Climate Monsters

Climate Monsters is an Augmented Reality installation and illustrated narrative that invites visitors to imagine the threats of water-related climate change as mythological monsters and visualize their dangerous presence in the Boston Harbor. For centuries, global cultures have used the practice of myth-making to help make sense of the seemingly unexplainable and create emotional ties to natural events like weather, the change in seasons, and the polarity of night and day. By creating fictional characters from real climate risks, Climate Monsters offers a way to absorb the urgency of the climate crisis and consider potential solutions to an overwhelming problem with new perspective. 

Younger generations will be confronted with the most volatile effects of the climate crisis still to come, so the artwork seeks to empower kids to imagine new possibilities for a healthier future. The narrative for the Climate Monsters myth installed on the Harborwalk fence, along with the idea for the heroic Anti-Monster, was created in partnership with the Mendell Elementary School 2024 kindergarten classes, whose creativity, inventiveness, and optimism know no bounds. Their solutions to combat the monster that is climate change involved teamwork, compassion, resourcefulness, and a pressing reminder that the world is waiting for all of us to step up as the heroes of this story.

Special thanks to project collaborators John Barns, Tanya Nixon-Silberg, and Sergio Riccardi.

Climate Monsters was created with the support of the Boston Public Art Triennial Accelerator and hosted by The Boston Children’s Museum.