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Olczak, Susie 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9615-5514
(2025)
Socio-ecological challenges of transforming performing arts
International Conference 10, 11 and 12 of April 2025
Salle Athéna - Maison de la Recherche, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris)
Paper title: Landscapes of Hope.
In: Socio-ecological challenges of transforming performing arts International Conference, 10-12th April, 2025, Sorbonne Nouvelle Université, Paris, France.
(Unpublished)
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Abstract
This conference aimed to examine the transformation of professional practices in the performing arts towards greater eco-responsibility, how they are conceived and put into practice, the conditions for their success, and the obstacles encountered. It was held in the context of the logic of public service action, constrained by the recent budgetary disengagement of the State and intertwined with the logic of the market and fame. The presentation by Susie Olczak centred around research from a recent paper for the journal Folklore called Local Landscapes of Hope in Darién and Atacama: Material Narrations in the Anthropocene by Daniel Keech and Susie Olczak. Olczak’s work includes performances with the landscape and materiality of two locations. In this article the authors try to uncover, beneath the global scales of climate change, what they have called narratives of ‘landscapes of hope’ within local experiences of the Anthropocene in two distinct locations: the Panamanian coastal rainforest, a place of abundant water, and the Chilean Atacama, the driest place on Earth. Examinations of the Anthropocene include cross-disciplinary efforts with communities to contextualize climate challenges in places where extreme weather has become more common. This article contributes to such research in Darién in the Panamanian rainforest and Coyo in the Chilean Atacama Desert. These are both extreme landscapes defined by over-abundance and absence of water, respectively. Difficult environmental and social challenges lie ahead for both communities, sometimes in the name of sustainable development, for example as lithium mining expands in the Atacama. Olczak, worked as an artist with local people to hear verbal, environmental, ritual, and everyday narratives. By understanding the context of local responses to climate change, the Anthropocene can gain tangible meaning. Resulting artworks are presented as performances and co-produced, spatial, and material narratives, in which hope is reflected.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | climate change; Anthropocene; visual arts; Panamanian coastal rainforest; Chilean Atacama; autoethnography |
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| Related records: | |
| Subjects: | N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR |
| Divisions: | Schools and Research Institutes > School of Arts, Culture and Environment |
| Depositing User: | Susie Olczak |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Mar 2026 14:23 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Mar 2026 14:30 |
| URI: | https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/15956 |
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