Hannah Scott

What Goes Around Comes Around, MA Art and Science, Runner Up, 2017

My creative practice explores ways of visualising and communicating climate change and is inspired by a fusion of my interests in science, nature and travel. During the MA, I began the ongoing project ‘what goes around comes around (2016-)’. It explores the relationship between consumer lifestyle in Britain and the Arctic environment, with a particular focus on the impact of plastic waste. It challenges audiences to question the impact of their own lifestyle choices, central to this is an exploration of the ways art can effectively communicate scientific and environmental issues without being didactic or overly moralistic.

My awareness of, and interest in, climate change began two years ago when questions were raised about the environmental impact of my lifestyle that I had not previously considered. What I have learned has been quite overwhelming. For me, coming to terms with the implications, coupled with the recent loss of both my parents, has made my journey very much a search to reconcile my simultaneous bereavement of reality and Self.

In this way, my practice is partly autoethnographic, centring myself within my exploration as an observer and as one of the observed, recognising and challenging my own identity as a British consumer and contributor to global climate change. At its core is an ongoing internal dialogue in which I am questioning my desire and ability to redefine my existing values. I find it increasingly important to experiment with ideas of contradiction, metaphor, juxtaposition, interruption, and repetition, as well the use of artefacts and materials that are authentic to the subject such as repurposed waste plastics. My work closely references current scientific research on climate change and plastic pollution and addresses ideas of the Anthropocene, identity, legacy and loss.

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