An Ode to the Climate Artist
An Ode to the Climate Artist
The unintuitive reason why climate art will get us to Net Zero.
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In my last interview, climate artist Nicole Kelner dropped her favorite quote on me:
“The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”
- Toni Cade Bambara
Man, what a quote!
And a week later, I still couldn’t stop thinking about it. So, I needed to do what had to be done: Write an ode to the climate artist.
In this piece, I’ll explore (a) how artists connect the non-obvious to the rest of us, (b) their role in our race to Net Zero, and (c) why the climate space can’t do without them.
Let’s do this ✌️
An Ode to the Climate Artist
By Art Lapinsch
A decade ago, I graduated from ad school in Marketing & Creativity.
The main question my peers and I tried to explore was: What is art?
My initial hunch was that art is an artifact that can tell us something about a particular time and place. A result of artistic expression. A noun.
But my buddies Finn and Lukas told me that just because something looks like art it isn’t necessarily art. Think of the output of generative AI. Is that art? Probably not.
I think we got a little closer to the true answer when we reframed art as a creative impulse to do something. A person trying to express themselves artistically. A verb.
Let me explain.
The Artist as a Medium
Let’s hear from a total pro - Rick Rubin.
In case you don’t know him:
First, shame on you!
Second, he barely plays any instruments and looks like Hobo version of Santa.
Third, he is the reason why the following artists sound like they do: Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Adele, Lady Gaga, Metallica, Slayer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Black Sabbath, the Strokes, Weezer, Audioslave, Aerosmith, Linkin Park, System of a Down, and Johnny Cash 🤯
Rick recently published a book called “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” that is a personal collection of insights across four decades of working with the world’s best artists.
And the book opens with this quote:
“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
- Robert Henri
The way I read this, it confirms our earlier notion:
Art is not a noun: “the object isn’t to make art”
Art is a verb: “be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable”
The Medium
A medium is something that mediates between a sender and a receiver.
Social media is a medium. It is in between the person that posts about their cat’s birthday and the person who gets this silly update pushed into their newsfeed.
A newspaper is a medium. They are in between the journalist who writes about the topic of the day and the person who reads this article with their morning coffee.
An artist is a medium too. But they are in between something that’s not accessible to the the rest of the world. Some call it divine inspiration. Others refer to the muse.
The way I see it, an artist has the capacity to connect us to the non-obvious.
So what does the climate artist connect us to?
The Role of the Climate Artist
Let’s get back to Nicole’s favorite quote:
“The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”
- Toni Cade Bambara
We dissected this quote into three parts and Nicole gave me her 2 cents:
Quote Idea #1: A Climate Artist Perceives Non-Obvious Things
I think artists have this special superpower to help imagine and visualize anything that we could do, and then I think by envisioning this and helping other people see that world they're trying to visualize, you can bring people into that fantasy and then make it a reality in some capacity.
So it's kind of these like vision holders and yeah, like finding action steps to then reverse engineer towards that future.
In the context of climate, having a vision means painting a clear image of what the future looks like.
But before taking others on a journey, they have to perceive it.
Quote Idea #2: A Climate Artist Shares an Optimistic Vision With the Rest of Us
It is a word that I never would have picked or used on my own.
I think that's part of why I like this quote. It's so bold and represents massive change. And that really is what we need right now. To me that word evokes positive thoughts. It is Sparking change and igniting a movement and I think that it really ties in all of those aspects.
Artists can steer our attention towards bold things.
Suddenly, I realized that I was totally wrong about one thing.
Climate Art for Net Zero
In my essay “The Gordian Knot of Climate” I argued that the climate space needs to solve four things at the same time:
🌳 Environment: Is it carbon neutral/negative?
🤖 Technology: Does the technology function at scale?
💶 Economics: Is it economically feasible and cheaper than fossil alternatives?
⚖️ Law & Policy: Is it legal?
But I missed the most important thing: Demand 💚 - Do people want it?
The sad truth is that climate impact, economic feasibility, technological readiness, and a positive policy environment is useless if no one wants this climate solution.
This is where the climate artist comes into play.
Quote Idea #3: A Climate Artist Makes Things Desirable
Like every part of the sentence is something I couldn't have thought of myself. I think that's why I love it so much.
Irresistible to me is this idea that it's so good we can't not want to live in that. We can see it. We can think about it. We can breathe it.Like it is so beautiful.
In a sense, a climate artist takes the rest of us through the AIDA marketing funnel:
Attention: Art can make us pause and pay attention.
Interest: Art can generate curiosity and create interest.
Desire: Art can cultivate a desire to do something.
Action: Art can finally set us in motion.
Think of climate artists as the cultivators of desire.
An Ode to the Climate Artist
I hope you come out of this essay with a new realization: All of us can be artists.
If you (1) see something that the rest doesn’t, (2) can paint a vivid picture of it, and (3) can make it desirable, then you are an artist.
This is to all the founders, communicators, activists, educators, policymakers, and so on. This is to all of you!
Art is a verb after all.
Now go on and express yourself!
🙏 Thanks, Nicole for inspiring me and Ben for being a sounding board for this idea.
Get in touch via Linkedin if you want to chat about ideas, projects, or a potential collaboration✌️