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Our current climate condition sets us in a great conundrum. On the one side, ocean rise, desertification, and extreme weather events are upending the well-being and economic fortunes of millions. On the other side, we have few means to convey the causes of climate change in visceral ways, widely graspable. In this talk I will report on joint work with the art historian, Caroline Jones, on our study of moving and still images that have broken through, altering public opinion and national policy, with examples from land, sea, and air. At the same time, invisibilization takes many forms, from physical access through attentional misdirection, to legal obfuscation. These images, their production and distribution, raise media-theoretic issues even as they stand at the intersection of political-economic and aesthetic crosswinds. This is a report on the continuing struggle to reveal and conceal technical land, sea, and air.
