• We need culture to shift behaviour, because everything is culture but the mentality is that art is an adornment and not actually a tactic. I think art is a tactic.

I first met Annette while I was chair of the Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency or SCALE in 2022 and have since then gotten to know her as an artist here in Ottawa on the traditional unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.

Annette’s multi-disciplinary work emphasizes social-critical art culture with political themes at its centre, addressing both local and meta-national conditions. 

Overall her work raises issues within a civil society to challenge the “isms” and all their inhumane expressions.

Art climatism anyone? 

Annette defines herself as a builder of capacity of the arts and culture sector to respond in the climate emergency and she is well placed to do this as Organizational Development and Network Lead of SCALE, so we talked about SCALE and the challenges of mobilising an arts sector that already has many challenges to face and yet the climate emergency is unique…

I mentioned that co-founders and mission circle members of SCALE have also been featured on this podcast, including judi pearl (e59), david maggs (e30 and e166 ), kendra fanconi (e36 and e87), tanya kalmanovitch (e53), ian garrett (e54), kimberlye skye richards (e76 and e171), Sanita Fejzić (e155 et é154), anthony garoufalis-auger (e93 et é56), tracey friesen (e85), viviane gosselin (e84), robin sokoloski (e61) and anjali appadurai (e23). A cohort of art and climate activist. 

I appreciated Annette response to all of my question but in particular about the role of art in previous periods of crisis: 

• In any time when there's a cultural upheaval there has been the power of art, not only to illustrate the situation that we're in, but also to imagine a place where people could go. Dada did that after the first World War : dismantling the beast that brought this devastation and then coming in with a sense of imagination and joy to move forward and show people around them that there are other ways of being. … Look at Afrofuturism or indigenous futurism: there's a real beautiful way of imagining futures that are not utopian. They're looking at how the world could come out of the mess that we're in. … There's real power in that.

Annette recommended the following books and podcasts:

• Playing for Time by Lucy Neal
• Raw Materials podcast by San Francisco Moma
• Dark Matter Labs and their pilot on Universal Nutrition

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END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I I publish a free ‘a calm presence' monthly Substack see https://acalmpresence.substack.com.

Your feedback is always welcome at [email protected] and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on January 9, 2026