18. The power of arts, indigeneous knowledge and environmental psychology for climate awareness

Journey Visions - A Path towards Sustainability

Artist Valentina González Troudart is a special participant in the Journey as she is from South America and has a background in graphic design and arts. Climate- and development-induced droughts have caused the lake Laguna de Acuelo, which is close to her hometown of Santiago de Chile and in which she swam when we was a child, to dry out completely in 2018. This point of no return triggered Valentina, who then looked for new creative forms of engagement. Her mission is to "shorten the distance between urban cities and nature", and to enable change in people's everyday life. Her Journey project involves a video aimed at raising awareness about local environmental issues, such as desertification. Stakeholders from science, policy and other fields are educating listeners in a fun and animating way easily understandable by both adults and childrens. We further talk with Valentina about indigenous knowledge and native tree planting, the current political unrest in Chile and relating to the Journey about interdisciplinary work, blending knowledge from different fields, and about fun cooking games in the Baltic Beauty Journey. Listen to hear what advice she gives to people in Santiago de Chile!

Valentina refers to Solarpunk. Solarpunk is a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion and activism that seeks to answer and embody the question “what does a sustainable civilization look like, and how can we get there?”. Check it out here: https://solarpunks.net/