CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Florida students combine music and data to raise awareness about the environment

NPR: An anthropology professor at the University of South Florida recently published a paper she knew barely anyone would read. At least, not outside her field. The paper, co-authored with three other professors, had to do with the impact of algae blooms and depletion of coral reefs on the region's tourism industry. The work was glum, says Heather O'Leary. It involved tracking visitors' reactions to the environment on social media.

2 comments:

Luna said...

I really enjoyed reading this article. When I was in middle school, I became very passionate about climate and environmental justice so when I was in high school, I was involved in multiple groups and organizations in school, and in my county to work towards a better future. I was a part of the sustainability committee at my school, and we gave a presentation to students on how art can act as a form of climate activism. This article was a perfect example on how this could work. Specifically, music is so integral in everyday life, so I think it was a really good idea to make data into music something that we are constantly consuming. It was a good way of taking information and transforming into something that the general public could enjoy and learn from. This is something that I wanna do with theatre. One of my career goals would be to integrate messages of the urgency of climate change within pieces that I work on and for sustainability to be a factor in the design and production of the show.

Reigh Wilson said...

This article was so so fun and exciting to read. It reminds me of the imaginarium project my group is doing right now, as we are focusing on how Global Warming affects Florida, especially when it comes to water levels and hurricanes. This is a testament on how effective the arts can be at communicating a message and fostering a collaborative environment. It turns this bleak and depressing topic, not into something that mitigates that, but rather something that can inspire and move people in a way numbers on a spreadsheet can’t. It is so cool to see how music and theatre can really take these large topics and make them into something digestible and something that people want to work on and talk about and listen to. This was super cool to read and has me very excited as an upcoming artist in the arts industry. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for this piece.