate data, a brain installation exhibited in Somerset House, and new work together with Brian Eno.
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Christiane Gerstetter
DE
Dr Christiane Gerstetter is a Germany-qualified lawyer and the managing director of ClientEarth in Germany. ClientEarth is an environmental law charity that uses the power of the law for a planet on which nature and people can thrive together. Before joining ClientEarth she worked for 15 years in an environmental think tank and has published widely on environmental law and policy. Outside of her work for ClientEarth, she has also been involved with grassroots social movements for almost 30 years.
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Photo: Lea FabienneKonstantin Mitgutsch
AT
Konstantin Mitgutsch is a researcher, author and game designer specializing in transformative learning experiences and digital games. He is the founder of the Viennese game design agency Playful Solutions, which develops playful experiences with meaning for organizations and educational institutions. He worked at the MIT Game Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and was a visiting professor at the University of Vienna. Mitgutsch is a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in the field of experience and game design. He also writes a column for Der Standard on the subject of Play & Work and his publications include books such as Schauplatz Computerspiele, Sports Video Games and Lernen durch Enttäuschung.
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Photo: Miha TuršičMiha Turšič
SI, NL
Miha Turšič is an artist, art-science-technology researcher and Space Lab lead at Waag Futurelab. He works on international and transdisciplinary collaborations and the initiation of projects touching on the themes of biotechnology, material research, digital fabrication, open-source hardware, ecology and outer space. He is involved in S+T+ARTS from its beginnings, mainly focusing on collaboration methodologies, its excellence and innovation pathways.
Credits
Presented in the context of the Studiotopia project. Studiotopia is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
