Transcript of the Project Video is below. To view/hear the video click here.
[ocean wave sounds]
>> ZACH PINE: I’m Zach Pine, a socially-engaged environmental artist based in California.
Sand globes worldwide is my project using sand globe making as a way to connect people all over the planet to coastal areas and to each other. I see this as a foundation for creative and collaborative environmental action.
About one in three people live within sixty miles of an ocean coast, and coastal ecosystems are vital to so many living things. But coastal areas face threats like sea level rise, flooding from extreme weather, pollution, habitat loss due to development, and sand mining. People take care of what they love, so strengthening our bonds with coastal areas is critical to caring for coasts and for our entire planet.
In 2000, I took a nap on a beach. In the moments of waking up, I dreamed of drops of water, perfect spheres, shining against a blue sky. I was inspired to go to the shore and start tossing ocean water and wet sand in the air, to reproduce those spheres. I realized that by using the right proportion of sand and water, I could create a sand globe: a self-forming sphere, liquid while in the air, but firm enough to catch and to make bigger by adding more sand and water. I made over a hundred sand globes that day, and used them to call attention to a nearby rock.
As I visited different beaches, I began to understand the creative potential in sand globe making.
People I encountered on the beach wanted to learn how to make them, and I started seeing the intensity of the positive emotional reactions that people had as we created with sand globes together.
I saw the power in the playful social interactions that came from playing catch with the globes in the process of making them.
I saw how universal human affinities… for the earth, social connection, beauty, creativity, and play… made it easy to overcome social, cultural, and language barriers.
I’ve incorporated sand globe making in many of my local community art-making events, partnering with local environmental groups, land stewards, the National Park Service, and local park districts. Combining sand globe art-making with beach cleanup work has been an exciting way to link collective creativity and environmental action.
I’ve spread sandglobing worldwide through the website sandglobes.org, and using social media. People all over the world have posted their own photos and videos using the hashtag sandglobes. Many people have commented that they were surprised that they could learn to make sand globes by just watching my short how-to video, which includes no spoken language. Links to that video are featured on the website and the sand globes social media accounts.
Here are some images and messages that I’ve received from around the world:
>> RENATO BRANCALEONI: I love making sand globes in groups. It helps people to understand that life is an ephemeral thing.
>> MARY BARNSDALE: Making sand globes is really simple and it’s surprising and it’s fun and educational, and it’s really touching. It takes something we mostly overlook, which is sand, which sort of stands in for the planet all around us, and it just lets us craft it into these whimsical, ephemeral globes. It teaches us to be present in nature and to be present with other people, and to value the whole process of creation as much as the result.
>> CHRISTOPHE GARCIA: Making sand globes is connecting to the power of life.
>> TUDOR CRIS: When you form and give something shape with your hands, something that you just grab from the earth underneath you, and you give a shape and that turns into a sphere, into a sand globe, to me it’s healing.
I’ve been thrilled that others have begun hosting sand globe gatherings around the world. For example, in Colombia, South America, Carolina Duncan-Page included sand globe making in an event with children from the beach conservation group Guardianes de la Playa.
Children and adults have an innate affinity for nature and the planet. But the planet’s at risk, partly due to alienation from the natural world and each other. And also because we’ve used the earth as a resource rather than a beloved habitat. I hope that this project will help strengthen our connection to the planet, and inspire creative and communal environmental action.
[ocean wave sounds]
>> ZACH PINE: I’m Zach Pine, a socially-engaged environmental artist based in California.
Sand globes worldwide is my project using sand globe making as a way to connect people all over the planet to coastal areas and to each other. I see this as a foundation for creative and collaborative environmental action.
About one in three people live within sixty miles of an ocean coast, and coastal ecosystems are vital to so many living things. But coastal areas face threats like sea level rise, flooding from extreme weather, pollution, habitat loss due to development, and sand mining. People take care of what they love, so strengthening our bonds with coastal areas is critical to caring for coasts and for our entire planet.
In 2000, I took a nap on a beach. In the moments of waking up, I dreamed of drops of water, perfect spheres, shining against a blue sky. I was inspired to go to the shore and start tossing ocean water and wet sand in the air, to reproduce those spheres. I realized that by using the right proportion of sand and water, I could create a sand globe: a self-forming sphere, liquid while in the air, but firm enough to catch and to make bigger by adding more sand and water. I made over a hundred sand globes that day, and used them to call attention to a nearby rock.
As I visited different beaches, I began to understand the creative potential in sand globe making.
People I encountered on the beach wanted to learn how to make them, and I started seeing the intensity of the positive emotional reactions that people had as we created with sand globes together.
I saw the power in the playful social interactions that came from playing catch with the globes in the process of making them.
I saw how universal human affinities… for the earth, social connection, beauty, creativity, and play… made it easy to overcome social, cultural, and language barriers.
I’ve incorporated sand globe making in many of my local community art-making events, partnering with local environmental groups, land stewards, the National Park Service, and local park districts. Combining sand globe art-making with beach cleanup work has been an exciting way to link collective creativity and environmental action.
I’ve spread sandglobing worldwide through the website sandglobes.org, and using social media. People all over the world have posted their own photos and videos using the hashtag sandglobes. Many people have commented that they were surprised that they could learn to make sand globes by just watching my short how-to video, which includes no spoken language. Links to that video are featured on the website and the sand globes social media accounts.
Here are some images and messages that I’ve received from around the world:
>> RENATO BRANCALEONI: I love making sand globes in groups. It helps people to understand that life is an ephemeral thing.
>> MARY BARNSDALE: Making sand globes is really simple and it’s surprising and it’s fun and educational, and it’s really touching. It takes something we mostly overlook, which is sand, which sort of stands in for the planet all around us, and it just lets us craft it into these whimsical, ephemeral globes. It teaches us to be present in nature and to be present with other people, and to value the whole process of creation as much as the result.
>> CHRISTOPHE GARCIA: Making sand globes is connecting to the power of life.
>> TUDOR CRIS: When you form and give something shape with your hands, something that you just grab from the earth underneath you, and you give a shape and that turns into a sphere, into a sand globe, to me it’s healing.
I’ve been thrilled that others have begun hosting sand globe gatherings around the world. For example, in Colombia, South America, Carolina Duncan-Page included sand globe making in an event with children from the beach conservation group Guardianes de la Playa.
Children and adults have an innate affinity for nature and the planet. But the planet’s at risk, partly due to alienation from the natural world and each other. And also because we’ve used the earth as a resource rather than a beloved habitat. I hope that this project will help strengthen our connection to the planet, and inspire creative and communal environmental action.