Elephant in the Room

A cross-disciplinary semester project by Olivia Cavallari, Wendy Joo and Marcus Kautz

The expression Elephant in the Room is used as a starting point to research the biodiversity crisis and how humans are its drivers, that means: humans are the problem that needs to be addressed. Today we are facing the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs as a direct result of human activities. The present research focuses on two topics, biodiversity hotspots and the impact of ongoing urbanization. Many big cities are built on vastly rich natural land and our way of life greatly impacts them, while at the same time creating distance between human and nature. At the end of the research, the GCSD students developed an artistic concept and presented it in a rally that happened in Vienna’s city center to address the topics.

Photos: © Katharina Gsöllpointner + Elisabeth Kopf