Polluted Wildlife: Reconstructing the Anthropocene in the Museum

Polluted Wildlife: Reconstructing the Anthropocene in the Museum

Lecture
CWAC 157
birds

Carl Fuldner (PhD candidate, Art History) and Shane DuBay (PhD candidate, Evolutionary Biology) will discuss their collaborative project that began in 2014–15 as The Phoenix Index—a recipient of an Arts, Science + Culture Graduate Collaboration Grant. This presentation of striking photographs alongside time-series analysis will show the findings from their investigation of bird specimen collections that span 130 years and which revealed extraordinary information about air pollution in major US centers of industry from the Industrial Revolution to today. The study has been covered by media outlets throughout the US and abroad, including The Atlantic, Popular Science, The New York Times, and BBC News. 

Free.

Co-presented by the Arts, Science + Culture Initiative and the Art History Department at UChicago.

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Image caption: Red-headed Woodpeckers from 1901 (top) and 1982 (bottom), The Field Museum. Photo: Carl Fuldner and Shane DuBay