Conversation: The Contemporary Coast Public Program

ArtCenter will host a roundtable discussion on the importance of the visual culture in communicating the challenges that rising tides present. The event will feature A.S.T. and Dr. Meryl Shriver-Rice, Director of Environmental Media at the University of Miami’s Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy. The event aims to shift the focus from solutions to the challenges posed by climate change toward exploring the perceptions and messaging surrounding issues such as displacement and timespans that go beyond generations and election cycles.

The public event will last an hour followed by a roundtable moderated by Diann Bauer from A.S.T. Attendees are welcome to participate in a workshop following the discussion. Free and open to the public.

About A.S.T.
A.S.T., or Alliance of the Southern Triangle, is driven by the idea that Miami is an ideal location to examine how a global city can reimagine its future as it faces climate change. Members of the collective include London-based artist and writer Diann Bauer, Miami-based artists and architects Felice Grodin and Elite Kedan and New York-based curator Patricia Margarita Hernández. Together, they have presented artwork, research seminars and lectures at HistoryMiami, The Schmidt Centre Gallery at FAU, Multimedia Cultural Centre, Split and the Sharjah Biennial.

About Dr. Meryl Shriver-Rice
Dr. Meryl Shriver-Rice is the Director of Environmental Media at the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy where she teaches for the Master’s of Environment, Culture, and Media. As both a visual anthropologist and paleoethnobotanist, Dr. Shriver-Rice’s interdisciplinary background includes dual degrees in Anthropology and Biology, a Master’s degree in Archaeology, and a Ph.D in Communication. Dr. Shriver-Rice has taught courses on visual anthropology, cultural theory, environmental communication, the psychology of group behavior, sociology, gender and pop culture, media ethics, environmental archaeology, and film studies. Her prior media research has looked at ethical issues through an anthropological lens to examine and contextualize how knowledge and culture are created, transmitted, and maintained through visual culture. She is the author of Inclusion in New Danish Cinema: Sexuality and Transnational Belonging (Intellect Press, 2015), co-editor of ReFocus: The Work of Susanne Bier (forthcoming with Mimi Nielsen and Missy Molly, Edinburgh University Press, 2018), and co-author of Screen Life and Identity: A Guide to Media Studies (forthcoming with Hunter Vaughan, Cognella Press, 2018). Her current media studies research focuses on digital culture and the role of visual artifacts in shaping societal values and perceptions of the environment. In combining media and science research, her aim is to advance societal engagement with environmental studies through new visual forms of scientific communication.