Society’s inaction in the face of the climate crisis is the inspiration behind the winner of this year’s Sustainability Prize at RCS.

Sound artist and doctoral candidate Jaime Díaz, also known as J, received the award for their submission, Songs Without Words for the End of the F*cking World. The piece was commissioned and written for Dr Sarah Watts who premiered it in Glasgow on February 2023.

“This piece explores sort of imagined landscapes for the end of the world due to climate crisis,” says Jaime, whose research focuses on how Latinx sound artists use their identities in their creative practices.

“The whole project is inspired by inaction that we’ve taken as a society. I think individually a lot of people are good at recycling or getting second-hand clothes but when we look at large corporations or governments, we seem to not be able to hold them accountable, no matter what we do. The piece is inspired by a lot of the anger that I feel towards my own government in the US.”

Originally from Colorado, Jaime has worked across theatre, dance, film and the concert stage in the US, Canada, Ghana and the UK.

The RCS Sustainability Prize, now in its second year, asks entrants to submit work that either evidences sustainable methods or outputs, engages with innovative practices and technologies or aligns with industry-specific or global sustainability goals.