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See other Writings ...And the Future is Now (III)by artists and supporters of this movement (2003) Tim Collins, Henry Corning, Aviva Rahmani, Laura Audrey Part (I) Introduction, Debbie Mathew, Jim Cummings, Lillian Cooper, and Shan Wells, Part (II) John K. Grande, Michael Vitti, Marion Weber/Danny and Sandra Hobson, Peter Fend, Part (IV) Perceiving Nature by Jim Nollman
_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ The Future: Could it be Ecohumanist* Arts? We can no longer take nature for granted, its ability to maintain itself in the background, while humanity lives in the cultural foreground. We could describe the innocence of that recent period of background nature, as a second Eden. In the original garden, Adam and Eve only had to bite the apple, to acquire cultural awareness, and learn what they had lost. Today within what was what I would call a second Eden, we have consumed the entire tree, poisoned the soil and changed the climate of the garden. Consumption is once again, the path taking us to the point, where we realize what have lost. Moving away from Eden-1, we found cultural awareness, which we believed was separate from nature. Moving away from the conditions that were Eden-2, we may find a new awareness, that moves toward a fusion of humanity with nature, that results in a single consciousness. We could call this new consciousness, ecohumanism (Tapp, 2002), whereby we become responsible for the restoration, healing and long term health of nature as an extension of the human condition.
I am interested in the tools that we have at hand, the concepts and approaches that shift our awareness, perception and thinking in important and positive ways. What are the concepts and practices, that can move us toward the ecohumanist position? The question of nature is increasingly addressed by a range of radical interests, radical in their intent to change the social relationship to nature, through positions based in, art, theater, philosophy, social activism, science and policy intervention. Can art also provide tools for society? It surely can, although most of us in the United States have little understanding of art as a modern area of knowledge. The contributions of art are often lost in a misguided perception of a recent period of expressive autonomy. The freedom to say anything to no one. At the same time, most of us with an interest in the environmental question, have a sense of the historic contributions that artists and authors have made to the evolving idea and perception of nature. There is a good chance, that works by Muir and Thoreau; Lorraine and Monet; Claude, Church and Audubon have had some impact upon our understanding of nature. The contemporary artists Robert Smithson (an original thinker in earth art) or Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison (original thinkers in ecological art) are less likely to impact our public education or pop-social realms of experience and learning. The meaning of art has changed radically in the last 100 years. At this moment in time, the word art standing alone refers to the artist's production framed by the authorizing reaction of institutional support, and an impact upon the viewer that demands intellectual and/or material consideration. What sounds like madness to the gatekeepers of another discipline is actually the strongest point of the fine-arts approach to knowledge. Without a deep institutional relationship to "knowing the world" in a specific way, we have the liberty to imagine, and dream the world in new ways. Theorists and philosophers as diverse as Kant (1886/1983), Gablik, (1984), Kosuth (1991), and Danto (1997) have raised issues about the "the end of art" as we know it, but few outside the discipline recognize this condition. (Our subject has been art itself.) I would argue that art, has reached the end of the reductionist pathway ahead of most other disciplines. I would argue that we are now reconsidering art and its relationship to knowledge, as well as its relationship to the world. The ecological artist has incredible potential to participate in the post-industrial project of ecohumanism. Humanity has lost its relationship to nature, (it has faded into the background) during the industrial period, what is the role the arts can play in response to this loss? Artists with a knowledge and passion for new cultural concepts, have always been on the forefront of metaphorical and symbolic knowledge. I would argue that metaphoric knowledge is the root of a paradigmatic understanding. Contemporary artists are comfortable with complex ideas and their affect on human perception. Artists understand the impact of systems with a good interface, as well as what happens when interface is lost. Perception can be enabled or constrained by interface and human values follow perception, framed within known concept models. Like the contemporary aesthetic philosophers, artists have to slip some of the bonds of history, and think carefully about how to define interdisciplinary practice and what it means to act upon these ideas in the world. In the world, rather than in the laboratories of the gallery, the stage or other frames that support and maintain the historical subject-object dissonance. In a society dominated by science, (which expands and defends what we know based upon a foundation of knowledge) the arts have to develop new critical and strategic tools to act upon society. We need to create a supportive interdisciplinary community of creative individuals that are committed to, and take responsibility for positive shifts in the "culture of nature". We also have to be responsible for the knowledge and impact of our work, across disciplines. In the interdisciplinary model, we find new reasons to think about the efficacy and impact of the artist, at the same time we must consider how we make these arguments in the context of a discipline that denies a foundation approach to knowledge, the cultural value of the arts lie in its ability to question the canon, the rules, principles and standards that both confine and authorize the thinking of other disciplines. This is not an issue of comparative value, but rather one of complimentary value. (A concept more eloquently argued by Adorno.) The future of environmental art - is a fusion of practice and theory. Nature is dynamic, no longer defined in terms of equilibrium or climax, diversity and ecosystem health are aesthetic conditions. The subject object-relationship between humanity and nature is in massive flux. This is the fundamental interdisciplinary problem of this century that has to be answered. Artists can help with new metaphors and approaches to interface, experience and perception. Some artists will shift from a mono-discipline of critical-expression to an interdiscipline of critical-tranformative agency. The dominant ecosystem of art will sustain. Over time niches will emerge in relationship to nutrients like the greenmuseum, from foundations and institutions that recognize the transformative potential of the ecoarts practices and theories. Over time diverse-FUTURES may unfold.
Sections of this text are excerpted From: Art Nature and Aesthetics in the Post Industrial Public Realm To be Published in: "Healing Natures, Repairing Relationships: New Voices on Restoring Ecological Spaces and Consciousness", Editor Robert France, MIT Press 2003. Notes: * I came across this term, as a natural part of the inquiry, thinking and wordplay that occurs while writing. Realizing its obvious logical application I did a little research and discovered that Ecohumanism is a concept that has emerged in the humanist literature. A very brief overview of that literature indicates that it has a more anthropocentric and theologic intention, in that context. Without getting into a detailed analysis of the term, its definitions, and its emergent literature, what seems to be consistent is the sense of limits and responsibility which emerge from an integration of nature and culture. I intend to think more about this in the future, considering the position of fusion rather than integration and what that means in terms of the artists work on issues of individual perception, values and impact on society and politics. The text that I found most relevant to the concept, is Robert B. Tapp, Ecohumanism: Vol 15, of Humanism Today, Prometheus Books, N.Y..
References:
Adorno, T., W. Aesthetic Theory. trans. Hullot-Kentor, R., University of
Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN., (1997) 231p
Danto, A.,C., (1997) After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of
History, the A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1995, Bollingen Series
XXXV: 44, Princeton University Press, New Jersey
Gablik, S., (1984) Has Modernism Failed?, Thames and Hudson, New York, N.Y
Kosuth, J., (1993) Art After Philosophy and After: Collected Writings,
1966-1990, MIT Press, Cambridge Mass.
Tapp, R.B., (2002) Ecohumanism: Vol 15, of Humanism Today, Prometheus
Books, N.Y.
_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Human consumption has put such pressure upon natural resources that a growing anxiety has caused us everywhere to question our fundamental cultural assumptions. What is prosperity? What do we know? What is sacred? Of these three, the first is largely addressed by business, the second by science and the third by art. OK, you may say with the first two, but with respect to the third, surely religion has a stronger role in defining the sacred. An artist cannot claim to tell the passionate religious scholar anything about God's truth and wisdom. My answer to this is that all religions are complexes of spoken and written word, images and icons. Religions are themselves cultural artifacts, works of art. Artists manifest sacred symbols. The singer manifests the soul's songs. Art is presently tasked to refresh our sacred symbols. How will this happen? What will it be like in coming years? It will have a stronger and stronger connection to the natural world and its needs. What we call environmental art will just be art. Our visual arts will be less and less decorative and more and more functional. The term functional itself will refer more and more to natural process and less and less to artificial intervention. Beauty itself will have a greater and greater component of wildness in it - a natural wildness instead of the kind represented by human cultural conflict. This transformation of art is well underway and is irresistible.
_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Patience & passion are hard to marry. I had expected to be in St Louis for Earth Day, installing my "Confluence" project there. But the bids aren't in yet and the delays may take us till the Fall for the planting. I used to get very upset about such "normal to public art" delays. Now I know better. When I look out my window at the new shoots and even, yes, blooms appearing at this time of year in Maine, I know that I'm exactly where I'm meant to be, inhaling the intoxicating perfumes of Spring, remembering why and how I became an Ecological artist. This afternoon, instead of packing for a trip, I'm slaving over a little drawing for our local Garden Club's yearbook, of the installation I designed for our Ferry terminal. That is part of being an Ecological artist as much as knowing what plants to place where for what reason or the politics & red tape of commissions. As I wandered thru my day today, I considered the difference between large public works and small incremental actions in Ecological art. Which is ultimately more effective depends on the circumstances of course. But the original Earth Day was a very simple idea: to celebrate and nurture this planet.
We have come a long ways from that point today as Ecological artists. We have a broad range of practitioners, philosophies, awards, stars and exhibition records. What I might want for our future is the continuing plurality of vision that has already emerged, the multi-cultural expansion of expression that is perhaps faltering in mainstream perception and the firing of the greater public imagination about the power of this genre. I think as we individually mature in our work it will be easier for the public to follow the trajectories we are defining. As students of those of us who teach emerge in the field, they will carry the message horizontally. This will take patience to watch develop. We will no doubt be somewhat co-opted or even corrupted as we go along. Some of us will be more effective voices for our times than others. The political coalitions that arise may or may not effectuate more rapid change. In the end, I think it will be the individual passion that carries the day and bears fruit for the earth.
_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Koyaanisqatsi (Life out of balance.) I used to imagine, back in the 1970's and 80's that we were all on a kind of track. The world was gradually improving. The ecology movement, which artists helped popularize, was evolving and strengthening. I thought that the Information Age and the Internet were going to unite the world and give us all the possibility of having the same and latest information about the state of our planet. I thought the Information Age would naturally become the Age of Consciousness. The problem is, there are always setbacks. We have this little problem that a huge proportion of the world's population does not have enough to eat and/or has life-threatening diseases. A smaller proportion of the world can afford to spend its resources on everything from bombs to Viagra to liposuction. Greed is the dominant state of mind for all kinds of people. I agree that the way out is to imagine the future. The ultimate future would be one in which Ecology was a given in the same way that a person takes care of their body and home. We would all come from the point of view of the earth as a whole rather than nationalism or religion. Countries would be regarded as states of the earth and their ethnic and cultural differences would be cherished but not seen as the primary focus. People would consider the eco-system, the zoo and the Museum of Antiquities before invading another country. There would be a great deal of cooperation between the states of the world. Animals would be given a higher status. There would be enough protein for everyone without killing any animals. No-one would think about cutting down all the trees or killing gorillas because they would have sufficient resources for survival on their own. There would be universal health care and we would outlaw all forms of campaign contributions. Rich people would pay their fair share of taxes. There would be no SPAM or telephone marketing. Drugs could not be advertised on television. The MIT OCW project putting all of its course material on the internet would result in the upgrading of education all over the planet. The results of the successful Genome project will mean that all serious illnesses will be eradicated, one by one. Do you remember when we used to worry about the population explosion? This is a problem if people don't have enough to eat. We learned to balance the ratio between population and resources. We succeeded in developing an alternative fuel for our transportation. The focus of our desire for oil and gas in the Middle East gradually lessened and our relationship with the people there shifted into cooperation instead of exploitation. The Arab Sultans lost some of their power and were forced to share their wealth with their countrymen as they did in the early days. The Koreans have enough to eat and stopped threatening the rest of the world with nuclear bombs. I am not nor have I ever been very political but my sense of urgency is increasing. I think the ecoart group has a lot of potential power if we only knew how to use it.
_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________
...Part (II)"
...Part (III)"
...Part (IV)" So what do you think? Join the ongoing discussion in the Forum...
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