TAHOE PUBLIC ART
LAND TO LAKE | CREATING EQUILIBRIUM | SQUAW VALLEY CALIFORNIA
"Land to Lake" is an aesthetic interpretation of data sets derived from the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center's 2016 State of the Lake Report, providing a visual and sonic exploration of Lake Health, Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Solutions, culminating with a call to action for preserving and protecting the azure waters of Lake Tahoe for generations to come.
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ARTWORK
A climate art experience designed for the Creating Equilibrium festival in Squaw Valley, with data-driven storytelling that takes viewers on a journey through the anthropogenic (man-made) impacts on the terrestrial and aquatic ecology of the Lake Tahoe Basin, with ethereal narration by a native tribal elder, one of the very last speakers of the ancient Washoe (Wašiw) language, intertwined with animated data visualizations that help create a deeper connection to the scientific and cultural knowledge of the greater Lake Tahoe region.
CURATORIAL THEMES
PRISTINE WATERS
Lake Tahoe is one of the most important lakes in the world due to its depth and clarity. It’s the largest alpine lake in North America and the second deepest lake in the US.
BIODIVERSITY
The land, the water, and the people are ONE
Explosion of life around the Lake Tahoe Basin
Air Temperature
Water Temperature
ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACTS
Man-made impacts have transformed the natural and cultural landscape of the Lake Tahoe Basin by reshaping the local ecology, threatening the survival of species, and depositinging pollutants that jeopardize the longevity of the lake as we know it.
Orange Waves: Forest fires, bark beetles, erosion, etc.
White Bars: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) - emitted from fossil fuels
Orange Particles: Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) - emitted from automobile tailpipes
Blue Particles: Phosphorous (P) - concentrated in fertilizer runoff
White Triangles: Oxygen (O2) - stuck on the top layers of the lake
SOLUTIONS
Humans have the power to create changes in the chemistry and biology of the lake by activating solutions that help restore balance between the land, the water, and the people.
Reduce NOx (promote electric cars, public transportation, human powered vehicles)
Reduce P (erosion mitigation and fertilizer management)
Reduce GHG (reduce consumption of coal, plastic, and meat based products)
Increase O2 (lake layer mixing needs to bring oxygen to bottom lake layers)
CALL TO ACTION
“If as a people we help the water and help the forests, it in turn will help us heal ourselves.”
The time is NOW for us to individually and collectively take action locally by reducing pollutants feeding harmful nutrients into the lake, while being globally minded by minimizing our impacts that contribute to climate change and in turn prevent oxygen from reaching the lake bed which can trigger large-scale algal blooms.
We are are all interconnected in the Web of Life, if we want to preserve and protect the crystal clear azure waters of Lake Tahoe, we must activate ourselves to start Creating Equilibrium.