{"id":1496,"date":"2020-04-01T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ic4ml.org\/?post_type=journal-article&p=1496"},"modified":"2022-05-15T11:16:14","modified_gmt":"2022-05-15T16:16:14","slug":"bella-gaia-and-the-pedagogical-power-of-the-overview-effect-an-interview-with-kenji-williams","status":"publish","type":"journal-article","link":"https:\/\/ic4ml.org\/es\/journal-article\/bella-gaia-and-the-pedagogical-power-of-the-overview-effect-an-interview-with-kenji-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Bella Gaia and the Pedagogical Power of the Overview Effect: An Interview with Kenji Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Abstract:<\/strong> Bella Gaia (Beautiful Earth<\/em>) is a performance that combines a world-music inspired soundtrack with projected graphics, animations and video to educate about climate change. A hybrid of art and science, the nonlinear performance is an example of an emerging form of ecomedia in which remote sensing media are used to transform audiences to experience Earth as an organic, living organism. Bella Gaia\u2019s creative director and creator, Kenji Williams, discusses this new form of educational experience. The violinist, composer and filmmaker incorporates a neuro-science driven methodology to create \u201cimmersive live theater, mixed reality, and interactive data visualization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download full article pdf >><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

When I was kid growing up in 1970s Los Angeles, one of my favorite excursions was our annual school trip to the Griffith Observatory. A short hike from the famed Hollywood sign, the Observatory\u2019s Greek and Beaux-Arts inspired design was a utopian vision in the midst of the smog drenched and drought-charred landscape of the Hollywood hills. Inside we\u2019d file past the foyer\u2019s Foucault Pendulum and cue up to watch the Tesla coil spew lightning, then enter into the hushed, simulated dusk of the planetarium. Once inside we\u2019d plant our heads on the reclining headrests to gaze up at the dome\u2019s all encompassing, cobalt horizon. In the center, was the silhouette of a Zeiss Mark II Planetarium Projector that towered like a massive alien insect. The lights would dim and soon we\u2019d journey through a celestial dream that remains vivid in my mind\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I got older, the Griffith Observatory\u2019s planetarium experience became a novelty with its midnight Pink Floyd laser shows, yet my early memories of galactic voyages remain imprinted. For years I\u2019ve maintained a solar punk fantasy to repurpose a used Zeiss projector and build a sustainable haybale dome that could run on solar power to host raves and conferences. While this vision remains unfilled, I recently discovered a more ambitious use for planetariums. In 2019, while attending the What is Universe?<\/em> conference<\/a> in Portland, Oregon, participants were invited to join a special event in the Kendall Planetarium at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry<\/a>. Settling into the comfortable womb of the planetarium, the lights dimmed and once again I was taken on a cosmological journey, this time through the \u201coverview effect,\u201d a recreation of the sublime experience of seeing Earth from space. Immersed in world music, projected multimedia, video of space station flyovers, and animated data points showing the Earth pulsing with seasons and time, one immediately experiences the Earth as a living, breathing entity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the hands of artist Kenji Williams<\/a>, Bella Gaia (Beautiful Earth)<\/a><\/em> combines live violin with world-music inspired soundtrack and projected graphics, animations and video, repurposing the planetarium for an ambitious goal: climate education. A hybrid of art and science, experiencing the emotional, nonlinear performance demonstrates an emerging form of ecomedia in which remote sensing media are used to transform audiences to experience the Earth as an organic, living organism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phenomena of life changing awe that astronauts experience when seeing Earth from space has been coined as the overview effect by Frank White (2014). Such experiences, though limited to those who actually travel to space, are considered vital to engaging people in experiencing an emotional and profound connection with Earth. The effect is so sublime, scientists are currently experimenting with ways to achieve it with virtual reality (VR) headsets and floatation tanks (Sample, 2019). These simulations are part of a wider effort by artists and scientists to break the logjam of climate inaction by creating visceral, emotive experiences that connect data with experiential activities. In one example, The Climate Music Project<\/a>, artists composed music to accompany projections of climate data, satellite imagery, and other visualizations in order to stimulate emotional connections in audiences with Earth changes and to invoke a visceral response (Sheikh, 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By using media to communicate about the environment and creating an immersive environment, Bella Gaia<\/em> is a form of ecomedia pedagogy that expands people\u2019s consciousness about the state of and value of our environment. For over 10-years, Williams has been Bella Gaia<\/em>\u2019s creative director and producer. As an organic, living work of art, various iterations have evolved to include the addition of live theater performances with dancers. Currently, he\u2019s experimenting with holograms, extended reality (XR), and VR. The violinist, composer and filmmaker incorporates a neuro-science driven methodology to create \u201cimmersive live theater, mixed reality, and interactive data visualization\u201d (bellagaia.com<\/a>). In past interviews, he has described his work as \u201cbringing soul to data,\u201d a mix between Cirque dul Soleil and Earth science. He collaborates with NASA to include updated visualizations that stay current with events and data. In addition to the actual experience of the show, the performance often includes add-on educational activities, such as hands-on workshops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this interview, I was interested in asking questions about what educators can learn from Williams\u2019 experience of developing Bella Gaia<\/em>. The interview was conducted by email in December 2019. Williams lives and works in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before reading the interview, it\u2019s recommended that you visit bellagaia.com<\/a> and watch some of the videos in order to get a sense of the experience. To see a schedule of performances or find out where you can see a Fulldome movie in a planetarium, visit the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez<\/strong>: <\/strong>Understanding and experiencing the world as alive is a necessary paradigm shift that many need to have, but it\u2019s hard to convey the idea that Earth is alive through conventional educational approaches. How do you achieve this through Bella Gaia?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams<\/strong>: The \u201chow\u201d starts with the name itself; Bella Gaia = Beautiful \u201cinterconnected Earth.\u201d Also, \u201cGaia\u201d is originally the Greek Goddess of the Earth, or, \u201cthe Earth personified.\u201d NASA scientist James Lovelock coined the term Gaia to describe the Earth as a living organism. It is human nature to relate to something that is more personal, or tangible. Bella Gaia does exactly this \u2013 it is an experiential tool used to personify and make tangible, the living Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BELLA GAIA\u2019s creation was inspired by a story by Mike Fincke, an American Space Shuttle astronaut, who spoke of the profound transformation of perspective he had when he first looked out the window of the Space Station and saw our home planet. Arbitrary political boundaries melted away and the living bubble of life on Earth was dazzling, an outpost of life unlike any other planet we know of so far. BELLA GAIA has managed to accurately simulate the space flight experience according to many astronauts who have been to space. NASA invited the integration of scientific data visualizations from their top Earth scientists, and funded a 4-year Earth science education program to extend BELLA GAIA in workshop curriculum at science centers across the U.S. This program involved extensive surveys over 4 years, and revealed the transformative power of BELLA GAIA, showing 95% of audiences reporting a greater understanding of Earth systems after just one show, and more than doubling the number of people (31% to 64%) saying it was \u201cvery important to learn about the Earth and its importance to our lives, families and community\u201d after one experience. This personalization of abstract biospheric systems is crucial, and has converted climate skeptics in one show, and 5 astronauts have affirmed the realism of BELLA GAIA\u2019s simulation of space flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopez<\/strong>: How is Bella Gaia pedagogically different than a typical classroom? How do people learn differently?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams<\/strong>: BELLA GAIA\u2019s method of communication science is more powerful than traditional outreach techniques to reach new audiences and actually transform them and generates the elusive but critical emotional response: A Reason to Care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists who have seen the live presentation have expressed afterwards that they were extremely moved and shocked by seeing their very own data visualized in such an emotional way.  Synthesizing their visualizations with video and custom scored music had a profoundly different, and positive, effect on them even though they had seen this content presented hundreds if not thousands of times before. Adding the context of music, video and storytelling to their visualizations made them feel as if they were seeing their content for the very first time. BELLA GAIA\u2019s contextualizing of scientific visualizations\u2013 in a larger audio\/visual narrative of the Beautiful Earth\u2013 provided a powerful and emotional way for the scientists to see their work, making it accessible and engaging for audiences to be immersed in a deep reflection on the many levels of interconnection throughout the Earth that allow life to flourish. This \u201cOverview Effect\u201d that helps us see beyond the narrow confines of our own subjectivity, and the biases of our particular cultures, lays a foundation for approaching the environmental and social problems of our time with head and heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Anthropocene, birthed by the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions of the modern era, presents humanity with an overwhelming period of extremely fast and chaotic change for which many people are seemingly ill equipped to handle. The population explosion, and the unprecedented rate of technological evolution is flooding people and societies with a barrage of data and information\u2013 pressing at us every minute of every day\u2013 requiring us to make increasingly rapid decisions that may have repercussions for generations to come.   This is why it is so important to be able to communicate in a way that cuts through the noise and makes a difference, especially when exploring complex scientific and cultural issues with global audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n