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Payson R. Stevens

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Payson R. Stevens
Born (1945-03-29) 29 March 1945 (age 79)
NationalityAmerican
EducationNew York University
City University of New York
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Occupation(s)Artist, writer, environmentalist, filmmaker, science communicator
Years active1972 onwards
Known for
  • Science communication in earth system science
  • Nature conservation in the United States and India
  • Art and poetry
Notable work
  • Antarctica: Desert of Ice, Sea of Life (1979)
  • Embracing Earth: New views of our changing planet (1992)
  • Meshuggenary: Celebrating the world of Yiddish (2002)
SpouseKamla K. Kapur
Websitehttps://www.paysonrstevens.com/
https://energylandscapes.com

Payson R. Stevens (born March 29, 1945) is an artist, writer, environmentalist, filmmaker, and science communicator from the United States. Stevens is regarded as a pioneer of science communication in the fields of earth systems science (ESS) and climate change in the U.S. He is also noted as an early digital and electronic visual artist, a painter, and a poet. In addition, he is known for his environmental and humanitarian work in California, US, and Himachal Pradesh, India.

Personal life and education

[edit]

Payson R. Stevens was born to Dr. Naomi Miller Coval-Apel, a noted New York dentist, and Eric Stevens.[1][2]

Stevens has a background in the arts, molecular biology, biological oceanography, and graphic design. He has a BA from New York University. He studied molecular biology for his masters at the City University of New York from 1965 to 1968. He also studied at the Arts Students League and the School of Visual Arts in New York City.[3] Later, Stevens completed some graduate work at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, under the guidance of Roger Revelle.[4]

Stevens is married to the Indian writer Kamla K. Kapur. They live in Del Mar, San Diego County, California.[5][6]

Science communication

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Stevens was a contributing consultant to the college textbooks Biology Today and Geology Today, published by CRM in 1972 and 1973 respectively.[3][7] Stevens was the writer for the documentary 'Antarctica: Desert of Ice, Sea of Life', which was broadcast by KPBS on November 19, 1979.[8][9] This documentary won the CINE Golden Eagle Award and the 1980 Silver Award at the U.S. Industrial Film Festival.[10]

In 1979, Stevens founded the company InterNetwork Inc. (INI) 'to provide to provide communication services to organizations wanting to convey scientific information to broader, lay audiences using a variety of media'.[11] In 1985, the Earth Science Systems Committee of NASA reached out to Stevens for help in engaging non-technical audiences, such as bureaucrats, politicians, and the general public, with the then nascent discipline of ESS. Stevens and his company INI prepared ESS material and a strategy to promote them. Some of the ESS topics Stevens/INI helped design and illustrate materials for included an introduction to ESS,[12] climate change,[13] space missions for oceanographic data,[14] El Nino,[15] and the ozone layer.[16] The techniques used in these materials and promotional strategy were more often associated with corporate marketing.[17] According to the historian of science Jenifer Barton, 'Payson Stevens's work helped transform ESS's products and various communication strategies into a science brand'.[18] Similar arguments about the significance of Stevens's work for ESS also appear in an interview of the earth scientist Berrien Moore III (2011), and in the Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences (2008).[19][20]

In 1989, Stevens presented the work of INI at Robert Redford's 'Sundance Symposium on Global Climate Change'.[21] In 1990, he delivered a TED talk on global warming.[22][23]

In 1993, Stevens's company INI received the John Wesley Powell Award from the United States Geological Survey.[24]

In 1994, INI went on to receive the Presidential Award for Design Excellence from President Bill Clinton.[25][26]

Later in the 1990s, InterNetwork Inc. evolved into a new company, called InterNetwork Media Inc.[25][3]

Nature conservation

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In the late 1970s, Stevens was involved in the public efforts to get certain tracts, marked for offshore oil drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf near San Diego, California, deleted on environmental grounds.[27]

In 2000, the volunteer group 'Friends of GHNP' was founded by Stevens and Sanjeeva Pandey, an Indian Forest Service officer who was then the director of the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP), located in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.[28] Stevens was a key player in Friends of GHNP, which put together the nomination dossier and spearheaded the application for a UNESCO World Heritage Site status for the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Himachal Pradesh, India.[29] In June 2014, GHNP became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[30][31]

Since 2021, Stevens has been involved in the public efforts to protect the bluffs and beach in Del Mar, California, along the Pacific Ocean.[6][32]

Humanitarian work

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Stevens was a founding member and board advisor of the non-governmental organization (NGO) 'My Himachal', formed in 2006. This NGO trained rural women as healthcare workers, organized traveling health fairs, and instituted a small education fund, all in a remote part of Himachal Pradesh, India.[33] For this work, Stevens was honored in 2008 by Project Concern International.[3][34]

Artwork

[edit]
  • In the 1960s, Stevens was a part of the Bread and Puppet Theatre in New York City.[35]
  • In 1983, his computer art titled 'Entropy' was featured at the SIGGRAPH 1983: Art Show in Detroit, Michigan.[36][37]
  • In October 2006, Roerich Memorial Museum and Art Gallery in Naggar, India, hosted an exhibition of Stevens's paintings, titled 'Flux and Flow'.[38]
  • In July 2007, Stevens's paintings were exhibited alongside those of Lotte Koch and Nele von Mengerhausen in the exhibition 'Alles im Fluss', at Tannerhof in Bayerischzell, Germany.[39]
  • In October 2007, the Government Museum and Art Gallery at Chandigarh, India, hosted an exhibition of Stevens's paintings, titled 'Energy Flows'. The paintings were based on the themes of the energy of flowing water, and the flows of the human soul through life and death.[40]
  • On August 3, 2008, Doordarshan, India's public service broadcaster, featured Steven's art and life in the Indian Himalayas, in a short film titled 'Energy Landscapes - The Art of Payson R. Stevens'.[41]
  • In February 2009, at the San Diego Museum of Art in California, Stevens gave a talk and showed a documentary he had made on the ancient Tabo monastery in Spiti valley, India, where he had been trapped with his wife for two weeks due to sudden snows in September 2008.[42]
  • In September 2009, the American Centre of the US Embassy in New Delhi, India, hosted an exhibition of Stevens's paintings, titled 'Dark Forest/Ghana Jungle'. The paintings were based on his reflections on the energy flows in deep, dark forests.[43]
  • In February 2010, the Southwestern College Art Gallery in Chula Vista, California, hosted an exhibition of Stevens's artwork from the 1970s onwards, titled 'Energy Landscapes'. This exhibition showcased Stevens's paintings, drawings, computer generated graphics, books and posters, and his work from InterActive Media.[44]
  • In 2015, Stevens's video poem 'Ajanta: Small Universe' was an Official Selection in the Delhi International Film Festival, India.[45] In the same year, his video poem 'Entropic Void' was featured on movingpoems.com.[46]
  • In 2015 and 2016, Stevens presented his video poems at the San Diego Museum of Art, California.[47][48]
  • In October 2016, Stevens's video poem 'Divine Spell' featured at the London International Short Film Festival.[49]
  • In 2017, four video poems by Stevens appeared in Atticus Review.[50]

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Stevens, P.R. 1979. OCS Drilling Process: San Diego Closses Ranks. Oceans, 4, pages 57–60.
  • Bailey, K.M., Francis, R.C. and Stevens, P.R., 1982. The life history and fishery of Pacific whiting, Merluccius productus. Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Centre.
  • Bernstein, R.L. and Stevens, P.R., 1986. Ocean remote sensing. Space science and applications: Progress and potential (A 87-30876 12-12). New York, IEEE Press, pp. 123–131.
  • Stevens, P.R. and Kelley, K.W., 1992. Embracing Earth: New views of our changing planet. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
  • Stevens, P.R. and Steinmetz, S., 2002. Meshuggenary: Celebrating the world of Yiddish. Simon and Schuster.
  • Stevens, P.R. 2010. You in the World. Tarang Press.
  • Stevens, P.R. 2015. The World in You. Tarang Press.

References

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  1. ^ Kay, Ernest (1972). The Two Thousand Women of Achievement. Melrose Press. ISBN 978-0-900332-24-1.
  2. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths COVAL, APEL, DR. NAOMI MILLER". The New York Times. 2000-12-01. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  3. ^ a b c d Chandok, Neha (2008-10-09). "Payson Stevens to be honored by PCI for his work with My Himachal". Hill Post. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  4. ^ Barton, Jenifer (2023). "Branding the Earth: Selling Earth system science in the United States, 1983-1988". Social Studies of Science. 53 (1): 49–80. doi:10.1177/03063127221122436. ISSN 0306-3127. PMC 9893296. PMID 36112799. S2CID 252235142.
  5. ^ "Bio - Kamla K. Kapur". kamlakkapur.com.
  6. ^ a b "Del Mar City Council Meeting Agenda, October 18, 2021 City Council Meeting, Information received after the council agenda was distributed". delmar.ca.us. 2021.
  7. ^ "50 Watts: An Artist's Interpretation of a Flashback: Biology Today 3". 50watts.com. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  8. ^ "Antarctica: Desert of Ice, Sea of Life". americanarchive.org.
  9. ^ Antarctica: Desert of Ice, Sea of Live- KPBS documentary 1979, 8 April 2018, retrieved 2023-03-09
  10. ^ "Class Notes - 62, Jeff Kirsch". Princeton Alumni Weekly. Princeton University Press. 1983.
  11. ^ Barton, Jenifer (2023). "Branding the Earth: Selling Earth system science in the United States, 1983-1988". Social Studies of Science. 53 (1): 57. doi:10.1177/03063127221122436. PMC 9893296. PMID 36112799. S2CID 252235142.
  12. ^ NASA Advisory Council Earth System Sciences Committee (1986). Earth System Science: A Program for Global Change. NASA.
  13. ^ Reports to the Nation on Our Changing Planet. University Center for Atmospheric Research. 1991.
  14. ^ Topex/Poseidon, a United States/France Mission: Oceanography from Space : the Oceans and Climate. NASA. 1992.
  15. ^ El Niño and Climate Prediction. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. 1994.
  16. ^ Albritton, Daniel L. (1992). Our Ozone Shield. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
  17. ^ Barton, Jenifer (2023). "Branding the Earth: Selling Earth system science in the United States, 1983-1988". Social Studies of Science. 53 (1): 56. doi:10.1177/03063127221122436. PMC 9893296. PMID 36112799.
  18. ^ Barton, Jenifer (2023). "Branding the Earth: Selling Earth system science in the United States, 1983-1988". Social Studies of Science. 53 (1): 71. doi:10.1177/03063127221122436. PMC 9893296. PMID 36112799. S2CID 252235142.
  19. ^ "Berrien Moore III Oral History". historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  20. ^ Wilson, W.S.; Lindstrom, E.J.; Apel, J. R. (2008). "Satellite oceanography, history, and introductory concepts". In J.H. Steele, K. K. Turekian & S. A. Thorpe (ed.). Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences (2nd ed.). Academic Press. p. 70.
  21. ^ Communication Art. Vol. 32. California: Coyne & Blanchard. 1990. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-9694432-0-9.
  22. ^ Alsop, Stewart (March 5, 1990). "Personal Computers Are Finally Becoming Good Enough for Art". Info World - the weekly for personal computing professionals. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. p. 106.
  23. ^ TED2-1990 Warning on Global Warming by Payson R. Stevens, 11 May 2014, retrieved 2023-03-09
  24. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Yearbook - Fiscal Year 1993 (PDF). United States Government Printing Office. 1994. p. 94.
  25. ^ a b "About InterNetwork Media". www.in-media.com. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  26. ^ New Media. HyperMedia Communications, Incorporated. 1994.
  27. ^ United States Congress House Select Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf (1979). O.C.S. Oversight of 1978 Amendments: Hearings Before the Select Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, First Session, on Oversight on the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act Amendments of 1978. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  28. ^ "Friends of GHNP". Great Himalayan National Park. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  29. ^ The Republic of India's Nomination of the Great Himalayan National Park for Inscription on the World Heritage List (PDF). 2011. p. 160.
  30. ^ Soofi, Mayank Austen (2014-07-26). "Himalayas | How green is my valley". mint. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  31. ^ IANS (2014-06-23). "Himachal park gets Unesco's heritage tag". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  32. ^ Concerned Citizens of Del Mar and Coastal Bluff Conservancy, Del Mar (2021). "Protect and Preserve Del Mar Bluffs and Beach" (PDF). sciencereport.
  33. ^ Fox, Marjorie; Hays, Steve; Cohen, David S., eds. (February 2010). "Payson Stevens: on India, Our Environment, and Art" (PDF). The Life Connection: 33–36.
  34. ^ Ghuman, Jagmeet Y. (October 15, 2008). "Environmentalist to be honoured in US". The Tribune.
  35. ^ Katoch, Avnish (2006-10-11). "Nicholas Roerich's 132nd birth anniversary". Hill Post. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  36. ^ "Brad de Graf, Payson Stevens: Entropy – ACM SIGGRAPH ART SHOW ARCHIVES". digitalartarchive.siggraph.org. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  37. ^ "SIGGRAPH 1983: Art Show – ACM SIGGRAPH ART SHOW ARCHIVES". digitalartarchive.siggraph.org. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  38. ^ "Development Report of International Roerich Memorial Trust from 01.01.2002 till 08.09.2012 - by Alena Adamkova". lebendige-ethik.net. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  39. ^ "Veranstaltungskalender Kultur und Brauchtum" (PDF). kulturvision-aktuell.de. 2007.
  40. ^ Katoch, Avnish (2007-10-10). "Payson Stevens exhibition at Chandigarh Museum and Art Gallery". Hill Post. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  41. ^ Payson Stevens on doordarshan_all.mp4, 26 April 2012, retrieved 2023-03-09
  42. ^ Katoch, Avnish (2009-01-20). "Payson Stevens talk at San Diego Museum of Art". Hill Post. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  43. ^ Dark forest_painting exhibition by artist Payson.R.Stevens, 12 January 2010, retrieved 2023-03-08
  44. ^ Katoch, Avnish (2010-01-17). "Energy Landscapes - The Art of Payson R. Stevens: A My Himachal Fund Raiser". Hill Post. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  45. ^ "Spiritual Messages-I : Ajanta: Small Universe". FilmFreeway. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  46. ^ Bonta, Dave (2015-06-22). "Entropic Void by Payson R. Stevens". Moving Poems. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  47. ^ "Messages from India". filmfreeway. 2015.
  48. ^ "Visions of Sacred India". filmfreeway. 2016.
  49. ^ "London International Short Film Festival 2016". Bermondsey Square. 2016-10-20. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  50. ^ Mullins, Matt (2017-09-22). "Four from Payson Stevens". Atticus Review. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
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