Critical transitions
Anna Gallés
An art installation about transformation
Lab Art Studio
C/ Enric Granados 15, Barcelona
1 - 28 july 2021
“We still understand remarkably little of the mechanisms that determine major transitions in societies, or that regulate the stability and resilience of the climate and ecosystems.
It is usually asumed that the response to an alteration of our planet will be gradual, predictable, and reversible. However, abrupt changes are occasionally observed in nature and society.
Complex systems, ranging from the climate to ecosystems and society, can slowly lose resilience until even a minor perturbation can push them over a tipping point.
Rapid transformations and massive shifts can often be explained as so-called critical transitions.”
From “Critical Transitions in Nature and Society” by Marten Scheffer (summarized quote).
Princeton University Press, 2009
Be water, my friend.
Bruce Lee, 1971
Alternative stable states in Pyrenean alpine lakes. Photos: Enric Ballesteros
Ecological theory considers critical transitions as “sharp changes from one state to a contrasting one, where a state is a dynamic system with its characteristic fluctuations and cycles” (see The Synergy Program for Analysing Resilience and Critical transitionS (SparcS).
Drastic transitions following a tipping point, when a critical threshold is crossed, are studied as universal patterns in complex systems, such as ecosystems, societies, the climate and the human brain.
In shallow lakes, transparent states can lead abruptly to green and turbid ones, responding to changing conditions in nutrient loading or trophic changes.
In an experimental project, the unexpected is welcome. The water and the moon are used as universal symbols of change.
Does this resonate with us? How should we approach change, in the Anthropocene? How should we follow the watercourse way?
Art installation: Anna Gallés
Video: Tone Bjordam
Glassworks: 40Plumas
Aquatic plants: Viver Tres Turons
Bioacoustics: Oriol Baena
Assistant producer: Edu Márquez
LAB Art Consell de Cent 15, Barcelona. Beside Delacrem ice cream café.
Opening hours: From Monday to Friday 4pm – 8pm
Otherwise, by appointment anna@annagalles.com
new project: mayflies
In Spring, we see many mayflies in our home, which is an old mill beside a brook. Mayflies (Ephemeroptera) live in rivers and lakes, as immature nymphs. The winged adults breed and die soon thereafter. Their brief life tells us about cyclic change, and impermanence. And they are beautiful intricate fairylike minuscule creatures.
Keywords:
swarm
mayflies
3D printing
co-creation
collaborative work
Glass swarm
>200 glass wings
Finalist, Fundació Vila Casas Sculpture Prize.
Group exhibition, 2021.
Glassworks: 40Plumas
mayflies, cobalt blue