Finissage — Conversation between Emma Arnold and Karen O’Brien

Finissage of exhibition Art of Climate/Change and conversation between Emma Arnold and Professor Karen O’Brien
15 November 2023, 14:00—15:00
Hum-Sam Bibliotek / Humanities and Social Sciences Library
Georg Sverdrups hus, University of Oslo, Moltke Moes vei 39, 0851 Oslo, Norway

Photograph: Emma Arnold 2019

We present and celebrate our exhibition "Art of Climate/Change". Artist and scholar Emma Arnold gives a talk about her work featured in the exhibition and will be joined by professor Karen O'Brien.

Art of Climate/Change showcases collected artefacts and photographs taken by Dr. Emma Arnold during a visual urban ethnography of climate activism.

In early 2019, she started work on a research project on the arts of climate change. The beginning of the project coincided with an unprecedented wave of climate activism that she quickly became swept up in. She started taking photographs for Extinction Rebellion after documenting their first major action in Norway in April 2019. She folded her artistic practice into her academic research and in doing so also became an activist. 

During the finissage, Emma Arnold will give a short presentation of her research project and the exhibition. Then professor Karen O'Brien will talk about her book "You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World". Arnold and O'Brien will have a brief conversation before we open the floor for questions.

Emma Arnold is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and writer interested in how the creative actions of everyday citizens transform the city, from acts of civil disobedience to artful interventions of graffiti and street art.

Karen O'Brien is an internationally recognised expert on climate change and society, focusing on themes such as climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation including how climate change interacts with globalisation processes and the implications for human security.

Exhibition is a collaboration between the Humanities and Social Sciences Library and Emma Arnold. This text was written by the University of Oslo Humanities and Social Sciences Library. More information on the University of Oslo website.