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Project
Remembrance of Climate Futures
Remembrance of Climate Futures is a trail of site-specific ‘historic’ plaques that landmark climate change in Essex County throughout the 21st Century, bringing the global scale of this issue down to the intimate scale of the individual.
“Last sighting in Essex of the American Bittern, at this spot — August 29, 2061”
“Bridge connecting Conomo Point to mainland first opened to traffic — March 1, 2074”
“Storm surge flooding closes Main Street — January 4, 2018”
This is the future (and recent past) of the Town of Essex according to a pilot installation of Remembrance of Climate Futures. The project is a multi-site series of public art plaques documenting the history of climate change throughout the 21st C. Combining elements of site-specific art with wayfinding and the conceptual language of time travel, it brings the enormous scale of climate change down to the intimate scale of the individual. Based on scientific projections, pedestrian-oriented ‘historical’ plaques of the future portray climate events from the perspective of the 22nd C. to imbue climate change effects with palpable certainty.
The project is now expanding in Essex County.
Based on the success of the pilot, the project is now expanding in Essex County. With ACES serving as the fiscal sponsor, project funding was secured from the Essex County Community Foundation to make a broad-based presentation possible. By spring 2022 it will reach its intended scale of multiple sites in each of 10 Essex County coastal municipalities and 4 institutional landholders, totaling 90-100 unique installations.
