In '蝴蝶效应' immersive performance, CU Boulder Professor 贝丝Osnes guides participants through the butterfly life cycle to inspire people to participate in 'climate solutions'

Climate change and biodiversity crises can be overwhelming. Climate-fueled disasters are accelerating, and scientists 最近报道 that Earth could become uninhabitable for up to 6 billion people by the end of the century.

为 贝丝Osnes, a 博彩平台推荐 professor of 剧院 who is active in applied performance and creative climate communication, the urgency calls for a fresh approach to get people working on long-term climate solutions.

And what is a better symbol of transformation than a butterfly?

Osnes and her former student Sarah Fahmy began dressing up as butterflies to create a “visual spectacle” at climate rallies and conferences not long before the Covid-19 pandemic. Fahmy is now an assistant professor of 剧院 at Florida State University, and the pair’s practice with butterflies has blossomed into a new, immersive experience designed to facilitate hope and change.

“We’re capable of incredible change as beings,奥斯内斯说. “Anything that happens in nature can also happen in us.”

在这场名为“蝴蝶效应,” Fahmy and Osnes guide small groups of participants through a 30-minute process that represents metamorphosizing from a cocoon to a full-fledged butterfly. They’re offering the experience Saturday, 1月. 27岁，在威斯敏斯特的蝴蝶馆. 欢迎所有年龄的人参观，免费入场.

The workshop uses original costumes and materials to simulate the experience of becoming a butterfly. 参与者从鸡蛋开始, 以毛毛虫的形式出现, are suspended within a chrysalis and become butterflies at last. The project’s title is a play on words that emphasizes the important roles individuals can play in climate solutions.

The experience is designed to be meditative and inspire self-reflection. Ideally, Osnes says, participants will be pondering how to propel climate solutions.

“What are they hungry for as caterpillars that they need to grow?奥斯内斯说. “在蛹里, how do you nourish the 增长 that finally needs to emerge into the world as a butterfly?”

Osnes and Fahmy are part of a growing body of climate communicators melding science with art. 在博彩平台推荐的其他地方， 一个奖学金 has connected artists and scientists for exhibits exploring climate impacts in Colorado, and other art professors are thinking about environmental connection 以新的方式.

向其他物种学习

Osnes’ own research suggests that comedy can help people forge a better relationship with the climate and possibly spur involvement, rather than sending messages that make people feel guilty or afraid.

法赫米和奥斯尼斯是朋友, and they say there’s no real separation between their friendship and their work, 从2017年开始. Fahmy pursued her master’s degree at CU Boulder and recently graduated with a PhD.

They began thinking about butterflies as symbols of change on Osnes’ porch, where they pondered climate communication that doesn’t “regurgitate the same doom and gloom that surrounds climate action,法赫米说.

The pair began sewing their own butterfly wings—and broke a few needles along the way. 现在, they’re employing the skills of some local artists and sourcing their materials as sustainably as possible.

They’ve brought their symbolis and message to Ireland, 苏格兰, British Columbia and around the United States, 包括一个U.N. Commission on the Status of Women conference in New York City.

While grounded in feminist research and climate-communication theory, Fahmy says there’s something “beautifully goofy” about dressing up as a butterfly. She said adults can have trouble experiencing joy and being playful, and she relishes watching participants don their costumes.

法米为, there’s also the added satisfaction of taking cues from nature itself as humanity embarks on an unprecedented period of transition—and, 希望, 增长.

“You’re learning from another species,” she says.

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