In partnership with area environmental activist organizations, Buffalo Arts Studio presents the panel discussion, “New Polluters” featuring artists, academics, and grassroots activists discussing the environmental impact of cloud computing and crypto-mining on our community. The panel will include exhibiting artists Joan Linder and Stephanie Rothenberg as well as North Tonawanda resident Deb Gondek who advocated for the two-year moratorium on new operations and the expansion of existing data centers. Environmental Justice Organizer Bridge Rauch with Clean Air Coalition of WNY will also serve as a panelist. Rauch has a Master’s of Regional Planning from SUNY Albany and has worked extensively in Buffalo’s non-profit sector, including at The Service Collaborative of WNY, Preservation Buffalo-Niagara, and the Coalition for Economic Justice. Also on the panel is Elizabeth Cute, Sr. Program Manager with Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper. Cute oversees place-based environmental justice programming for high school students, water quality monitoring programs, and leads PFAS and Plastic Pollution Prevention policy and advocacy efforts. 

The panel expands upon the work in the two exhibitions currently on display at Buffalo Arts Studio; Fulfillment by Joan Linder and Aquadisia by Stephanie Rothenberg. Linder’s drawings examine local aspects of the hidden-in-plain-sight landscape of e-commerce, cloud computing, and crypto-mining. Rothenberg’s Aquadisia is a multimedia installation that explores the ethical and economic contradictions of biotechnology within the fields of marine science and environmental conservation. These exhibitions are part of Waterfront View, a series of exhibitions, workshops, and panel conversations that examine how late-stage capitalism has shifted the view of water and waterways from a resource of collective benefit to a commodity of individual interest and shareholder profit. 

For more information about Buffalo Arts Studio, please visit www.buffaloartsstudio.org