“Protest: Climate Strike” is the latest in the screaMachine “Protest” series, started in 2003. It is a street intervention projection performance work featuring an array of semi-animated films, shot at the September 2019 Climate Strike protest in NYC. It was enacted on the weekend of the second Climate Strike protests in December 2019, staged to coincide with the UN COP25 climate conference in Madrid, Spain.

The set of films were set up guerrilla style by a crew of six, projecting on the Con Edison power plant in lower Manhattan, creating a virtual reenactment of the Climate Strike protest on the structure of an institution which profits from the burning of fossil fuels to the detriment of our environment and the future of our planet. The imposing razor wire topped defensive walls of the structure were co-opted to become a moving, living criticism of the institution, and a reinforcement of the voice of the public demanding change. The projections were accompanied by an eight-part soundtrack created by sampling the various chants recorded at the Climate Strike march. The projected wall was constructed by a set of eight projectors and each of the eight sections had its own soundtrack, looping a number of protest chants. The entire block was taken over with the projections and chanting, creating an ephemeral space that could be viewed from afar or participated in, by entering in the activated space and experiencing the different sets of chanting as you walk down the block: while you experience this space, between the projectors and the wall, your body throws its moving shadow on the wall, entering the moving scenes and interacting with them, conflating the difference between recorded and live and actively involving the audience, viewing and participating.