Interview with Félix Pharand-Deschênes

Could You Briefly Explain The Driving Force/Motivation Behind Your Work?

I could write a long origin story.

To keep it short though, the driving motivation of my work with Globaïa is to inform and inspire people about global socio-ecological issues through the mighty combination of science and art. The ultimate goal is to shift one’s worldview and trigger an action response. We all have some sense that we live in a peculiar time. I’m not referring here to the ongoing pandemic but rather to the planetary emergency that we are all facing. The COVID-19 crisis should indeed be seen as one symptom only of the destabilising impacts that our thermo-industrial societies are causing to the Earth’s biosphere. The true markers of our epoch, the Anthropocene, are the ever increasing inequalities, the nearly-uncontrollable global heating and the looming mass extinction. So, almost 50 years after the motto ‘think globally, act locally’ has been popularised at the time of the first Earth Summit in 1972, what does it mean, really, to ‘think globally’? How do we do that? We have not evolved, it seems, to be a planetary-thinking species. Can we become one? How?

As an anthropologist, I decided to explore these questions. The visual realm seemed an obvious starting point since, as the saying goes, images are worth a thousand words. I started giving talks on climate change and the biodiversity crisis and realised that good, powerful, visuals were missing to convey the scope and scale of these transformations. That is basically how and why I started creating planetary imagery.

Please Talk A Bit About The Process Of Your Work.

I am constantly monitoring and surveying the scientific literature in numerous fields, most notably Earth System science, to stay up-to-date. I’m also investigating new techniques and new datasets that might be relevant to visualise. In terms of process, several softwares (design, GIS, 3D) are involved to create these planetary visions, as well as custom-made plugins. Recently, I have started to explore where I could go with sound design and music composition.

Where Has Your Work Engaged With Systems Change-Making? 

My work has been shown in international venues, such as the Rio+20 Earth Summit, the World Economic Forum and UN General Assembly. With colleagues at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, I have helped illustrate the Planetary Boundaries framework, which has proved to be very influential over the years. A book and a documentary, both of which I have worked on, will be released this year on this subject.