Weather and the Whale

A collaborative exploration of the vulnerabilities of marine mammals in the age of climate change

Weather and the Whale is a unique exhibition catalog, combining artworks, critical and creative texts, and new scientific research about whales and other marine mammals to both sound a warning of the irreversible consequences of the collapsing climate and offer alternative possibilities for living during these challenging times.

Collaboratively organized by the Institute of the Arts and Sciences and the Friedlaender Bio-Telemetry and Behavioral Ecology Lab at UC Santa Cruz, this catalog is the result of a two-year working group of artists, scientists, and other scholars investigating the histories and structures that render some lives, both human and nonhuman, more vulnerable to ecological crisis. Including artistic projects and scientific data, Weather and the Whale raises fundamental questions about knowledge, power, multispecies relationships, and the responsibilities―and limits―of science in addressing the complexities of the climate crisis. This catalog also highlights the collective practices and alternative epistemes necessary to create a more healthy, and just, world.

Artists: Imani Jacqueline Brown, Carolina Caycedo, Sharon Daniel, Yolande Harris, Christine Howard Sandoval, Ashley Hunt, Courtney Leonard, John Jota Leaños, Libia Posada, Mia Eve Rollow, Whale Liberation Front, Sam Williams, Suné Woods.

Scientists: Natalia Botero-Acosta, Chloe Lew, Logan Pallin.

Other contributors: Guillermo Delgado-P., Cory Diane, Mirra-Margarita Ianeva, LuLing Osofsky, Kailani Polzak, Şebnem Susam-Saraeva, Zac Zimmer.

Rachel Nelson is director and chief curator at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Alexandra Moore is curator of academic programs at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Ari Friedlaender is professor of ocean sciences and director of the Friedlaender Bio-Telemetry and Behavioral Ecology Laboratory at UC Santa Cruz.