PETER G. TEREZAKIS
ASSOCIATE ARTS PROFESSOR|NYU TISCH
Merging Art, Science, and Climate Education
Since 2015, Peter Terezakis has organized a series of discussions at NYU, exploring critical themes related to climate and environmental issues. These panels have addressed a broad range of topics, These panels have explored a range of topics, including a discussion on climate refugees featuring Andrew Harper, the Special Adviser on Climate Action for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
In 2023, Terezakis launched the NYU Climate Change Film Festival, creating a platform for students to engage with climate-related topics through short films. The festival attracts submissions from students across NYU’s domestic and international academic sites, fostering a global dialogue on climate change. In 2025, the festival expanded to include students and alumni from both NYU and academic partner institutions within UArctic.
Following a field expedition to Greenland’s Helheim Glacier in 2019 with David and Denise Holland,, Terezakis developed a course to help students better understand the science of abrupt climate change and to create an informed artistic response to share what they have learned. Blending scientific inquiry with artistic expression, the course provides a strong foundation in climate science while equipping students with the practical knowledge and skills needed to navigate the ongoing climate crisis.
Terezakis’s decision to refocus his career on educating the next generation of artist-scientist storytellers was shaped by several pivotal events: BP oil spill; Naomi Oreskes book, Merchants of Doubt in 2010; the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster (which continues to release radioactive material); James Hansen’s 2012 TED Talk; and James Balog’s 2012 documentary Chasing Ice.
In response, he began teaching Green World in the Art and Public In response, he began teaching Green World in the Art and Public Policy department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2014. In 2021, the course transitioned to Tisch’s Open Arts department, where it is currently taught by Alex Ferris (IMDB), a former student of Green World.
Art and Technology:
A Legacy of Interactive Work
Terezakis’s artistic journey began in 1974 with the creation of interactive works rooted in technology. His early projects included biofeedback machines and ESP tester-trainers, which later evolved into electronic jewelry. By 1990, he was developing wall-mounted interactive constructions that responded to light, sound, temperature, and human presence.
During the following decade, Terezakis merged his expertise in electronics with participatory art, creating immersive installations that actively engaged audiences. Notable works include Psyche, the first gallery art installation controlled by a microcomputer, and The Montgomery Project, an exploration of interactivity, physical materials, and light within the architectural spaces of a building owned by the eponymous ad agency in Reading, Pennsylvania.
His 1995 sculpture Heart Beats Light marked the beginning of a series of temporary site-specific light installations in deserts, forests, and festivals. By 2007, this project evolved into a theatrical production, forming a core element of Sacred Sky Sacred Earth, which premiered in Alpine, California and has been staged in multiple locations in the United States as well as Latvia, Italy, and Norway.
In 2019 Heart Beats Light was included in Chandrika Tandon’s Shivoham at the Kennedy Center.