Event 1: Sink or Swim

The Annenberg Space for Photography’s exhibit Sink or Swim was proposed as a place for architecture for a cause. Through a series of photos, the artists wanted to educate people on the drastic effects of the rise waters and natural disasters and how infrastructure planning could be used to alleviate the problem (Baan).  This is a good example of the concept of the Two Cultures in which art is being used to convey the necessity of scientific technology to help those in need.

From a massive storm in Bangladesh in 2010 to Hurricane Yolanda in the Philippines in 2013, natural disasters have left many people with the need to rebuild. However, these third world countries suffer from an adaptation deficit because they do not have enough resources to deal with the issue. The photographs showed the destruction left behind and emphasized the people of the community learning to rebuild with the goal of building stable enough infrastructure to withstand similar disasters in the future.

Rising tides do not effect third world countries alone. Following a flood to hit their own country in 1953, the Dutch began to work on how to handle omnipresent water and a lack of land. One of their solutions was floating houses and they are now considered the leading expert on climate change engineering. When Hurricane Katrina hit the US, the Dutch were even called in to help the rebuilding process. More efforts are now being done in the US to create more efficient, more stable structures in at risk areas.

In President Obama’s speech to the 69^th United Nations General Assembly regarding climate change he said, “Someday, our children, and our children's children, will look at us in the eye and they'll ask us, did we do all that we could when we had the chance to deal with this problem and leave them with a cleaner, safer, more stable world?" (Mandel). This exhibit did an excellent job of taking a step towards dealing with the problem by using photography to appeal to a person’s emotions while capturing the scientific advances that can be used to help. 

Baan, Iwan. "Sink or Swim." Annenberg Space for Photography. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

Mandel, Ken. "Obama on Global Warming: 11 Climate Change Quotes From President." Newsmax. N.p., 02 Nov. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.