Background on Amplifier

Amplifier is a nonprofit design lab that builds art and media experiments to amplify the most important movements of our times.

They are based on the belief that in times of uncertainty--in times like these, when fear and misinformation attempt to divide us--art is more than beauty or decoration: It is a weapon and a shield. Art has the power to wake people up and serve as a catalyst for meaningful change. It is a megaphone for important but unheard voices that need amplifying. It is a bridge that can unite movements with shared values in ways other mediums cannot. Art gives us symbols to gather around, builds community, and helps us feel like we are not alone. But for all the tools art can be in this fight, for Amplifier it is a COMPASS. It points to the future we want to live in, and that we want our children to live in.

If we literally hold this art and carry it in front of us, if we hang it on our walls or in our windows, or we wear it on our chests for our family and neighbors and students to see, then we remind ourselves, and each other, of what we are building.

Together with the Campaign for Nature (CFN), Amplifier created a series of artworks to help raise awareness of the threats facing our natural world and to demand action from world leaders on the unfolding biodiversity crisis. We have a once in a generation opportunity to inspire major change in when world leaders meet for COP15 to make new conservation commitments to protect our planet. Scientists are urging adoption of an ambitious new goal: protect at least 30% of the planet by 2030.

This effort by Amplifier, on behalf of CFN, began with the commissioning a group of 5 artists to transform 10 iconic images from my National Geographic and other globally known photographers and culminated in a visual campaign urging the action by world leaders on 30x30. This is the result their work.