Pyro Futures

A row of postcards leans on a shelf against an olive-green wall. In front, a bobcat in a yellow firefighter’s helmet looks out from a white card that reads “PLEASE! Only you can fund prescribed fires.” Beside it, cards read “We Can Burn It” and “… our part.”
Two smiling people stand in a gallery before a long glass case of photographs, a hanging yellow jacket, and a large map washed in yellow and green, the colors of dry hills and fire risk. Visitors browse in the background.
Title
Pyro Futures
Artist/Creator
Brett Milligan
Emily Schlickman
Description
An exhibition at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis, on how fire and fire stewardship could reshape California's landscapes. It was created by UC Davis landscape architecture and environmental design professors Brett Milligan and Emily Schlickman and grew from their book Design by Fire: Resistance, Co-Creation, and Retreat in the Pyrocene (2023). Built in collaboration with artists and ecologists, it gathered images and objects on the history of wildfire in the western United States, including firefighting helmets and burnt objects, a projected video of prescribed burns, and a large glass case staging three possible fire futures, ranging from Indigenous land stewardship and cultural burning reshaping the U.S. Forest Service to worsening megafires if emissions go unchecked. Visitors pinned their homes on a large map of high fire-risk zones, shared their own experiences of wildfire in journals, and took home fire-themed postcards proposing alternatives to Smokey Bear, among them Burnie the Bobcat, a mascot who would light good fires rather than fight them. A billboard on Interstate 80 between Sacramento and Davis carried the message “Only you can decide our fiery future,” and an online journal at pyrofutures.com extended the conversation beyond the museum.
Event Type
Exhibition
Date
January – June 16, 2024
Location
Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis, Davis, California
Organizer
Created by Brett Milligan and Emily Schlickman, professors of landscape architecture and environmental design, UC Davis
Affiliated Organizations
Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art
Geographic Scope
Statewide
Climate & Ecology Themes
Fire
Land Stewardship and Conservation
Indigenous Knowledge and Sovereignty
Adaptation and Resilience
Discipline / Field
Arts & Design
Natural Sciences
Interdisciplinary
Concepts
Speculative Futures and Imagination
Care and Reciprocity
Ecological Domain / Habitat
Urban / Wildland Interface
Conifer / Mountain Forest
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Community
Methods & Approaches
Speculative / Futures Practice
Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Participatory Research
Rights
Rights held by artist or creator
Website
UC Davis Magazine
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Davis
Media
A row of postcards leans on a shelf against an olive-green wall. In front, a bobcat in a yellow firefighter’s helmet looks out from a white card that reads “PLEASE! Only you can fund prescribed fires.” Beside it, cards read “We Can Burn It” and “… our part.”Brett Milligan and Emily Schlickman, Pyro Futures 1
Two smiling people stand in a gallery before a long glass case of photographs, a hanging yellow jacket, and a large map washed in yellow and green, the colors of dry hills and fire risk. Visitors browse in the background.Brett Milligan and Emily Schlickman, Pyro Futures 2