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BEHIND CLIMATE ART: INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST REYANNE MUSTAFA

Art has an ability to communicate the effects of climate change in a way that can be difficult to articulate through other media. Currently on display at Lab Zero, “Our Digital Carbon Footprint”, commissioned by Klever, serves as an educational tool which vividly illustrates Klever’s mission of achieving net-zero in digital advertising. Created by artists Reyanne Mustafa, Andrea Lopez, and Michael Garcia, the artwork portrays a compelling tale about the domino effect of carbon in the digital world.

Catching up with climate artist and Southern California native, Reyanne Mustafa, she explores the intricacies embedded in the artwork and the subtle nuances that shed light on the detrimental effects of the digital age on our planet.

Reyanne's journey into climate activism began with an unforgettable memory from her childhood. It all started when she stumbled upon a photograph in National Geographic depicting a polar bear, helplessly deserted on a melting block of ice. This imagery left a lasting impression in Reyannes' mind, sparking her interest in climate action.

“As cliche as it sounds, I think that was the moment it clicked for me that our actions are directly affecting animals, environments, and ecosystems far beyond what we can see. And that was such a clear moment in my mind of like, ‘Okay, well if we started this, we can end this. Right?’ So I didn't see it as a dead end. I saw it as an opportunity.”

While attending San Diego State University, Reyanne majored in food science and nutrition, with a minor in environmental studies. There, she began to grasp the importance of sustainability in relation to food and realized that without healthy soil, nutrition would be compromised. And without a solid understanding of sustainability, healthy soil would be unattainable. Thus, she embarked on a journey to explore sustainability through the lens of food and began making changes in her personal life including adopting a vegan lifestyle and advocating for organic and locally sourced food. However, Reyanne soon discovered that she had barely scratched the surface and it wasn’t until she ventured into the world of plastic that the harsh reality of climate change began to hit.  

HOW DID YOU FIRST BECOME AWARE OF THE ISSUE OF CARBON EMISSIONS IN DIGITAL ADVERTISING WHEN THE KLEVER TEAM ASKED YOU TO CREATE THIS ART PIECE? WHAT WERE YOUR INITIAL THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ABOUT IT?

Reyanne Mustafa: I’ve heard and seen posts about how thirsty Chat GBT is. But I didn't know to what extent that really meant. I’ve never really done further research into that because I never considered myself to be a  “techie” by any means. So, I was actually stoked when Klever had asked me to do the piece because it was outside of my comfort zone. If you ask me anything about agriculture, or plastic, or ocean conservation, that's kind of my specialty. But in the digital space, it was completely outside of my knowledge, my comfort, and to be honest, my interest at the time. 

In order to make this art piece, art has to come from this internal sense of creativity. The first thing I did was turn to YouTube and I found this incredible documentary on YouTube that walked through the entire aspect of our digital carbon footprint and explained exactly what that means and the ways in which we can reduce it. I think that sparked my interest because I didn't realize that our digital carbon footprint is more than the entire aviation industry. Things as simple as deleting our junk mail or using a better search engine instead of Google — small little things that really are not that hard to change, can create a big impact.

Then, I saw a New York's Time article about the cables underneath the seafloor that are connecting wifi. And that was something that blew my mind because here I am this ocean conservationist, yet I had no idea that the entire seabed floor is covered in thousands of wires connecting us all for wifi. So, we wanted to incorporate that into the art piece as well.

THE SYMBOLISM DISPLAYED IS POWERFUL AND CAPTIVATING. COULD YOU EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS AND TECHNIQUES EMPLOYED IN CRAFTING THIS PIECE?

RM: There's so many different elements in that piece. We think we ‘just go on social media’ or ‘just do online shopping’— we don't really think about that having any impact. So, that was something that we wanted to portray — how simply scrolling can have a carbon footprint. 

Connecting the phone to the art piece, and then from the art piece to the data center through the ocean was a big aspect. We wanted the data center to light up and come alive to have this 3D element that it's constantly running — that even when you're sleeping, or whether you're working — it's constantly running. We wanted to show how data centers are extremely carbon intensive, and the less we use data centers, the less of a carbon footprint we can have. Data centers primarily are run by fossil fuels. You'll see the data center has smoke coming out of it essentially resembling a fossil fuel oil rig and its pollution. 

When we think of pollution, it's easy to see plastic on the beach. It's easy to connect the dots when we see oil rigs pulling fossil fuels out of the earth. But when we see a data center, we don't necessarily think of pollution. And so, the piece was to really draw in and connect the two — not only pollution from the metals and technology used to create the physical pieces of a data center, but so does the fuel keeping it running. And, every time we click ads, they have to go through somewhere. 

Another element was the iPhone and the finger. It's easy to blame big corporations (which I do think we should) for our footprints. But, we wanted to show how consumers who use technology have a huge impact as well, and how we can make simple changes — whether that's through social media, deleting our junk mails, or downloading videos instead of streaming them. Small little things can add up. And so, the whole point of adding a finger was to create that human connection. Most of us have thumbs and we can all relate to a hand, so when we see that hand, we want the viewer to feel as if it's them. Also, the iPhone was 3D printed from all recycled wood. Unfortunately, we had to use virgin plastic for the frame, but the wood itself was recycled wood. 

Another aspect is that all the wires that we used were 100% trash. They were found in the San Diego Electronic Waste Center and we dug them all up. They all would've been doomed for landfill — so we saved them. That experience in itself was quite shocking. A lot of electronic waste cannot be recycled. So after we use our phones and computers, they can maybe pull a little bit of the gold out of the motherboards from computers, but most electronics don’t get the same fate. 

The entire back of the art piece is motherboards that were found from the San Diego Electronic Waste Center, all from different wifi routers. Those were really cool because that is where we're all connected in the digital world. Most of those pieces used were all actually wifi router connection pieces. It's an entire 360 dimensional piece that has a living element on every side of it, and it's all connected. And then the wires actually connect to some of the wires in the back.

We also had little gyres in the ocean. The wires are in the shape of gyres, which represent the great garbage patch in the oceans. So there were many small, subtle hints throughout the piece. 

CAN YOU SHARE WITH US THE MOST VALUABLE INSIGHT GAINED WHILE WORKING ON THIS PROJECT?

RM: I think that our digital carbon footprint is higher than the entire aviation industry combined. Why is there not more hype around this? It is something that we can control.

We can immediately find a cleaner way in our digital world; we have incredible technology. For me, that insight was quite shocking more than anything, to realize that plastic gets more hype (which it definitely deserves too) than this. And I think that [a digital footprint] is a more approachable thing to tackle rather than the entire plastics industry because plastics are going to be a hard one to solve. 

LASTLY, IN WHICH WAYS DOES THIS ART PIECE HELP CONVEY THE OVERALL MESSAGE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE AND CARBON IN THE DIGITAL SPACE?

RM: Overall, data centers are extremely carbon intensive and how they're basically being run by fossil fuels. And, that needs to change. Not only does that affect us, but that affects our environment all the way from the current places we're at to the Arctic and to melting icebergs, to heat waves, to floods, to droughts, to all of the above. I would hope that this art piece conveys that message, but I think that's quite a subjective thing for people. 

*All quotes were edited for grammar, punctuation, and clarity. 

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