Abstract
Developments in the theoretical field of ecosophy have demonstrated the co-dependence of different human and natural factors, as well as connections between societal organization, natural sustainability and individual experience. Exploring these complex and organic relations between the social, the mental and the environmental, is an important task for contemporary research. A central question is where and how such research can be undertaken. This article traces central ecosophical lines of thinking, links them to ethic and aesthetic theory, and shows how these theories stand in a direct relation to three contemporary, on-going art projects. Ecosophy is proposed as a relational and practice-near research ideology, depending on the complexity-oriented principles of relationality, ethicality and immediacy. Finally, aesthetic research and research through art emerge as field-merging and practical-theoretical approaches, which should be given more attention and resources in current science and education politics. As an alternative field of knowledge production, referring to Jacques Ranciéres ‘distribution of the sensuous’ as well as phenomenological epistemology, ethic-aesthetic research not only constitutes new ways of sensing, but acknowledges larger parts of what we already know.
Highlights
Developments in the theoretical field of ecosophy have demonstrated the co-dependence of different human and natural factors, as well as connections between societal organization, natural sustainability and individual experience
From the „deep ecology‟ of Arne Næss, trough to Gregory Bateson‟s „ecology of mind‟ and the „three ecologies‟ of Félix Guattari, we have acquired a co-thinking of human and nature, and an acknowledgement of the importance of mind and sociality for human environmental and aestheticaction. To explore these complex and organic relations between the social, the mental and the environmental becomes an important task for contemporary research
Guattari makes a further pronunciation of the dynamics of Næss‟ deep ecology: an ecosophy can be considered based on the balance and mutuality between the different relations to the self, and the human community, as well as the larger environment, nature and animals
Summary
The ethic-aesthetic way of wonders thought systems and ethic-aesthetic approaches, we could add the need for immediacy, or the constant evaluation of the here and as a vital part of the ecosophic research mode. Suggesting further relevance, the ecosophic perspective could constitute a relational and practice-near research ideology where the sensuous or aesthetic dimensions have a more natural or prominent role. This is relevant for education and learning in general: as part of our ecological or environmental competence, aesthetic strategies need to become more prevalent in science and education systems – as design, production, craft and visual competence, and as a fundamental part of our epistemology, our relation with the world, as our world. Christensen-Scheel holds a Ph.D. in contemporary art and performance theory Her field of interest ranges from art's relational capacities from bodily experience, epistemology and didactics, to more explicit political and ecological projects. Christensen-Scheel has translated Nicolas Bourriaud‟s 'Relational Aesthetics' to Norwegian (Pax Forlag, Artes, 2007), worked as an art critic and has recently published an essay about Kjartan Slettemark's Nixon Series (Torpedo Press, 2010)
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