The importance of dreaming big for climate solutions
Original story by Sammy Roth
This spring, Wrigley Institute Curator Allison Agsten commissioned an unusual project from students and faculty in the USC School of Cinematic Arts. The brief: use AI to generate artistic visions of a future L.A. where sustainability is central to the design and life of the city.
The results–11 images, by turns surreal, inspiring, and witty–debuted at Climate Forward 2024 on USC’s main Los Angeles campus, and were then moved to the Wrigley Marine Science Center (WMSC) Art Park on Catalina Island. They’ve been on display at WMSC all summer, visited by students from the institute’s Catalina Residential College programs and by the researchers coming and going for field work.
That’s also where climate journalist Sammy Roth saw the exhibit, while visiting WMSC to learn more about the Wrigley Institute’s research activities. His latest column and newsletter for the L.A. Times focus on the art exhibit, the complicated nature of AI (including its implications for climate change), and the value of dreaming big when it comes to developing climate change solutions.