Under Her Eye Festival and Summit was produced and created by Invisible Dust, an organisation that works with leading artists and scientists to produce unique and exciting works of contemporary art and new scientific ideas exploring our environment and climate change. Exploring and celebrating the role of women taking action on climate change, Under Her Eye was Part of the 2018 Suffrage Centenary and was headlined by Booker-prize winning author, Margaret Atwood.
Unique internationally as an event focusing on women’s role from both the arts and science perspective, the Summit featured pioneers across the diverse fields of science, health, technology, finance, activism, leadership and policy – working globally to tackle the environmental challenges of our age. Atwood is joined by an international array of speakers including Caroline Lucas MP, Co-Leader UK Green Party; Hakima El Haité, Moroccan Minister for the Environment and COP22 Host; Maaike Van Min, former Head of Strategy and Development, Marie Stopes; Laura Tenenbaum, former Senior Science Editor, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab; Gayle Chong Kwan, Under Her Eye festival commissioned award-winning artist; Jessica Ground, Global Head of Stewardship, Schroders; Mel Evans, Artwash author and former Head of Art at Greenpeace; and Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics author and Renegade Economist.
‘Under Her Eye’ also featured a festival of public art installations and activities entitled ‘AIR, LAND and SEA’ across King’s Cross, inviting the public to consider and experience climate change through the lens of Air, LAND and SEA. Invisible Dust has commissioned work from three celebrated female artists - Kasia Molga (AIR), Gayle Chong Kwan (LAND), and Margaret Salmon (SEA) – each responding to their experience of climate change, through a high-tech performance, a sensory culinary installation and a new film.
Kasia Molga’s ‘Human Sensor LDN’ was a live performance in which high-tec costumes made London’s polluted air visible as dancers move through the city. Molga has developed the technology for new wearables for ‘Human Sensor LDN’ – and for the first time they changed colour live with the quality of the surrounding air. The costumes, developed with Environmental Health scientists from King’s College London and Euston BID, also light up in response to each breath of the performers, through sensors in their masks emphasising their breathing and movement.