UAL's Climate Emergency Network is an evolving, responsive movement. Propelled by staying in the tension of what can no longer be, what is happening now, and what is yet to arrive.
Since the network’s first Climate Assemblies at UAL in 2019 – it has gained traction and agency. The network unites around a shared purpose, across differences. It has agitated and organised, built up, burnt out, and built up again. And still, there remains a huge amount of work to do, to meet the collective challenge of our time.
It is an untamed and non-hierarchical network. That breaches the boundaries of generation, discipline, college, and historical allegiances. It comes together to harness the full force of existential creativity. To match the existential crisis, that threatens our world.
The Green House (21-30 April 2023)
With Earth Day on the horizon and the Green House coming into view. Show up. Dig in. Tidy and tend. Compost the old and nurture the new. Share what you know, learn what you need to. What does Climate Justice mean to you?
Join us in the Green House, a living exhibition, events programme and action hub that brings together a diverse community of creative change makers to get involved in developing responses to the impacts of climate change and generate effective creative responses to these issues.
We are constantly re-evaluating our purpose and impact on our community at UAL. Our purpose is defined as:
- Community as a catalyst for action. By accelerating and amplifying individual agency, and nurturing future leadership.
- Community of reflection. A network that looks inwards and outwards to find what is most urgent and relevant. Through critical friendship and honesty.
- Community as a refuge. Where hope and resilience can be restored and replenished together. Where rest and care are valued and protected.
- Community as a compass. Directed by moral imagination and moral courage.
- Community as an accelerator. To channel outrage, coupled with innovation into personal, collective and systemic change.
There will continue to be moments to mark by events, or gatherings. Moments to stop and name, reflect, measure and test. Creating a balance between evidencing progress, and continued experimentation. The network is finding their best way forward. Led by the creativity of our students, staff, collaborators, challengers and friends. Keep up to date by signing up to our newsletter.
Video: Designing in Turbulent Times exhibition, Lethaby Gallery for London Design Festival
The story so far
In summer 2022, As the Our Time on Earth exhibition came to a close, we curated an eco-inspired journey across the Barbican Centre to explore the role of creativity in climate action. Earth Quest: Your Ecological Adventure invited visitors to create their own quest and experience over 10 interactive installations and activities by members of the Network to inspire and mobilise urgent action.
Organised by the Network, Earth Day 2022: Appetite for Justice invited one and all to “take a seat at the table”. Using the table as both metaphor and prop for communal experience, the day disrupted the usual curriculum to share projects and form collective connections. This year, the Colleges across UAL saw a wellspring of activity from staff, students and alumni. Across UAL sites, workshops, performances and talks filled the communal and public spaces highlighting creative and optimistic ways towards ecological justice.
In response to the COP26 Climate Summit, In Autumn 2021 we hosted Carnival of Crisis: Mobilising Creative Action in the Age of Emergency. This ambitious season of events promoted conversation, collaboration and action within our community as well as with other creative higher education institutions, the cultural sector and creative industries.
In September 2020, we hosted the online conference Five Days. Ten Years. One Planet. bringing together academics, students and external guests in a week-long series of talks, workshops and debates.
During lockdown, a group of students and staff from the Network produced an interactive introduction to the climate and ecological emergency and hosted online ‘watch parties’ to groups of students at UAL and beyond. The project continues to develop dynamically and reach young audiences through our local engagement teams.
So far, we have curated two Graduate Showcase Collections: People & Planet (2020) and Ecocentric (2021) - these collections of graduating students’ projects from across UAL’s Colleges aim to inspire, provoke and empower: elevating work that speaks to the vital urgency of our intersecting cultural and environmental crises, advocating for human and non-human species, proposing alternative materials, systems, relationships and practices.
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Pastures New by Jessica Mumby-Price, UAL Graduate Showcase: https://graduateshowcase.arts.ac.uk/projects/253959/cover
Climate Emergency Network presents: MATERIAL HEROES
In collaboration with King’s Cross Design District for London Design Festival, MATERIAL HEROES aims to provide a platform for UAL recent graduates to showcase their work through a physical exhibition hosted on the ‘Outside Art Project’ photography benches located around King's Cross. We are inviting UAL graduating students to submit one image that provides a visual ‘clue’ to their work that highlights a material ‘hero’ from their final major project.
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Adipa Klomchitcharoen, BA Graphic Communication Design
Class of 2021: Ecocentric
On the Graduate Showcase you'll find a collection of work curated by the UAL Climate Emergency Network. Here, we pause on a few of those selected projects responding to the climate emergency in bold and witty ways.
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Sachi Patil, MA Graphic Communication Design
Maison/0 Green Trail 2021
We're proud to announce the six winners of the Maison/0 Green Trail which celebrates innovative responses by graduating students to the climate and biodiversity emergencies.
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Climate Emergency Interactive: hear from the students involved
We spoke to two current Central Saint Martins, UAL students who have been actively involved in the creation of the ‘Climate Emergency Interactive - an Introductory Video from UAL’.
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University of the Arts London responds to climate emergency
UAL aims to use our leadership in human-centred research, teaching and knowledge exchange to influence the creation of a sustainable future for everyone.
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Climate Emergency Posters
Climate Emergency Assembly
Ahead of Central Saint Martins' first Climate Emergency Assembly, we hear from staff and students about their perspective on, and hopes for, this open and experimental process to creative collective action across the institution.