The exhibition Carbon 14: Climate is Culture, now on at the Royal Ontario Museum, features 13 art installations, including seven new commissions by Canadian and international artists from various disciplines, all confronting the facts of climate change and responding in powerful and creative ways. The project was started by the Cape Farewell Foundation in November 2011 when artists, including film makers, poets and musicians, met with scientists, economists and other climate change professionals, to spark a creative dialogue on issues related to climate change.

The exhibition features The Unsolicited Reply, a new interactive light and sound installation by Professor Lisa Steele, Associate Chair of the Visual Studies Program at the Daniels Faculty, and Associate Professor Kim Tomczak.

From Cape Farewell's website:

The Unsolicited Reply takes its name from the Wordsworth poem Yes, It Was the Mountain Echo. It invokes the image of something reflected back "…like—but oh, how different"* from its source. In this work the artists point to the very human desire for light and ‘magic’ which is countered by the realization that this spectacle is consuming precious resources—in this case energy—and that there is a consequence to our actions. Visitors may choose to blaze up the lights and increase the volume, or they can stand back and allow the lights to return to a resting state and the audio to a faint hum.

The exhibition is happening in the Roloff Beny Gallery and Thorsell Spirit House at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) until February 2, 2014.

For more information, visit rom.on.ca