Scenes from the Mermaid Tear Factory: Policy and Performance in the Age of Climate Change

While Land Art and Environmental Theater are not new cultural trends in response to ecological concerns and destructive environmental policy nationally and internationally, the complexities of what we confront in the Age of Climate Change, or what Jason W. Moore calls the “Capitalocene”, call artists to consider and produce their work in a context of climate justice more than ever. Cultural response to climate is now inevitably GLOCAL (global and local), telling specific stories about people, the land where they live and unique ecosystems, and at the same time desperately interconnected to far away climate change drivers and communities of solidarity worldwide. How are artists making work about the environment that contemplates climate and environmental justice? How are artist-activists taking this work to wider audiences? What is culture’s role in the climate movement? How can we multiply these efforts as culture workers in partnership with community and non-arts organizations? What do transnational climate arts dialogues look like in the 21st century? This presentation will address these themes through discussion of Elizabeth Doud’s performance research project entitled “The Mermaid Tear Factory: A Laboratory of Environmental Performance” and other cultural organizing work.