The Butterfly Effect Project Blog
The Point CDC
Hunts Point Resiliency Project Presents:
THE POINT CDC, in partnership with the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency, Interaction Institute for Social Change, and HDR, Inc. sought talented, public artists for The Point CDC Hunts Point Resiliency Project who could work with local Hunts Point/South Bronx, New York City, critical facilities, resilient energy, protection, community benefit/resilience, etc. I was awarded to be one of those public artists. We selected, public artists (Mariposa Fernandez, Isabelle Garbani, and myself, Roy Secord) worked with populations as varied as youth, immigrants, church-based groups, local industrial and health-based workers, the elderly, and any other groups most vulnerable to climate change. Daily blogs for my public art project, The Butterfly Effect Project, can be found on the project Facebook page. Like us HERE.
This project took place during Summer 2017. In keeping with the mission of THE POINT, all project artists-in-residence engaged in strong explorations of social and cultural issues occurring throughout the world. This residency included working with groups of residents to expose them to a specific art form, its history and cultural importance, and ultimately led to a final presentation. My hope was to create a visible, community dialogue (followed by a powerful, public art installation) on climate change, AND to also educate about climate change impact, including disaster preparedness and resiliency.
Why "The Butterfly Effect" and what is my project all about?
Mention "The Butterfly Effect" and most people will mention the movie, The Butterfly Effect, where the lead character Evan keeps creating causes in the past that affect future outcomes, illustrating how small, initial differences may lead to large, unforeseen consequences over time.
According to Wikipedia:
"In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.[2] The name, coined by Edward Lorenz for the effect which had been known long before, is derived from the metaphorical example of the details of a tornado (exact time of formation, exact path taken) being influenced by minor perturbations such as the flapping of the wings of a distant butterfly several weeks earlier. Lorenz discovered the effect when he observed that runs of his weather model with initial condition data that was rounded in a seemingly inconsequential manner would fail to reproduce the results of runs with the unrounded initial condition data. A very small change in initial conditions had created a
significantly different outcome.[3] "
Although this model has been largely disregarded in terms of weather predictions, it has been validated in quantum theory computations. A small cause can create huge outcomes. In terms of climate change, most models illustrate that causation is cumulative. Stephen Hawking predicted the United States would leave the Paris Climate Accord, and that disregard of climate change recommendations could potentially push climate change "over the edge". My terming of "The Butterfly Effect", however, was more about reaction than action. The focus of my project had much to do about social resiliency, the power of one person to affect change in a community, or even a nation or the world, AND the power of interconnected individuals in the face of disaster to "bounce back".