Saving the Earth … One Poster at a Time

Since their creation, posters have been utilized as a form of instant messaging to communicate ideas to the public quickly. Which makes us wonder, what can we learn about society by looking at posters as historical artifacts and their documentation of specific issues over time?

Consider environmentalism, which became more mainstream in the United States in the 1960s due to publications like Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.” What can we learn through the examination of posters from this era? And how has that visual representation shifted as we think about today’s climate change challenges?

Join us as climate scientist Abigail Bodner and chief curator of Poster House Angelina Lippert sit down with science communicator and comedian Kyle Marian Viterbo to examine the decades of posters that have cautioned us to take better care of our environment and the underlying story they reveal about the evolving perception of our relationship to these issues.

This event is in collaboration with our neighbors at the Poster House.

Abigail Bodner is a Simons Society Junior Fellow and recently joined the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University as a postdoctoral fellow in professor Laure Zannaʼs climate and oceans physics research group. Her research interests span a broad range of topics involving climate dynamics, geophysical fluid dynamics and turbulence. At Courant, Bodner uses novel machine-learning approaches combining theory, model simulations and observational measurements to study how ocean turbulence and local flow dynamics affect sea-level rise predictions. She completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown University. Her doctoral work focused on improving the theory and model representation of ocean surface flows, which play an essential role in atmosphere-ocean interactions and simulating the climate system. Bodner also earned an Sc.M. in applied mathematics at Brown University. Prior to Brown, she received her B.S. in mathematics and earth sciences and an M.S. in atmospheric sciences from Tel Aviv University.

Angelina Lippert is the chief curator and director of content of Poster House in New York City, the first museum in the United States dedicated to the art and history of the poster. She holds an M.A. in the art of the Russian avant-garde from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and a B.A. in theology and art history from Smith College. Lippert is the author of “The Art Deco Poster,” and has lectured at the School of Visual Arts, The Cooper Union, New York University, Pratt, The New York Times, Columbia University, and the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. She is currently an editor at the New York Journal of Books.

Kyle Marian Viterbo is a former scientist, producer & co-host of “The Symposium: Academic Stand-Up,” “Banana Ketchup: A Comedy Show with Filipino Flavor,” and the headline-making “Asians Strike Back: A Coronavirus Comedy & Science Show.” She currently works behind the scenes as Science Friday’s Community Manager and as a freelance science communicator, training academics to translate their research into comedy.

From standup to improv and comedy variety shows, she loves to create experiences that make audiences laugh and learn while challenging the foundations of our knowledge. Kyle has performed across the United States and the United Kingdom, including the Edinburgh Fringe and New York Asian Comedy Festival.