Michele Calvello: Landslide Risk, Art and Society

Art objects affect the perceptions and emotions of people, and can thus become very powerful tools for conveying important messages about dangers, natural risks, and (in relation to the theme of this exhibition) landslides. It is clear that this aspect does not represent the main intention of any artwork, yet some of them may be "adorned" with this secondary effect and can be usefully perceived, appreciated, and utilized by educators in the fields of natural sciences and engineering when they wish to discuss the topic of risk in an unorthodox way within their respective subjects. Drawing and painting are artistic forms that can adapt to this purpose and can be utilized most easily for it. "A thousand words do not leave as deep an impression as a single deed," allegedly said the famous 19th-century Norwegian playwright and artist, Henrik Ibsen – and he can therefore be considered the originator of the widely used expression: a picture is worth a thousand words. My lecture will take advantage of this saying by presenting and commenting on a number of well-known as well as lesser-known depictions from artworks illustrating landslides and the way they have influenced or currently influence communities in various parts of the world. It will be a journey through time and space, during which different perspectives and the sensitivity of individual artists will allow me to address many various aspects that characterize these complex phenomena, as well as the risks they pose to society. From a technical perspective, risk can be expressed in terms of its possible impacts (such as loss of life and destroyed or damaged property), which are determined using probability as a function of hazard, extent, and vulnerability. However, risk is also a personal, cultural, and social entity that cannot be limited only to the technical domain, as topics such as risk perception, risk acceptability, or even risk creation are deeply rooted in the psychological and cognitive private experiences of a given person, as well as in the collective culture that the given community expresses at a certain time and place. The "where" and "when" therefore become essential for understanding and addressing the risk (of landslides) as well as the "what" that characterizes natural phenomena, and the "how" that defines their interactions with anthropogenic elements. The risk of landslides, art, and society will thus become research at the intersection of three thematic spheres of influence: technical, artistic, and cultural. Safe travels.

Michele Calvello is an associate professor of geotechnical engineering at the University of Salerno (Italy), where he currently teaches courses in Soil Mechanics and Landslide Risks, within the Bachelor's program in Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Master's program in Environmental Engineering and Soil Mechanics. In 1997, he graduated with honors in Civil Engineering from Università della Basilicata (Potenza, Italy) and then obtained his Ph.D. in 2002 from Northwestern University (Evanston, USA) with a dissertation on "Inverse analysis of reinforced excavations in glacial soils in the Chicago area." His research focuses primarily on the engineering analysis of boundary value problems in geotechnics and further on the analysis and management of landslide risks, both at the scale of individual slopes and entire regions, with particular attention to the following interdisciplinary topics: early warning systems for rainfall-induced landslides, landslide zoning, risk perception, risk education, and the resilience of individual communities. He is currently the coordinator of LARAM, an international school for Ph.D. students in Landslide Risk Assessment and Mitigation. He is also the secretary of the technical committee TC-306 Geo-Engineering Education and a member of the technical committees TC-304 Engineering Practice of Risk Assessment and Management and TC-309 Machine Learning and Big Data at the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. He is an editor of the scientific journal Natural Hazards and a member of the editorial boards of Rivista Italiana di Geotecnica and Geoenvironmental Disasters.

The lecture will take place at the headquarters of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Hall 108, Národní 3, Prague 1. The lecture is organized by the Gallery VI PER and Strategy AV21 as part of the exhibition Unstable Substrate.

The lecture will also be broadcast live via the YouTube channel of the Czech Academy of Sciences.