as part of the Dutch Research Agenda to put art at the center of climate justice, from Aruba to the Wadden Islands.In JUST ART, researcher Annemarie Piscaer will contribute to the work package JUST MATTER, focusing on material engagement and more-than-human justice. Through this framework, Annemarie continues her PhD research Aerial and Airing at LUCA School of Arts and CARADT.
As the impacts of climate change accelerate, it is becoming increasingly clear that those least responsible for the crisis are also those most likely to be the hardest hit. This is one of the central tenets of climate justice, a framework that highlights the deep inequities and injustices shaping responses to climate change.
Led by the University of Groningen (Prof. Dr. Ann-Sophie Lehmann, Art History & Material Culture, Faculty of Arts) the project will see 10 higher education institutions collaborate with 40 societal partners to amplify marginalized voices, illuminate systemic injustices, and cultivate new strategies for more just forms of climate action. The complexity and scale of the climate crisis can feel overwhelming. Artistic practice and artistic research can open up new ways of understanding the intersectional dimensions of this crisis so that people feel empowered to act, in whatever way they can. This grounded approach is central to the JUST ART project. From Aruba to Brabant, from the Wadden Islands to Twente, and from the polders to Curaçao, JUST ART will promote climate justice in contexts where the crisis is most acutely felt, and where action is most urgently needed.
At its core climate justice sheds light on the multiple ways climate change reinforces existing injustices, especially those related to race, class, gender, geography, colonial history, and the relation between humans and other life forms. Art and artistic research are vital in this context not just because they can help to imagine other ways of being in the world, but because they can foster meaningful dialogue and collaborative practices across disciplinary, geographical, and cultural borders. JUST ART will galvanize emerging work at the intersection of artistic research and climate justice, and catalyze new creative collaborations within and beyond the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
‘People are the product of their relationships with their environment. It’s important to understand how technological developments influence these relationships.’
Michel van Dartel is Research Professor Situated Art, Design and Technology at the Avans Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT) and was affiliated with V2_Lab for the Unstable Media between 2005-2024. He holds an MSc in cognitive psychology and a PhD in artificial intelligence.
‘Humans are atmospheric beings, particles, dust, in intimate cycles of exchange, actors with an incredible force.’
‘We need to become attuned actors with a deeper understanding of all the other particles.’
Annemarie Piscaer is a researcher in the Situated Art, Design and Technology research group, tutor on the New Design & Attitudes study programme at St. Joost School of Art & Design, and PhD candidate in the Doctoral Program at KU Leuven.
Living in cities developed around data and acting within the inscrutable structure of our techno-society demands art and design that can help understand how we relate to these rapidly changing surroundings and to reflect on that relationship. The research group Situated Art, Design and Technology responds to this exigency by fostering a situated turn in art and design through a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary research projects in partnership with academic and cultural partners, as well as with government and industry.
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