Entering the Symbiocene: a theory-method framework to reverse Silent Spring
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This document proposes a theory-method framework called the "Symbiocene" to guide long-term ecological art practices. It discusses how such practices can build bridges between art, science, and local knowledge to promote more sustainable ways of living. However, these eco-social art practices remain marginal due to Western views that prioritize human concerns over ecology. The document advocates using Felix Guattari's concepts of "ecosophy" and "transversality" to better articulate how these practices can positively transform people's mental, social and environmental relationships through participatory projects that value diverse perspectives. It presents the "Hollywood Forest" as a case study to illustrate how such transversal practices can "softly subvert" uns
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Entering the Symbiocene: a theory-method framework to reverse Silent Spring
- 1. Entering the Symbiocene: a theory-method framework to reverse Silent Spring Cathy Fitzgerald | Ireland Mapping Spectral Traces 8: T h e P l a c e o f t h e W o u n d Maynooth College, Ireland 16-19 Oct 2016
- 2. outline how do we create relevant, engaging and inspiring ecological art practices to create values of living in more life-sustaining ways explore why important ecological art practices responding to these concerns remain on the margins of the contemporary art world discuss why my hybrid guiding theory-method framework is important
- 3. “…we live in the most destructiv e moment in 65 million years!” Brian Swimme, Professor of Integral Studies and evolutionary philosopher, The New Story, 2006
- 4. “There are opportunities even in the most difficult moments.” Dr. Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner, first woman in Africa to get a Ph.D and
- 5. living in the Anthropocene Harraway (2015) renames the Anthropocene as the Capitalocene, as it rests on the unsustainable advance of a globalised, extract- at-all costs capitalism
- 6. the Plantationocene industrial culture has simplified much of the planet’s living diversity into ‘slave’ monoculture plantations Image courtesy of Irish singer-songwriter Cathy Davy’s New Forest
- 7. we are living in a sociopathic society (Derber, 2014)
- 8. Albrecht (2016) writes how instead we must urgently value the mutual flourishing of all life He urges we must quickly adopt new thinking, life- enriching practices, and thus develop policies and a politics of mutualism entering the Symbiocen e Slovenian non-clearfell, mixed species fo
- 9. Cultural responses are crucial facts + culture = change societal behaviour Sacha Kagan and Volker Kirchberg, 2008
- 10. I’m particularly interested in creative practices that build bridges between art, science and other ways of knowing; that recognise the value of lived experience, local knowledges and the intrinsic rights of nonhuman communities to thrive photo: emily coghlan
- 11. long-term ecological art (eco-art) practices are valuable
- 13. 13 2008 interested neighbours and local Green Party Cllr. Malcolm Noonan, learn about about close to nature, non clearfell forestry from Jan Alexander ecological forestry: for the Symbiocene
- 14. Hollywood forest, Blackstairs Mountains, South Carlow, Ireland (2015) ‘the little wood that could...’
- 15. Valuable and inspiring long term eco-art practices remain marginal in the art world
- 16. why are eco-art practices not more common? ecology challenges the Western worldview. Beuys, in the 1980s declared everyone should be taught ecoliteracy, he understood it decenters the primacy of humankind and human concerns, of which much art is currently focused challenges the idea of the solitary individual, the artistic genius working
- 17. long term eco-art practice require skills of mutuality, deep listening, reciprocity I call such practices ‘eco-social art practice’
- 18. term, multi-constituent eco- art practices (Goto and Collins, 2016) This hinders recognition and limits understanding of such practices in contemporary art education and for non- artists working on such projects __________________ I began to see patterns in the aims of such practices and that these practices routinely involve similar key method stages.
- 19. New research: transdisciplinarity limits under-standing of eco- social art practices? __________________ Elliott (2012) briefly applied Guattari’s concept of transversality and ecosophy to ecological art practices significantly increases understanding why these practices routinely advance, ethical, aesthetic and political innovation and transformation for practitioners and multiple audiences
- 20. The Three Ecologies (1989) Guattari’s concept of transversality little understood for this context. is a significant means to articulate how new values arise transversally from projects that combine subjective lifeworld and
- 21. capitalism is sociopathic the environmental crisis was rooted in calcified mental and unquestioned social practices that capitalism seizes people’s minds as an ‘overcode’: that the politics of the left or right cannot defeat it and that a scientific - technological paradigm was gravely insufficient to counter its pervasiveness the utmost necessity to ‘re-make social practices’ and re-think politics, that we must move from a scientific to an ethico-aesthetic paradigm The late ecosocial activist- therapist-theorist and new media enthusiast, Félix Guattari (1930-1992)
- 22. Guattari’s ecosophy we need to advance “the three ecologies”, the mental, social and environmental spheres together, speaks to the aim and potential of long term eco-social art practices priorities I call ecological art practices “eco-social art practices”, to underline that these practices are not only about environmental restoration or resilience, but act politically as a form of creative resistance
- 23. ‘softly subverting’ the means to advance resistance to capitalism lay in micropolitical assemblages that operated transversally so my transversal practice aims to softly subvert the stranglehold of unsustainable, industrial monoculture forestry
- 24. sustainability is contingent, emergent an ever-evolving state that is enriched by democratic participation and different ways of knowing the world. Guattari’s ecosophy identifies the target, main components and potential of transversal practices
- 27. perceive/envision regions with fresh eyes and ears many ways of knowin (experiential)
- 28. Art-making is important stage in translating new experiential understandings And overall, it helps weave diverse activities into cohesive projects to engage and develop audiences many ways of knowin (artistic)
- 29. many ways of knowing (propositional/theoretica knowing)
- 30. Hollywood forest is a home to others participation and democrac (including the nonhuman)
- 31. participation and democrac (new policies)
- 32. Pioneers of long term ecological art practice, the Harrison’s have argued the most valuable outcome of their multi-constituent practice is ‘conversational drift’ - the new images, metaphors, changes in conversation such projects advance emergent form (it prioritises a communicative space)
- 33. Summary
- 34. Summarythe ecosophy - action research framework significantly improves the articulation of longterm eco-social art practices highlights their value and potential in and beyond the contemporary art field
- 36. Thank you! follow ‘the little wood that could’ at the research: https://ncad.academia.edu/CathyFitzgerald the transversal practice : www.hollywoodforest.com email: cathyart@gmail.com
Editor's Notes
- Good morning everyone, I wish to thank Karen for inviting me to share my art practice-theory research. I’m a New Zealander who has been living in Ireland these last 21 years. I have recently, just a few weeks ago in fact, defended my doctoral research in an oral exam so the ideas in this talk will be available shortly. I wish to discuss key ideas, with some examples from my practice, in talking about how art-led transversal practices can enable us to exit the ecocide of the anthropocene.
- Coming from an art practice perspective how do we create relevant, engaging and inspiring ecological art practice–how can we reflect, even reverse the ecocide, the Silent Spring caused by industrial land practices? In this talk, I’ll explore why important ecological art practices responding to these concerns remain on the margins of the contemporary art world Discuss the challenges an ecological worldview presents to such practices In particular, I argue why I propose that a Guattarian ecosophy – action research framework is a valuable guiding theory-method for the art & ecology field.
- I work between two realities. My main creative practice is blogging and on my website, I have 2 quotes to remind myself of the difficult context that I am working in. We live in an unprecedented age of the Anthropocene, the age of humankind, where industrial western culture is now a recognised as changing the geology of the Earth! Prof. Brian Swimme says: The struggle of embracing our moment – is the struggle that we live in the most destructive moment in 65 million years.’
- And I have a quote from a forest-planter, the first woman to gain a PhD in Africa, noble peace winner Wangari Maathi to remember that ‘there are opportunities even in the most difficult moments’. We know from environmental philosophers, such as Kathleen Dean Moore, that with the scientific understanding we now have of the ecological emergency, that we have a moral imperative to act, even if the consequences of our actions appear limited – this is an important point to convey to any art student or creative practitioner. To look the other way is like any other crime; morally unconscionable and it promotes the status quo. I would like so many more to engage in this area –scientists are saying this is the hinge decade where we have the most opportunity to avoid the catastrophes ahead.
- Donna Harraway (2015) and others rename the anthropocene as the capitalocene, as it rests on the unsustainable advance of a globalised, extractive capitalism
- Harroway further characterises a large engine of the Anthropocence as the ‘Plantationocene’ as industrial culture has simplified much of the planet’s living diversity into ‘slave’ monoculture plantations Industrial mononculture clearfell forestry, the main type of forestry in Ireland and large parts of the colonised world, is the focus of my eco-social art practice
- Others such as sociologist Charles Derber have argued that Since industrial society is causing the 6th great mass extinction -- ‘the great dying’, it means that we are living in a sociopathic culture (Derber, 2014), (I will come back to this point later as it underlines the theorist I chose to use to significantly increase understanding of ecological art practices)
- So how do we move away from the endgame of the Anthropocene? Former Prof. of sustainability, Glenn Albrecht (2016) talks how we must urgently ‘exit the anthropocene and enter the Symbiocene’! He argues that we must quickly adopt new thinking, new practices and a politics of mutualism where we value the symbiotic mutual flourishing of all life He talks that we must develop ‘memes’ for the symbiocene – I see some longterm eco art practice, mine included can work as powerful memes for societal learning andchange
- Although not widely appreciated in art education or in Irish national culture policy, At UN level it is recognised that cultural responses are one of the four pillars for driving examples of sustainablity in our local areas Even recent neuroscience confirms that facts alone will not change societal behaviour -
- I’m particularly interested in creative practices that build bridges between art, science and other ways of knowing; that recognise the value of lived experience, local knowledges and the intrinsic rights of nonhuman communities to thrive
- I see long-term ecological art practices as being very valuable; They operate by artistically weaving art + non-art activities together in a cyclical process of questioning and reflection, often to address business as usual unsustainable practices In my eco-social art practice I combine lifeworld (lived experience/tacit knowledge) and disciplinary knowledge; I have a background in research science, I learn continuous cover forestry from prof foresters, have Green political experience, have developed video/photography skills and from looking after an online community I am fluent in blogging and social media networking to develop audiences for my work
- I blend these various skills, lifeworld knowledges to explore how we can move from the life-limiting, unsustainability of monoculture forestry ….To instead investigate new-to-Ireland Close-to-Nature continuous cover forestry approaches. The bottom image is of an area in the plantation that I live with, that is changing to a mixed species, permanent forest which we call Hollywood. This area is sheltered by the conifers that we have selectively felled to create pockets of light to encourage natural regeneration of native species.
- We continue to selectively fell to create a flourishing continuous cover forest – the conifers and native species are used together for integrated aims for biodiversity, enriched stable soils, carbon sequestration and firewood production and increased birdsong. The plantation becoming a forest, is about 40 years old and the project is now in its 8th year. It is the smallest Close-to-Nature continous cover forest in Ireland but even though it is small I like to think of it as the
- I like to think of it as the little wood that could. Because while it is a small and slow art practice, it has advanced new experimental videos that reflect my and others’ new forestry learning; forest science data from Hollywood has contributed to a recent forest journal article, the project has enabled me to advocate these practices as the key approach to sustainable forestry for the Irish Green Party and living inside Hollywood I have developed a political voice to share news of developing laws against the crime of ecocide (how industrial practices, like monoculture forestry are a slow violence against lfe.
- …despite urgency of the planetary crisis, practices such as mine remain marginalised For example, in Ireland, there is no mention at national level of culture having a crucial role to envisage situated and emergent (Braidotti, Hroch), relevant and engaging ideas of sustainability Art and ecology programes are very rare in Ireland and the UK ‘Nature’ as a thematic concern is still popular (and needed) but the potential for multi-constituent ecological art practices to play a crucial role in moving society in more life-sustaining directions, is largely under-realised in the art world and beyond
- This is because an ecological worldview challenges the basic tenets of the Western worldview. ecology makes us consider the necessity of thriving human-nonhuman systems when Western culture (from its earliest origins as a culture of extraction for material advancement) has largely written out the agency of non-human world, particularly since the Enlightenment An ecological worldview contradicts capitalism’s mainstream narratives of indefinite growth and technological solutions decenters the primacy of humankind, and human concerns, of which much art is currently much focused creating responses for an ecological paradigm are therefore challenging ; particularly when art career recognition and funding is still tied up largely with the creation of object based artworks
- Eco art practices therefore require new skills in sociality, mutuality, deep listening and reciprocity, paying attention to others There are parallels in how we are discovering that trees work symbiotically with fungi to develop flourishing forests
- On the surface these practices seem very diverse but in my research I began to see patterns in the aims of such practices, (generally evolving new context-specific values and practices for sustainability to counter existing unsustainable situations) and that these practices routinely involved similar key method stages.
- In particular, my practice and theory research argues that such practices are much more than transdisciplinary - I argue that transdisciplinarity, in fact, limits the understanding of why such practices routinely advance much needed political, ethical and aesthetic innovation and transformation for practitioners and their multiple audiences
- Many would be aware of Guattari’s slim and some say unfinished concept of the Three Ecologies my research uncovered that his concept of transversality developed over previous decades was little understood for this context (Elliot). Guattari’s transversality is a means to recognise how new values, subjectivities arise from individual-collective assemblages that combine lifeworld and disciplinary knowledges , like ecological art practices
- Remember when I said earlier, that western industrial culture is sociopathic, Guattari deeply understood the psychology and social aspects of the planetary predicament He understood that the environmental crisis was rooted in calcified mental and unquestioned social practices He understood capitalism seizes people’s minds as an ‘overcode’, that the politics of the left or right could not defeat it (he had extensive polictical activism experience) And that a scientific -technological paradigm was gravely insufficient to counter its pervasiveness; tech advances will not treat the root of the crisis Essentially, Guattari recognised the utmost necessity to ‘re-make social practices’ (1992), and re-think politics, that we must move from a scientific to an ethico-aesthetic paradigm
- Many have commentated that Guattari’s ideas are complex and one can feel like one is falling down the rabbit hole, However Guattari’s ideas of transversality (developed from the 70s onwards) and his key ideas that we need to advance the 3 ecologies the mental, social and environmental spheres together, speaks to the aim and potential long term eco-social art practices priorities Guattari completely understands the madness of sociopathic culture. Because of Guattari’s “three ecologies”, I prefer to call ecological art practices “eco-social art practices”, to better emphasise that these practices enact not only environmental learning but also that they are socially innovative.
- Guattari realised the means to advance resistance to capitalism lay in micropolitical assemblages that operated and communicated transversally – In his words, these formations become “molecular revolutions” or “softly subvert” globalised capitalism – So, I argue my transversal practice aims to softly subvert the stranglehold of unsustainable industrial forestry
- Guattari’s concepts help build understanding that sustainability is contingent, an ever-evolving state that is enriched by democratic participation, different ways of knowing
- Guattari’s theory, is however, complex and not suited to describe how one practically initiates and maintains transversal practices He himself was interested in action research as a method approach but this was not developed during his lifetime. (Genosko) And I found in my analyses that action research, used widely in other fields, can be used to frame Guattari’s key ideas and provide an accessible method pathway for long-term eco-social art practice. I applied it to my own and others practices in my research. The above diagram shows how AR identifies the circular pathway of caring questioning, reflection action and– it is departure from the scientific (colonial) research model. It is not a prescriptive model but a reactive pathway, each step allows action and reflection. Action research speaks to Guattari’s idea of transversality, it accommodates many ways of knowing, action and inclusivity.
- Action research also counters time-wasting in trying to develop a methodology intuitively and greatly enhances learning and peer-to-peer exchange as it establishes recognisable method terminology. I also found it significantly clarifies the practices of key people in the art and ecology field and best of all I was able to communicate my diverse set of activities For instance AR It notes the key practical stage
- And why ‘in the forest’ experiential knowings are crucial to develop new situate understandings
- AR identifies in considerable detail why Art-making is important stage in translating new experiential understandings And overall, why artful practices are key to weave diverse activities into cohesive projects to engage and develop audiences experimental filmmaking,photography, writing, blogging
- AR also identifies why eco social art practices can include and develop scientific and traditional understandings, My practice has contributed to this forest journal paper, and
- And AR identifies another key step in why such practices need to include diverse participation and inclusive democracry, even to how we might include the priorities of the nonhuman
- AR also identifies why such projects encourage new dialogues and policies from all of the above From my small 2 acre forest transformation work, my eco-social art practice and my lifeworld experience of knowing Green politics I advanced continuous cover forestry as the key point of Irish Green Party forest policy in 2012. I am currently the Greens spokesperson for forestry in Ireland
- Action Research also confirms the significant outcome of such practices as evolving a valuable, learning for change, communicative spaces.
- This has been a very brief outline of my guiding theory-method framework - the Guattarani-action resarch model that I believe can more significantly articulate the significant potential and value of eco-social art practices and the means to develop and maintain such practices; The framework advances understanding of and for the emergent art and ecology field
- I have produced an ebook (and print on-demand version) of the key method stages of my transversal practice (available in the coming months)