Trigger Points/Tipping Points

Trigger Points / Tipping Points is a series of works developed out of a collaboration with scientist Dr. Jim White. The project consisted of a series of computer images that assembled and manipulated satellite images to predict and speculate on the relationships between the impacts of global warming on major river deltas that were also the sites of conflict zones, such as the Ganges, the Nile, and the Mississippi River.

Trigger Points / Tipping Points, a work by Aviva Rahmani and paleoecologist Dr. Jim White of the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where Rahmani is an affiliate, was initiated in 2007 by Marda Kirn of EcoArts Connections (EAC). Kirn asked Lucy Lippard to curate an exhibition, pairing a number of artists and scientists to collaborate on a project called Weather Report: Art and Climate Change, co-produced by EAC and Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, Colorado. Trigger Points / Tipping Points premiered at the 2007 Venice Biennale and was subsequently shown at additional international venues, including sites in New York City and in Russia.

The topic over six months of regular desktop-sharing sessions was the impact of global warming on conflict zones around the world in relation to river systems, such as, Bangladesh and the Ganges; Darfur and the Nile; and New Orleans and the Mississippi. Installation stills and a 20-minute video were generated from the desktop-sharing webcasts.

Trigger Points/ Tipping Points (4 min clip)