Episode 1 - Oct 26, 2020
On October 25, NOVA Chamber Music Series presented the world premiere of Rising Tide, a new film from The Crossroads Project. After the screening, some of the film's creators joined host Jeff Counts to discuss how their personal encounters with climate change and sustainability led to the birth of this project.
Learn more about Rising Tide and stream the movie at novaslc.org/crossroads.
Host:
Jeff Counts
Guests:
Dr. Rob Davies, Utah State University Dept of Physics (Twitter @robsMast)
Robert Waters, Fry Street Quartet violinist
Rebecca McFaul, Fry Street Quartet violinist
Bradley Ottesen, Fry Street Quartet violist
Anne Francis Bayless, Fry Street Quartet cellist
produced by Chris Myers (argylearts.com)
Copyright © 2020 NOVA Chamber Music Series. All rights reserved.
Transcript
Announcer:
Welcome to the NOVA Podcast. On October 25, 2020, NOVA Chamber Music Series presented the world premier of Rising Tide, a new film from the Crossroads Project. After the screening, some of the film's creators joined host Jeff Counts to discuss how their personal encounters with climate change and sustainability led to the birth of this project.
Jeff Counts:
Good evening and welcome. My name is Jeff Counts. I am the program annotator and preconcert lecture host for the NOVA Chamber Music Series. I'm also the production manager for the live version of the film you just saw, Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project. It's a great thrill to invite all of you to this post-film talkback.
I'm joined by principal author and co-creator of the project, Dr. Robert Davies. Also by his partners in crime, the Fry Street Quartet. Violins, Robert Waters, Rebecca McFaul; viola, Brad Ottesen; and cello, Anne Francis Bayless. Hi, everybody.
Anne Francis Bayless:
Hi.
Rebecca McFaul:
Hi.
Dr. Robert Davies:
Hey, Jeff.
Robert Waters:
Hello. Yes.
Jeff Counts:
I think we probably need a minute to catch our breath. That was as stressful for me as any live performance. I just spent the last hour and 15 minutes shouting lighting cues at my television. Not at all healthy. But, congratulations to everyone. It's a beautiful rendition of this thing that we've all loved for so long. Speaking of how long, let's talk about the origin story. I imagine, Dr. Davies, there are probably people in this chat who don't know how this all began. Did it truly start with you being enveloped in the sounds of a string quartet?
Dr. Robert Davies:
You know, oddly enough it did in a way. When I first approached the Fry Street Quartet about this, I think it was about 2011, and I had been giving public climate change lectures for a few years and realized that the audiences were understanding the science. Still, to its essence, it's a pretty straight forward story, but they just weren't connecting to it. They would leave my lecture and walk back out into the world for what most of them had very nice lives, nice jobs, nice dinners, nice vacations, nice homes. And the meaning of the information just wasn't sinking in and I got to thinking, "This is what the arts do for us. They connect us to stories, film, and music, and literature."
And we had this amazing string quartet at Utah State University, where I was at the time and still am. In a concert, I got to thinking, "What if we gave the audience some information and put up some vivid imagery and really unleash powerful music on this message, would that help them connect to it?" And so, that was the genesis of the idea. And I approached the quartet, much to my surprise, they were very interested. And then we took it from there.
Jeff Counts:
Let's talk about where it's been since. As I mentioned before, it's been happening for a little while now. We're almost eight years into this. I think it's some 40-odd performances, is that right, Rob?
Dr. Robert Davies:
Yeah, 45 performances.
Jeff Counts:
45 performances.
Dr. Robert Davies:
46. Tonight was the 46th.
Jeff Counts:
It felt like it. It was stressful like I mentioned before. But Robert Waters, let's shift to you for a second. With all that under your belt, how has this project changed for you in all that time? I mean, what's different now from that first performance? And how are you keeping the flame lit? What have you learned about how to spread this message more effectively after all this time?
Robert Waters:
Well, certainly a lot has changed. That first performance, first of all, was a good, I think close to 30 minutes, 20 to 30 minutes longer. It was kind of sprawling and a bit unfocused. I think it was still, on some level, powerful. We got great reactions from most of the audience, but it's certainly tightened up and gotten a lot more focused over time. And I think all of us have just gotten a lot more confident in the delivery of this.
I'm sure to Rob, it's very different to do this than to give a science presentation. And this was also very different for a string quartet to do compared to just giving a quartet recital. Just sitting on stage for 15 minutes at a time and hearing really kind of haunting science coming at you and then having to suddenly get up and play is something to ... actually that doesn't really happen in normal quartet concerts.
So, we've had to get used to that. And in getting used to it, I think it's gotten a lot more confident. And certainly, I don't think any of us are bored by this. And the fact that the date of it coming out every year and seeming every week, getting more and more scary is, by all means, keeping us invested in this, in the project.
And so, I think just being able to deliver what we have to say with increasing confidence and increasing urgency has been one of the biggest changes.
Jeff Counts:
Rebecca, I want to get your thoughts on this too, but I want to read you a comment first that we just got from Pat Allan. Pat says, "This was fantastic and inspiring. I'm especially inspired that even at my age of 80 years, there is something I could do." I think that speaks to the fact that Dr. Davies was right. This melding of art and science is a really great way to get this message across. How do you feel about this project eight years on, and obviously, what does that comment mean to you?
Rebecca McFaul:
Oh, well that comment is very gratifying to read, because I think, at its heart, the whole idea, from its inception, was to create a space for this conversation, a space that was not politicized, a space that allowed us to really marvel at the wonders of the Earth and its life support systems and how we depend on them and how beautiful it is, which I think comes across so beautifully in the work of the photojournalists and especially the paintings of Rebecca Allan.
But also, to really see this as a call to action and that we all have a role to play, everything is connected, and that means each one of us. So, if somebody has a takeaway that is about some form of action, whatever form of action it is, it's important. Especially if it's new. if we just encourage everyone to take one step further than they've taken before, then that becomes comfortable, and hopefully it's one step further. And right now, we really need to come together to make change.
Jeff Counts:
One of the things that speaks most clearly to me, as the production manager of this project over the years, is how things have changed. I depend on the script. I live and die by the script, which I will note, for the record, sometimes I get maybe 10 minutes before curtain, but that's for another discussion. But I really do depend on that script, and I've noticed, in all of the different iterations, that certain things have changed over time. A lot of the numbers have changed. Certain things are getting a lot worse. Rob has to update them each time, sometimes a week later. There's also that section at the end where we talk about all the great things people are doing. That's changing too. That list has been growing.
Before Dr. Davies jumps into the details of those changes, I want to know from you, Anne, have you noticed that, too, and how does that affect you as you approach this fresh each time?
Anne Francis Bayless:
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I would agree with what Robert had said about... the fact that... We've never gotten bored. We never find ourselves becoming sort of used to this information. And in large part, that is because it is constantly evolving. The number that always gets me... there's lots of them, but the number of planets we need. I remember when that number... didn't we start at 1.3? Or maybe 1.4? And I think we're at 1.7 now. Everything is moving so quickly, and that's one of the things that I think kind of astonishes me and continues to alarm me each time, that this is moving at a pace quick, moves so fast. And if there's one thing that I feel so deeply, at the end of every performance, is that urgency, it only deepens. And yes, there's lots of good news too, that's great. But for me, that just keeps it right there always on the edge. This is a performance that I think will never lose that sense of absolute... it's in the moment every single time.
Jeff Counts:
Dr. Davies, could you talk a little bit about some of those changes I was mentioning? I mean, eight years is a very microcosmic look at something this big, but what's changed since we started this?
Dr. Robert Davies:
Well, as you've already said, the pace of progression of not only climate change but also, just broader picture, of our unsustainability as a civilization has accelerated. Certainly in climate change I think... I'll say one of the things... lots of the sciences... I mean, we get better and better science, but kind of interestingly, the basics of the science hasn't changed. Eight years ago when we started doing this, the scientific message was the same.
The big difference is things are progressing faster than was expected even back then, only eight years ago. And so, the carbon budget has decreased dramatically. The danger line for climate change has moved downwards from 2° Celsius, above preindustrial temperatures, to just 1.5° Celsius, of which we've already warmed 1.1° Celsius.
The impacts that we're seeing for the scale of change we've already had are bigger than were expected, even a decade ago. That's illustrated, perhaps, most effectively... there are many ways to illustrate this, but perhaps most effectively, by the pace of the melt of the arctic ice in the Greenland ice sheet has increased dramatically.
I want to mention one more big change in the decade since we started this, and that's in the audience and the public perception. I mean, Jeff, you mentioned that we changed the script quite a bit and it was longer, and I don't know if you remember our original ending, which was, if you can believe it, considerably more darker than what everyone saw tonight, but at the time, we felt like audiences needed that real sort of gut punch, so to speak. And that has changed. We took that out maybe five years ago or so and pivoted more to the mindset that we need to progress because the audiences had progressed as well. So, that's another welcome... with all of the difficult changes, a welcome change is, of course, that the public perception is really started to catch up with what the science is telling us.
Jeff Counts:
Brad, I want to hear from you here, and I'm glad Dr. Davies mentioned how the audience has changed over the years, because I think that, as progressive and as much as we challenge the audiences... as progressive as the message is and as much as we challenge the audiences, I find mostly they're of like mind. They think like we do. They're coming to be reassured or at least educated so that they can take action.
I can only think of a couple of times, Brad, where we had people in the audience that I felt weren't on the same page with us, and I'm not sure if they approached you to challenge anything they just heard, but I suspect those experiences have made all of us prepare what we might say to somebody like that. So, talk a little bit about your interactions with the audiences over the years and what you would do if somebody came up that was kind of hostilely unconvinced.
Bradley Ottesen:
I mean, you know what happens a lot of times, as you say, many of our audiences are on the same page as us. But what happens a lot of times is people sort of have a topic that they're fixated on. A lot of times, this is global population, for instance, which they want to blame everything on. And Dr. Davies is always very valuable in being able to redirect and expand the conversation. But one of the themes of the Crossroads Project is the interconnectivity of everything. It's not a simple problem; it's a very complex problem.
The next step in a conversation like that is just to be able to open up people's horizons and sort of help them to acknowledge the things they are likely seeing. As we've said, things have progressed a lot in the last 10 years, and people's perceptions have changed. Public opinion has changed. When we started, we had to convince people still that climate change was happening, and we needed to shock people, to a certain extent, into action. But now you look out your window, and you can see it happening. Every one of us, from one end of the country to the other, when we open our door, we can see climate change on a daily basis, and that definitely changes the conversation.
Jeff Counts:
Robert Waters, I want to kick it to you. Same question. I know you bounced out for a second, but the gist was, have you had experiences with audience members who have been skeptical, even after hearing this very thorough and very moving message, and how have you handled that?
Robert Waters:
Yeah, I think for the most part, we certainly are preaching to the choir. There was a performance that we gave early on in 2012, it was for students and what turned out to be a number of their parents in Salt Lake City, and I think some of the parents didn't really take too kindly to the message that we were giving them and walked out. So, we didn't necessarily have any confrontations after performances or anything like that, but it was clear, in the middle of the performance, that there was a certain segment of the audience that just didn't like what we were saying.
That's not at all stopped us from continuing to push this message forward. It's not really even altered it that much at all. We're not trying to soften it or somehow include people who are just completely resistant to listening to this. There's that... people sometimes might think that we're preaching to the choir, as I mentioned before, and the response to that is, well, you preach to the choir so that the choir will sing.
So, a large part of what we're trying to do here is not necessarily convince all the skeptics of the world that climate change is happening and that the science is real. We're really committing to people who, on some level, understand that this is a problem, but just aren't behaving like it's a problem. Their behavior as if there's nothing, even if there something in their mind that they know isn't right. Moving those people to action I think is where our... is our plan our attack and I think will continue to be so. In that way, I think it's perhaps getting a little easier because awareness now is so much broader than it was eight years ago.
Jeff Counts:
We've been talking a lot about eight years ago and how we've gotten here, but we need to talk about what "here" is. The very fact that we're doing this the way we are is because we're in a pretty particular moment right now. Aside from the suspension of live performances, and I don't... I think this movie would have happened anyways. We've always dreamed of this. But maybe it was a little bit of an acceleration at play because of Covid.
But how, Dr. Davies, has the pandemic influenced Crossroads and what's the advocacy ecosystem like generally right now? I can imagine it's the same as it always was. And I have to follow it up with the question: is there any merit to this idea that all this quarantine, spotty and scruffy though it has been, has been really good for the planet in a lasting way? Try to answer both of those, if you can.
Dr. Robert Davies:
Let me start with the second question. Certainly we heard reports that we're driving less, and certainly that was true in the first couple of months. We're flying less. That's still true. Quite a lot less. But the short answer is: okay, fine, the impact of that on our carbon emissions is to lessen our carbon emissions, and that's good, from a climate change perspective, but...
Two points on that. One is, these are not systemic changes. These are changes that are happening as a result of a disruption, in this case, this global pandemic. And so, as we start to get a handle on this pandemic, and we will, eventually, those emissions will come back because we've made no systemic change. And the name of the game here is changing systems.
The second thing I'll point out is that the impact of the pandemic, the direct impact, the economic impact here in the U.S. and around the world, of course, has moved this topic of the pandemic in response to the economy to the very tip top of just about everybody's list. And it makes it much more difficult to get anything done, in terms of passing legislation on climate change or come into a collective action.
What I think the pandemic done, in helping us move forward, is to help the public give us all a very tangible example of a crisis that was predicted by science and how quickly we can pivot when those crises hit. Think of how quickly this nation pivoted in March when we understood that's what we needed to do, and it also gives us a picture of how quickly all of that can just be for naught if there's no real leadership, which has been the case, of course, obviously, in our nation on this topic. And we see that all of that sacrifice that people made in the early months went for naught. We weren't able to open up the schools because we couldn't get a handle on it because we had no real leadership.
So, it gives us a living, breathing example of why you want to listen, why you want to believe what you know, in this case, about coronavirus, and respond it. And why, if you don't, you don't get away with it; the problem just worsens. In that way, it's been instructive.
Jeff Counts:
I want to jump to some audience questions here. There's been some great stuff coming in. I promise everyone that's listening, if we don't get to your question, the team will take a look at it and try to get you some sort of response in the coming days. Let's jump into a few of these right now.
Cameron is an environmental studies and viola performance major. I mean, that's Crossroads auxiliary team right there for sure. Cameron wonders, "What are actions musicians can specifically take to promote sustainability?" Why don't you take that one, Anne.
Anne Francis Bayless:
This is such a great question. I mean, first of all, I think the sky is really the limit to the degree that you're passionate about some aspect, or all aspects of it. I think our voices as communicators are so powerful, more powerful, usually, than we know. And so, even small efforts can make a really big difference.
Cameron, I think I recognize your name, and I think you've been in touch with my colleague, Rebecca so you know a little bit about some efforts that have been made, for example, by students here at our own home university, at Utah State University, who created a opera. This is entirely student-led and run. They commissioned an opera by a young composer on the topic of global sustainability, and it premiered last night, actually. But this is something that was really, really of great importance to them. Everyone involved felt passionately about it. They went through tremendous effort to put something really incredible together. And I think that has had ripple effects, not only just here in our community, in our community of our program here at our university and outside of it in our hometown, but way beyond that. Now that we're all in this interesting place because of the pandemic, we're reaching farther than maybe we would have otherwise because a lot of these efforts are now being performed online.
So, that's just one tiny example, but I think, as performers, again, our voices can be so powerful. Even if that is something like having a benefit concert, creating a concert experience for your community to benefit an organization that's important to you, a climate advocacy organization or a group in your community or at your university who are doing great work. But I think another theme we come back to a lot, which is not specific to musicians necessarily, is the idea of normalizing the conversation. That's one of the simplest and most effective things anyone can do is just to talk about it. Talk about this in your home communities, in your church communities, with your family. And that, for musicians, is just as true for everybody else.
But it's such a great question and I think the other thing that makes our voices so powerful is that we have this creativity, most of us, that really, once unleashed, knows no boundaries. So, just a few thoughts. It's so inspiring to hear about all of these efforts being made, particularly from young people, because that's exactly what we all need right now.
Jeff Counts:
Well, if Brad ever needs to take a sick day, we've got Cameron lined up to go. How about a question, now, from Kate: "What is being done to get this program more into view before those who tend towards climate change skepticism?" Rebecca, how about you jump on that one, that grenade?
Rebecca McFaul:
Oh. You threw me a fastball.
Jeff Counts:
Yeah.
Rebecca McFaul:
Well, I think honestly, all of our efforts were just, in terms of getting the film out there, was to get it edited and filmed and out there. And we are making efforts to circulate it widely. We're reaching out to the sustainability communications, scientific communities, and that's maybe a little bit more preaching to the choir, like has already been talked about. And also, with this in mind, the point of Crossroads from the start was to move people towards action. And maybe that doesn't include people who aren't willing to have a good faith conversation about this topic. The hope also, of course, is to create a safe space away from a hyper-partisan environment where it is safe to have a kind of deep exploration of this topic, and that is the hope to bust open some understanding.
So, we will move our attention towards more disbursement of the film and to see what sort of impact it can have and what kind of reach it can have, but like many artistic projects, birthing it also takes a whole bunch of effort. And once that's done, there's a little more bandwidth to think about that. But thank you for the question and thank you for bringing it to the floor because it is an important one.
Jeff Counts:
Rebecca, thinking of what Robert Waters said before about that one experience we had where the parents of the students weren't all that keen, I wonder if that might be an avenue to get to skeptics, through their kids, through their student-aged kids. You think there's something to that?
Rebecca McFaul:
Well, I absolutely think there's something to that. I think the young people, for the most part, are very aware this is their inheritance. That the world we're bequeathing them isn't a healthy one. And also, younger people tend to be open to these... to all kinds of things, and not necessarily cemented in ideology. And so, working with young people to find their voice, to find their voice as artists, certainly, but to find their voice as artists who are reflecting something meaningful back about the world that they're busy trying to understand is another aspect of our work.
And as Anne mentioned, we're all so proud of the opera that premiered last night. That was a student production, and it was beautifully done and beautifully received. And the year before that, there was another student effort, which was astonishing, called Plastic Ocean, which involved original music and a play and a wonderful performance. You know, it's going to take a village, and the young people, like I said, this is their Earth to inherit.
Jeff Counts:
Brad, you have a followup to that?
Bradley Ottesen:
Yeah. I might just add, not just for the arts but for all fields. Sustainability is exciting. Sustainability is the cutting edge. We're looking at the future when we talk about sustainability in a number of disciplines and a number of fields of study. There was one line that was cut in the film version, which I might ask Rob about the difficultly of an undertaking. And you don't have to do the whole impression, Rob, but I think it's a really great point.
Dr. Robert Davies:
Well, it's a quote from quite a famous American inventor named Edwin Land, who said, "Never undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible." The punchline to that in the film is, "well, jackpot. We've got exactly that. We've got a project here that is manifestly important and can feel nearly impossible." And so, here we go. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, of a generation, of many generations.
Jeff Counts:
Let's stay with you for a second, Dr. Davies. Oh, first. Rebecca, did you have a followup?
Rebecca McFaul:
Yes, because I had a second to think a little bit more. Well, one other thought is that I hope that the film gets shared by anybody brave enough to approach some skeptics. So, please anybody watching, if you have ideas about sharing it, go ahead and share it. It's going to be available for free for a while. Or write to us with your suggestions, because we will be open to listening to them, for sure.
And I had one more comment for Cameron, and this is sort of a practical one. I wanted to just mention, it's actually a website and a group of people that was started in the U.K. called Music Declares Emergency. If you google that, there is a way to sign up to join musicians all over world who are concerned about this topic. And on the website is also a whole bunch of super useful resources. Things like, how to green your tech rider, how to put forth a proposal to the board at your chamber music society to look at practices and try to make them more sustainable. It's a lot of kind of practical things, but pushing our field and our institutions and the groups that we work with is another way of pushing forward the conversation and normalizing it. It's maybe not always comfortable, but it's worth doing and there are models to follow to help make those moves.
Jeff Counts:
Thanks for that, Rebecca. I was going to mention that this video will be up for a little while so that people can share it exactly in the way you said. And I'm sorry to have thrown that skeptic question at your feet. I know it's a tough one, and the good news is, though, everybody listening, through no fault of their own and through no choice of their own, has been deputized just simply by watching this movie to...
Dr. Robert Davies:
Once you know, you know.
Jeff Counts:
We've all got a little bit of work to do. But thank you for that close to that topic, Rebecca.
I want to stay with you Dr. Davis. C.M., initials C.M. asked, "What are the top three to five things we can, as individuals, do to make a difference regarding climate change?" I think three to five is ambitious, but give us a list that we can draw from, even if it's only one thing, as you've said.
Dr. Robert Davies:
Yeah, well let me make a couple of quick comments. So, we talked about changes in the... I'm going to round it back really quick. But we talked about changes in the performance, and the biggest changes have come in the reimagined section. That's always been the trick. What do you ask your audience? And you've got six or seven minutes on stage to do it. And so initially, we had, go to this website, look at this organization, etc. Well, we finally landed, round and round, is because these problems are so interconnected, what I said in reimagined now where we landed, is not so much what you specifically do but the mindset we need to move forward. And the reason we're there is because, whoever you are, whatever your talents, whatever your means, there's work for you to do. And part of the very first step in that work is for you to figure out what that work is.
So, with musicians and with artists, being the storytellers that connect us to this information and motivate us to action is really one huge piece of what, say, the arts and humanities can do. It's only one thing. There are many. And we have to change systems.
So, certainly, doing these things in our personal lives our important. So, personal lives. We mentioned the first biggest one in the performance: talk about it, talk about these issues, normalize the conversation. They're real, they're immediate, they're much bigger than anything else. If we don't solve climate change and the broader picture of human sustainability, none of the other problems matter.
Number two: we've got to get our carbon emissions down immediately. We need national policy to do that. Politics is how we collectively face risk. We've got an election coming up. There is a huge difference between the candidates up and down the ticket as to what their positions are on climate change and these existential crises. I don't think I have to go any further into it than that. Our diets play a huge role in our personal carbon footprint. Meat is very high carbon, and so lowering your meat intake lowers your personal carbon footprint. And so, we'll start with that.
Jeff Counts:
That's great. And I do want to hear from each of you about some of the sacrifices you've personally made, but I want to get to one more question from...
Dr. Robert Davies:
I want to stop you right there, Jeff. They're not sacrifices. They don't have to be thought of as sacrifices. They can be thought of as changes that take us to a much better place, and they're certainly changes, and changes can be uncomfortable. But there's a difference between that and sacrifice, and I think it's a framing that certainly has helped me as I try to change my own life.
Jeff Counts:
That's great. And we did rehearse that, ladies and gentlemen. That was Rob's correction there. We planned and rehearsed. Not the kind of host who gets offended easily.
Dr. Robert Davies:
I know giving up a cheeseburger is going to be a sacrifice for you, Jeff.
Jeff Counts:
Absolutely. So, one more question from Kate. So, Kate says, "As a scientist learning to make music, I'm curious how the musicians of the group experienced learning to make science. How does this alternative way of thinking and approaching the world affect you?" Robert Waters, how about you?
Robert Waters:
I don't think I'm ever going to forget... So, I actually hopped on the Crossroads boat just a smidge after it was launched. There are a couple of very early, you might say, beta testing performances that happened before I was a part of the Fry Street Quartet. I remember very vividly sitting in the middle of a Crossroads performance and hearing for the first time... or I suppose it was even in a rehearsal, but hearing for the first time that we can, in America, choose to consume eight million plastic bottles every two minutes. Something like that.
Dr. Robert Davies:
Two million every five minutes.
Robert Waters:
Two million every five minutes. Not so bad, I guess. But it was really just astonishing and kind of... I think for those first couple of years, just kind of wrapping my mind, really, around the scale... and of course, that's almost impossible for any human to do truly, but just getting closer and closer to the... coming face-to-face with what science was telling us and reading more and becoming more informed and more confident about talking about it more, confident about being an activist, has lent my art, I think, certainly in the context of the Crossroads Project, just so much more confidence.
The Fry Street Quartet is also lent its artistic voice to other social justice issues as well, with other pieces. It's been kind of the same thing there. Learning more about a certain injustice, whether it's climate change or other things going on in our world that we want to address. The more that I learn about that, the more confident I become in being a participant, both just as a citizen but also as a musician. So, I'm certainly not aspiring to be a scientist, but being in that world has enriched my music making, for sure.
Jeff Counts:
Rebecca, thoughts?
Rebecca McFaul:
I have just kind of a lighthearted answer to that question, which has come up in my own practicing and actually with my students. And just thinking about process in a more data-driven way, and recently, there was an example. Actually this wasn't my idea, but I love this. If you're practicing a big shift and you're worried about it and instead of missing it, judging it, and deciding you're a terrible, worthless person because you've missed your shift, the alternative would be, as you're practicing it, to actually just codify in what way was it out of tune, and see if you can identify patterns and solutions. Well, it is sort of a silly thing, but it's surprisingly effective. I think as artists, we sometimes... we have great, big feelings. So, it can be really good to just actually turn around the process a little bit and let that inform us.
Jeff Counts:
What do you think, Brad?
Bradley Ottesen:
Well, in just thinking about the intersection of art and science, I just want to give a huge shout out to the composer, Laura Kaminsky, who at the start of this project, was handed, essentially, a graph with Water and Bios and Forage and Societas, and she managed to turn that into music. So, when thinking about stretching ourselves and working to meld art and science, I think what she came up with is so incredibly brilliant and vivid and inspiring.
Jeff Counts:
I'm so glad you mentioned Laura Kaminsky because she just sent us a message. She clearly agrees with Dr. Davies that I truly stepped in it a few moments ago, because she suggests that we think about the changes as offerings to the future, rather than sacrifices, which I think is gorgeous. Note for the future Laura: send me those thoughts before the show so that I can plug them in and not hit the trip wires that I hit.
Speaking of those changes, we're getting pretty close to the end of our time here, so I think it'd be great if each one of you could talk about a change you've made. What offering have you made to the future since this began? It can be a difficult one, it can be a simple one. I think they're all inspiring. Dr. Davies, let's start with you.
Dr. Robert Davies:
Well, I would say the first one is my career track just completely shifted about 15 years ago, when I thought I was going to take a year and just do public climate change communication and then go back to what I was doing before, which was a different kind of physics called quantum optics, for any nerds out there. So, that's one shift. I've shifted my professional activities to try to start using my profession to address these problems. Personally, I eat very little meat now. I've shifted my diet quite a lot. My wife and I... full disclosure, who is Rebecca, purchased an electric car and solar panels and we certainly try to push things forward, to the best of our ability on a personal level.
But I'll say again, it's combining that with turning your vision not inward but outward that we really need to do. We need to make these systemic changes, and so that involves seeking out collective action. And as I talked about in Reimagine, there's huge number of organizations that are out there to do that. So, pick something. Don't try to do everything. But pick something and make it yours.
Jeff Counts:
And how about you?
Anne Francis Bayless:
Well, I should mention, one thing that is not necessarily just for my personal life, but for the life of NOVA, the NOVA chamber music series, we should mention the Fry Street Quartet, we are the music directors of NOVA currently. And one of the big efforts that we made early on, spearheaded by my colleague Rebecca, was an initiative called NOVA Goes Green, wherein we're looking for ways to make an organization, which should be mentioned is already a very green organization, because of course, NOVA works almost exclusively with local musicians, musicians here in the state of Utah. So, the carbon footprint of this chamber music series is quite a bit greener than your average chamber music series, where you'll have artists flying in from around the country and often around the world. But even so, there were lots of steps that could be taken to get NOVA, as an organization, to have even less of a footprint. So, that's something that we're really proud of for the organization as a whole.
My answer, personally, is probably pretty similar to Rob's in just that we're an electric car family now, we're saving up for solar panels at some point soon, we hope. We've made big changes in the way we consume lots of things. Not just food, but even things like clothing. The way we think about how we interact in our community and the message that we give to our son, because of course, he's going to be outliving us by quite a stretch, and so this is something that we talk about a lot as a family.
Jeff Counts:
Before we go to you, Brad, I want to mention that, if you feel so inclined, it would be wonderful if you'd consider a donation to NOVA chamber music series. You can do that at NOVAslc.org. It supports not only the Crossroads Project but everything the Fry Street Quartet is doing as music directors of that venerable Salt Lake City institution. So, please consider that when you're feeling generous next.
Brad, how about you? What's your one gift to the future?
Bradley Ottesen:
Well, one thing that a lot of musicians think about a lot is travel. For a long time, travel has been seen as the life blood of a performing career. We've all put that on hold for Covid. There's this sort of wonderful pause where everybody was sort of forced to leave the rat race for a moment. Coming back on the other side of that, I think we'll be traveling lots. But it's also been amazing to see what all can be done online, what can be done virtually, both in terms of education and performance. So, it's going to be a new world on the other side of that. Travel is a big thing.
Jeff Counts:
Rebecca?
Rebecca McFaul:
Early on in the performance, too, one of the things that Rob was always, always talking about was how we had to pick something and make it ours but push the institutions in our lives, and I think Anne already spoke that really beautifully. So, I took that to heart, and with one of three faculty members to put something forward called the destinations workshop for faculty at Utah State University. So, we went to a workshop and looked at ways to do that and other models and came back and I wrote the pitch to the president, provost, and worked on funding for it and designed it. And I'm proud to say that it's something that happens annually and has now trained, if you will, faculty... hundreds of our faculty to be thinking about how they can incorporate sustainability into their courses. It's hundreds of students that they've effected, not maybe hundreds of faculty yet, but quite a few faculty.
And also, I started... I worked with the sustainability coordinator, whose name is Alexi Lamm, to create something called and AmeriCorps Sustainability Fellowship for the Caine College of the Arts. And so, my hope was to empower a student to work with other students and move our college, at least, towards the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, which was a climate compact that our university president had signed in 2007. In doing so, there are solar panels on the Caine College of the Arts. We've hosted climate town halls. There have been a lot of things that have happened as a result of that position.
And lastly, I have now written two articles, one of which has been published, with coauthor Gabriela Lena Frank for Chamber Music Magazine. That's the other... we're hoping to kind of push our profession to be reimagining how we work, in all kinds of different ways and to bust open that conversation as well.
Jeff Counts:
Mr. Waters?
Robert Waters:
Yeah. So, I'm going to offer something a little bit silly on the face of it, but over the last, I'm going to say, four or five years, I've had haircuts by four or five different people, and for whatever reason, climate change has come in and out of those, what are usually kind of innocuous and sometimes mind-numbing conversations while you're getting your haircut. And for whatever reason, it's really hot or there's smoke in the air or something, and the conversation comes up. And the person cutting my hair... this has happened, now, with four different people, has said something to the effective of, "Well, you know, the science isn't really settled," and after I've said, "This might become our new normal." Something along those lines.
In the past, before the Crossroads Project kind of took hold of my life, I would have just said something noncommittal and changed the subject and thought to myself, "This is a waste of time to try to talk to somebody who's clearly not getting it." In each of these conversations, I've actually done by best to politely but clearly steer this person in the direction of actually taking in what the science is telling us and having kind of more data in my mind to be able to call up than I would have before I started this project. Just making an attempt to at least move the conversation somewhere.
I'm not so sure how successful I was, but I think I've, in practicing, shall we say, in the context of these haircuts, I think I'm getting better at it and I'm getting a little less rattled and being capable of staying calmer in such conversations. And as Rob has said many times to lots of people in the context of this performance, we really have to normalize these conversations, and what more normal place to have a conversation about climate change than when you're getting your hair cut? So, I don't know... that's my offering for this evening.
Jeff Counts:
Well, I'm pleased to let everyone know that if you want to hear more about everything you've heard tonight, including haircuts, you'll have an opportunity to do so with an upcoming suite of podcasts. The first drops this Thursday, and then on three subsequent Mondays, the members of the team will speak to specialists in the areas of water, life, food, and society. So, make sure you catch. It'll be on iTunes, and more information about them will be available about them in a couple of days at NOVAslc.org, which incidentally, is the website I mentioned before where you can and should go donate, if you feel so inclined. Any questions we didn't get to during this discussion tonight we'll certainly try to do in those podcasts.
I've got a few people to thank. The Utah Legislature, particularly Utah Division of Arts and Museums, Lawrence T. and Janet T. Dee Foundation, Salt Lake County Zoo Arts and Parks, Sounds of Science Commissioning Club, and Rhea Bouman and Glenn Prestwich. Thanks to all those generous donors for making this evening possible.
Before we say goodbye, Dr. Davies, last word, one more takeaway message for the group.
Dr. Robert Davies:
Well, I think it's got to be believe what you know and pick something, make it yours, and talk about.
Jeff Counts:
Thank you all. I can't wait to do this live again. Much love and congratulations.
Announcer:
This has been the NOVA Podcast. Our host was Jeff Counts. Our guests were Rob Davies, Robert Waters, Rebecca McFaul, Bradley Ottesen, and Anne Francis Bayless. This episode was produced by Chris Myers. The NOVA podcast is funded by listeners like you. You can donate to support NOVA's programming at www.NOVAslc.org. We love hearing from our listeners. If you have any questions or comments, please email info@NOVAslc.org.
On the next episode of the NOVA Podcast, Robert Waters and Dr. Rob Davies are joined by ecosystem biologist Dr. Ben Abbott and composer Laura Kaminsky to discuss her experience composing the string quartet at the heart of Rising Tide. Don't forget to subscribe and share the NOVA Podcast with your friends. Thank you for joining us.