The notion of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ (climate) media is inherently subjective. I will be exploring this notion by examining Childish Gambino’s song and music video, Feels Like Summer as an implicitly effective media product that explores a climate changing world. I’ll also be examining a National Geographic video which explicitly addresses climate change but which is ineffective and inaffective. In terms of ‘effective’, I will draw on Jem Bendell’s Climate Adaptation paper where he emphasises the importance of an ‘affective’ media practice, including the concept of a ‘useful hope’ (2018, p. 15). I’ll also explore the way climate change is portrayed as a hyper object, through Timothy Morton’s text (2013). These works will also be applied to the ‘ineffective’ media product.
Childish Gambino – Feels Like Summer
Gambino’s 2018 music video is explicitly a celebration of African American culture. An animated Gambino walks through an Atlanta, Georgia neighbourhood during a hazy summer day while passing by many prominent figures in celebrity culture including Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, Andre 300, Oprah, and Kanye West. The look, sound, and feel of the video however, is sombre. The beat moves slowly, just like an uncomfortably hot summer day and the hues are sucked out of the video’s colour, depicting purposely hazy and polluted surroundings. It pervades the entire video, save for a section when the background becomes entirely black, engulfing and revealing more characters. At the same time, the video seems a purposeful distraction from the disquieting lyrics. A mixture of both a carefree attitude, and a worried one for the state of the world.
You can feel it in the streets
On a day like this, the heat
It feel like summer
(I feel like summer)
I feel like summer
Every day gets hotter than the one before
Running out of water, it’s about to go down
Go down
Air that kill the bees that we depend upon
Birds were made for singing, wakin’ up to no sound
No sound
Timothy Morton defines hyper objects as “entities that are massively distributed in time and space…we find ourselves inside them, part of them yet not part of them” (2013, p. 39), climate change being an example of such an object. We coexist with this entity that is so much bugger than us, can affect us so easily, yet we do not and will probably never comprehend it fully. Gambino evokes this sense of uncertainty and anxiety through his summer’s multi-faceted meanings. Summer is a time for joy and play and dance, but its increase in temperature is a reminder of a problem much bigger than us, but which encapsulates us all. It’s also merely a momentary encounter with an effect of climate change, not a direct encounter with the actual hyper object, which is in itself impossible. This feeling is further evoked through the colour of the video. The aura of pollution is oppressive and inescapable throughout the entire run-time, except through Gambino’s day dream, which sees his contemplative or crying heroes engulfed by a void of darkness. Timothy describes art in relation to hyper objects as exploring “the irony of relationships between beings” (p. 44). The climate in Gambino’s video is intertwined with the appearance of the various celebrities – celebrity culture being a huge characteristic of the Anthropocene in the contemporary world. That we as a society value celebrity culture to an extent that it can so easily distract us from the much bigger hyper object of climate change evokes that very relationship, which aesthetically, the music video encapsulates beautifully.
Gambino’s song and music video therefore evokes a certain despair, “I’m hoping that this world will change/But it just seems the same/I know”, but pairs it with a carefree, almost whimsical rhythm. It seems in line with Jem Bendell’s theory of hopelessness as useful in processing climate change (2018, p. 15). This despair allows us to slow down, to process our ‘climate grief’ and begin to look for other avenues of alternative hope (p. 15). It provokes reflection – on ourselves, on our culture, and on the music itself.
Causes and Effects of Climate Change | National Geographic
This example is much more explicit in its portrayal of climate change, with its main purpose to educate on climate change causes and consequences. It’s a video made from compiled footage with narrational dialogue. I would like to bring up an argument that fact-based media on climate change is not always engaging because of the uncertainty related to the science. James Painter states, “Some academics argue that climate change needs to be re-framed away from the technical uncertainties in the science and more towards the risks to society” (2013, p. 8). The video seeks to give a brief and engaging lesson in climate science. It is aesthetically pleasing to watch, with its graphics and footage, and very accessible – broadcasting it through YouTube. I argue that its engagement however, goes no further than this, and in turn, is not an affective media product.
The video fails to acknowledge the radical uncertainty that comes with climate science, and thus fails to engage with it as a hyper object. It presents climate change as still solvable, yet acknowledges how we are already feeling its effects. This is counterintuitive and an indication of what Bendell calls interpretative denial (2018, p. 16). The video indicates interpretative denial because of its presentation of information. The weight of the facts is downplayed by the lively music and upbeat narration. It follows the logic that “to discuss the likelihood…of social collapse due to climate change is irresponsible because it might trigger hopelessness amongst the general public” that Bendell condemns (p. 14). The upbeat and hopeful tone in the video makes it useless for provoking further action. It doesn’t appeal to individuals’ place in a climate changing world. It’s merely an onslaught of information with no affective appeal.
Sara Ahmed poses that “emotions play a crucial role in the “surfacing” of individual and collective bodies” (2004, p. 117). To promote some sort of action on climate change, whether that’s self-reflection or mobilising to attend climate strikes, it is important to appeal to emotions and the core of why we do the things we do. While the video does a good job in briefly educating its audience, it lacks personability and refuses to directly implicate the viewer as Bendell’s text does for example. Perhaps it could be made into a longer video, and include interviews with scientists and ordinary people. Where Gambino’s song and music video provoke (self-)reflection, the National Geographic video doesn’t leave much room for in depth exploration nor does it provoke the viewer to set out on their own further research. While it is explicit in its depicting of climate change, it fails to be effective or affective in its depiction.
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Reference List:
Ahmed, S 2004, ‘Affective Economies’, Social Text (79), vol. 22, no. 2, p.117-139.
Bendall, J 2018, Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy, Jem Bendell, accessed online, <https://jembendell.com/2019/05/15/deep-adaptation-versions/>.
Donald Glover 2018, Childish Gambino – Feels Like Summer (Official Music Video), YouTube, 2 September, viewed 19 March 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1B9Fk_SgI0>.
Morton, T 2013, ‘Poisoned ground: art and philosophy in the time of hyper objects’, symploke, vol. 21, no. 1-2, pp. 37-50.
National Geographic 2017, Causes and Effects of Climate Change | National Geographic, YouTube, 28 August, viewed 20 March 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4H1N_yXBiA>.
Painter, J 2013, ‘Introduction: ‘Even ostriches need third party insurance’’, in Climate Change in the Media: Reporting Risk and Uncertainty, University of Oxford, p. 1-10.