1 00:00:01,150 --> 00:00:04,277 If I asked you to picture the air, 2 00:00:05,104 --> 00:00:06,451 what do you imagine? 3 00:00:08,908 --> 00:00:12,398 Most people think about either empty space 4 00:00:12,422 --> 00:00:14,480 or clear blue sky 5 00:00:14,504 --> 00:00:17,063 or sometimes trees dancing in the wind. 6 00:00:17,849 --> 00:00:21,530 And then I remember my high school chemistry teacher with really long socks 7 00:00:21,554 --> 00:00:22,741 at the blackboard, 8 00:00:22,765 --> 00:00:26,169 drawing diagrams of bubbles connected to other bubbles, 9 00:00:26,193 --> 00:00:30,813 and describing how they vibrate and collide in a kind of frantic soup. 10 00:00:32,209 --> 00:00:35,867 But really, we tend not to think about the air that much at all. 11 00:00:36,676 --> 00:00:38,363 We notice it mostly 12 00:00:38,387 --> 00:00:42,485 when there's some kind of unpleasant sensory intrusion upon it, 13 00:00:42,509 --> 00:00:47,077 like a terrible smell or something visible like smoke or mist. 14 00:00:48,131 --> 00:00:50,320 But it's always there. 15 00:00:51,207 --> 00:00:53,687 It's touching all of us right now. 16 00:00:53,711 --> 00:00:55,368 It's even inside us. 17 00:00:57,007 --> 00:01:01,944 Our air is immediate, vital and intimate. 18 00:01:03,063 --> 00:01:05,745 And yet, it's so easily forgotten. 19 00:01:08,009 --> 00:01:09,563 So what is the air? 20 00:01:10,103 --> 00:01:13,843 It's the combination of the invisible gases that envelop the Earth, 21 00:01:13,867 --> 00:01:16,393 attracted by the Earth's gravitational pull. 22 00:01:17,270 --> 00:01:20,696 And even though I'm a visual artist, 23 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:24,006 I'm interested in the invisibility of the air. 24 00:01:24,627 --> 00:01:27,202 I'm interested in how we imagine it, 25 00:01:27,226 --> 00:01:29,274 how we experience it 26 00:01:29,298 --> 00:01:33,112 and how we all have an innate understanding of its materiality 27 00:01:33,136 --> 00:01:34,476 through breathing. 28 00:01:36,530 --> 00:01:42,190 All life on Earth changes the air through gas exchange, 29 00:01:42,214 --> 00:01:43,975 and we're all doing it right now. 30 00:01:44,679 --> 00:01:47,647 Actually, why don't we all right now together take 31 00:01:47,671 --> 00:01:50,432 one big, collective, deep breath in. 32 00:01:50,456 --> 00:01:52,835 Ready? In. (Inhales) 33 00:01:55,009 --> 00:01:56,807 And out. (Exhales) 34 00:01:58,782 --> 00:02:01,452 That air that you just exhaled, 35 00:02:01,476 --> 00:02:05,160 you enriched a hundred times in carbon dioxide. 36 00:02:06,358 --> 00:02:12,495 So roughly five liters of air per breath, 17 breaths per minute 37 00:02:12,519 --> 00:02:18,096 of the 525,600 minutes per year, 38 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:23,580 comes to approximately 45 million liters of air, 39 00:02:23,604 --> 00:02:27,598 enriched 100 times in carbon dioxide, 40 00:02:27,622 --> 00:02:28,928 just for you. 41 00:02:29,822 --> 00:02:34,084 Now, that's equivalent to about 18 Olympic-sized swimming pools. 42 00:02:36,203 --> 00:02:38,410 For me, air is plural. 43 00:02:38,434 --> 00:02:41,507 It's simultaneously as small as our breathing 44 00:02:41,531 --> 00:02:43,451 and as big as the planet. 45 00:02:44,689 --> 00:02:48,024 And it's kind of hard to picture. 46 00:02:48,587 --> 00:02:51,509 Maybe it's impossible, and maybe it doesn't matter. 47 00:02:51,984 --> 00:02:54,593 Through my visual arts practice, 48 00:02:54,617 --> 00:02:58,310 I try to make air, not so much picture it, 49 00:02:58,334 --> 00:03:02,455 but to make it visceral and tactile and haptic. 50 00:03:03,177 --> 00:03:07,984 I try to expand this notion of the aesthetic, how things look, 51 00:03:08,008 --> 00:03:11,621 so that it can include things like how it feels on your skin 52 00:03:11,645 --> 00:03:13,343 and in your lungs, 53 00:03:13,367 --> 00:03:16,051 and how your voice sounds as it passes through it. 54 00:03:18,027 --> 00:03:22,515 I explore the weight, density and smell, but most importantly, 55 00:03:22,539 --> 00:03:26,384 I think a lot about the stories we attach to different kinds of air. 56 00:03:30,091 --> 00:03:33,944 This is a work I made in 2014. 57 00:03:34,872 --> 00:03:37,971 It's called "Different Kinds of Air: A Plant's Diary," 58 00:03:37,995 --> 00:03:41,903 where I was recreating the air from different eras in Earth's evolution, 59 00:03:41,927 --> 00:03:44,927 and inviting the audience to come in and breathe them with me. 60 00:03:44,951 --> 00:03:48,565 And it's really surprising, so drastically different. 61 00:03:49,845 --> 00:03:51,931 Now, I'm not a scientist, 62 00:03:51,955 --> 00:03:54,931 but atmospheric scientists will look for traces 63 00:03:54,955 --> 00:03:57,713 in the air chemistry in geology, 64 00:03:57,737 --> 00:04:00,054 a bit like how rocks can oxidize, 65 00:04:00,078 --> 00:04:03,427 and they'll extrapolate that information and aggregate it, 66 00:04:03,451 --> 00:04:06,600 such that they can pretty much form a recipe 67 00:04:06,624 --> 00:04:08,304 for the air at different times. 68 00:04:08,709 --> 00:04:11,344 Then I come in as the artist and take that recipe 69 00:04:11,368 --> 00:04:14,484 and recreate it using the component gases. 70 00:04:16,016 --> 00:04:19,746 I was particularly interested in moments of time 71 00:04:19,770 --> 00:04:23,812 that are examples of life changing the air, 72 00:04:23,836 --> 00:04:27,332 but also the air that can influence how life will evolve, 73 00:04:28,966 --> 00:04:30,770 like Carboniferous air. 74 00:04:31,579 --> 00:04:34,979 It's from about 300 to 350 million years ago. 75 00:04:35,539 --> 00:04:38,514 It's an era known as the time of the giants. 76 00:04:39,321 --> 00:04:41,785 So for the first time in the history of life, 77 00:04:41,809 --> 00:04:43,208 lignin evolves. 78 00:04:43,232 --> 00:04:45,556 That's the hard stuff that trees are made of. 79 00:04:45,580 --> 00:04:49,110 So trees effectively invent their own trunks at this time, 80 00:04:49,134 --> 00:04:51,180 and they get really big, bigger and bigger, 81 00:04:51,204 --> 00:04:52,559 and pepper the Earth, 82 00:04:52,583 --> 00:04:55,876 releasing oxygen, releasing oxygen, releasing oxygen, 83 00:04:55,900 --> 00:04:59,514 such that the oxygen levels are about twice as high 84 00:04:59,538 --> 00:05:00,935 as what they are today. 85 00:05:01,601 --> 00:05:05,464 And this rich air supports massive insects -- 86 00:05:05,488 --> 00:05:11,012 huge spiders and dragonflies with a wingspan of about 65 centimeters. 87 00:05:12,369 --> 00:05:16,284 To breathe, this air is really clean and really fresh. 88 00:05:16,308 --> 00:05:17,979 It doesn't so much have a flavor, 89 00:05:18,003 --> 00:05:22,475 but it does give your body a really subtle kind of boost of energy. 90 00:05:22,499 --> 00:05:24,366 It's really good for hangovers. 91 00:05:24,390 --> 00:05:26,595 (Laughter) 92 00:05:26,619 --> 00:05:29,293 Or there's the air of the Great Dying -- 93 00:05:29,317 --> 00:05:32,941 that's about 252.5 million years ago, 94 00:05:32,965 --> 00:05:35,007 just before the dinosaurs evolve. 95 00:05:35,031 --> 00:05:38,763 It's a really short time period, geologically speaking, 96 00:05:38,787 --> 00:05:41,746 from about 20- to 200,000 years. 97 00:05:41,770 --> 00:05:43,064 Really quick. 98 00:05:44,175 --> 00:05:46,867 This is the greatest extinction event in Earth's history, 99 00:05:46,891 --> 00:05:49,455 even bigger than when the dinosaurs died out. 100 00:05:50,215 --> 00:05:54,172 Eighty-five to 95 percent of species at this time die out, 101 00:05:54,196 --> 00:05:59,373 and simultaneous to that is a huge, dramatic spike in carbon dioxide, 102 00:05:59,397 --> 00:06:00,990 that a lot of scientists agree 103 00:06:01,014 --> 00:06:04,151 comes from a simultaneous eruption of volcanoes 104 00:06:04,175 --> 00:06:06,105 and a runaway greenhouse effect. 105 00:06:08,982 --> 00:06:12,585 Oxygen levels at this time go to below half of what they are today, 106 00:06:12,609 --> 00:06:13,904 so about 10 percent. 107 00:06:13,928 --> 00:06:16,809 So this air would definitely not support human life, 108 00:06:16,833 --> 00:06:18,855 but it's OK to just have a breath. 109 00:06:18,879 --> 00:06:21,915 And to breathe, it's oddly comforting. 110 00:06:21,939 --> 00:06:24,862 It's really calming, it's quite warm 111 00:06:24,886 --> 00:06:29,034 and it has a flavor a little bit like soda water. 112 00:06:29,058 --> 00:06:31,563 It has that kind of spritz, quite pleasant. 113 00:06:32,925 --> 00:06:35,353 So with all this thinking about air of the past, 114 00:06:35,377 --> 00:06:39,008 it's quite natural to start thinking about the air of the future. 115 00:06:40,142 --> 00:06:42,936 And instead of being speculative with air 116 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:46,474 and just making up what I think might be the future air, 117 00:06:46,498 --> 00:06:49,907 I discovered this human-synthesized air. 118 00:06:50,737 --> 00:06:53,718 That means that it doesn't occur anywhere in nature, 119 00:06:53,742 --> 00:06:56,859 but it's made by humans in a laboratory 120 00:06:56,883 --> 00:07:00,232 for application in different industrial settings. 121 00:07:01,585 --> 00:07:02,968 Why is it future air? 122 00:07:03,539 --> 00:07:07,039 Well, this air is a really stable molecule 123 00:07:07,896 --> 00:07:11,520 that will literally be part of the air once it's released, 124 00:07:11,544 --> 00:07:15,621 for the next 300 to 400 years, before it's broken down. 125 00:07:16,274 --> 00:07:20,059 So that's about 12 to 16 generations. 126 00:07:21,433 --> 00:07:24,644 And this future air has some very sensual qualities. 127 00:07:25,811 --> 00:07:27,201 It's very heavy. 128 00:07:27,779 --> 00:07:31,683 It's about eight times heavier than the air we're used to breathing. 129 00:07:33,429 --> 00:07:36,462 It's so heavy, in fact, that when you breathe it in, 130 00:07:36,486 --> 00:07:39,883 whatever words you speak are kind of literally heavy as well, 131 00:07:39,907 --> 00:07:43,113 so they dribble down your chin and drop to the floor 132 00:07:43,137 --> 00:07:44,786 and soak into the cracks. 133 00:07:45,223 --> 00:07:48,325 It's an air that operates quite a lot like a liquid. 134 00:07:50,047 --> 00:07:53,392 Now, this air comes with an ethical dimension as well. 135 00:07:54,226 --> 00:07:55,999 Humans made this air, 136 00:07:56,023 --> 00:08:00,279 but it's also the most potent greenhouse gas 137 00:08:00,303 --> 00:08:02,049 that has ever been tested. 138 00:08:03,042 --> 00:08:08,777 Its warming potential is 24,000 times that of carbon dioxide, 139 00:08:08,801 --> 00:08:12,346 and it has that longevity of 12 to 16 generations. 140 00:08:13,235 --> 00:08:18,097 So this ethical confrontation is really central to my work. 141 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:35,459 (In a lowered voice) It has another quite surprising quality. 142 00:08:35,483 --> 00:08:38,896 It changes the sound of your voice quite dramatically. 143 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:42,008 (Laughter) 144 00:08:45,145 --> 00:08:48,137 So when we start to think -- ooh! It's still there a bit. 145 00:08:48,161 --> 00:08:49,595 (Laughter) 146 00:08:49,619 --> 00:08:52,209 When we think about climate change, 147 00:08:52,233 --> 00:08:58,202 we probably don't think about giant insects and erupting volcanoes 148 00:08:58,226 --> 00:08:59,972 or funny voices. 149 00:09:01,207 --> 00:09:03,716 The images that more readily come to mind 150 00:09:03,740 --> 00:09:08,770 are things like retreating glaciers and polar bears adrift on icebergs. 151 00:09:09,483 --> 00:09:12,339 We think about pie charts and column graphs 152 00:09:12,363 --> 00:09:16,319 and endless politicians talking to scientists wearing cardigans. 153 00:09:18,081 --> 00:09:22,274 But perhaps it's time we start thinking about climate change 154 00:09:22,298 --> 00:09:26,141 on the same visceral level that we experience the air. 155 00:09:27,738 --> 00:09:33,178 Like air, climate change is simultaneously at the scale of the molecule, 156 00:09:33,202 --> 00:09:35,607 the breath and the planet. 157 00:09:37,139 --> 00:09:40,618 It's immediate, vital and intimate, 158 00:09:40,642 --> 00:09:44,995 as well as being amorphous and cumbersome. 159 00:09:46,451 --> 00:09:49,740 And yet, it's so easily forgotten. 160 00:09:51,738 --> 00:09:55,624 Climate change is the collective self-portrait of humanity. 161 00:09:55,648 --> 00:09:58,211 It reflects our decisions as individuals, 162 00:09:58,235 --> 00:10:00,459 as governments and as industries. 163 00:10:01,586 --> 00:10:04,828 And if there's anything I've learned from looking at air, 164 00:10:04,852 --> 00:10:08,111 it's that even though it's changing, it persists. 165 00:10:08,785 --> 00:10:12,375 It may not support the kind of life that we'd recognize, 166 00:10:12,399 --> 00:10:14,496 but it will support something. 167 00:10:15,127 --> 00:10:18,613 And if we humans are such a vital part of that change, 168 00:10:18,637 --> 00:10:22,376 I think it's important that we can feel the discussion. 169 00:10:23,212 --> 00:10:26,519 Because even though it's invisible, 170 00:10:27,285 --> 00:10:31,977 humans are leaving a very vibrant trace in the air. 171 00:10:32,991 --> 00:10:34,207 Thank you. 172 00:10:34,231 --> 00:10:36,157 (Applause)