BAASICS.6: The Edge Effect

BAASICS, in collaboration with AAAS Pacific Division and SFSU, presents:
BAASICS.6: The Edge Effect

Officially, we are living in the geologic epoch known as the Holocene, meaning "entirely new." But some scientists and commentators have proposed another name for the epoch: the Anthropocene, or the "new era of man," owing to the significant and often detrimental influence human beings have had on Earth's systems and habitats. Scientific debate about geologic nomenclature is generally not the stuff of newspaper headlines, but the Anthropocene has become a popular talking point.

The polemic swirling around the term is as often existential as it is technical or scientific; provocative and challenging questions are being asked. Is humanity now so industrialized and technologically advanced as to be distinct from the rest of nature? If so, how can the Earth best be protected from our species' excesses? Or are humans just displaying the same boom-and-bust tendencies many other animals do? And if this is so, can we learn to be good stewards, thoughtfully shaping the Earth we are a part of?

BAASICS.6: The Edge Effect brings together a diverse group of artists, scientists, and performers whose projects and research are inspired by and shed light on the complex relationship between contemporary humanity and ecology.

Participants:
Artists Alicia Escott & Heidi Quante - The Bureau of Linguistical Reality
Artist Cameron Hockenson -Habitats
Professor Tom Parker - The Crucial Role of Fire in Maintaining California's Natural Ecosystems
Composer Alisa Rose w/ Cellist Hannah Addario-Berry - The Trail to Land's End
Assistant Professor Andrea Swei - Changing landscapes and the emergence of tick-borne disease
Professor Vance Vredenburg - Amphibians at the Forefront of the Sixth Mass Extinction in the Age of the Anthropocene
Performance Artist Eve Warnock - HERD