Fables for a reconstruction: A toolkit to imagine the Symbiocene
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Date
2023-03-13Author
de Paor, Tanya
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Abstract
My PhD enquiry addresses the research question, How can contemporary art practice contribute to a shared understanding of and response to the Anthropocene? through the use of eco-art, socially engaged art practices, art in education and theoretical scholarly research. Part 1 of the thesis is the documentation of the exhibition that embodies the contribution to knowledge. The four chapters in Part II of the thesis discuss the Anthropocene concept and
how it is interrogated through the fields of ecology and eco-art, community-engaged art and art in education. The paradoxes inherent in the Anthropocene concept, which both makes visible and obscures the connections between living entities and the environment, are critically examined. Ecology, based on the concepts of home and interconnectedness, is
proposed as a useful framework to counter Anthropocenic fragmentation and isolation. The roles of socially engaged art and art in education as relational practices in providing
opportunities for participation and collective addressing of ecological issues are outlined. In
contrast to the visual aestheticizing of much climate change art, leading to feelings of overwhelm and paralysis, contemporary eco-art practices can promote a more engaged,
ecological worldview by making the threads of interconnection visible.
Part III of the thesis is a critical review of my art practice as it progressed and evolved
through the course of the research culminating in the final exhibition. Eco-art elements of my
practice included Burning Landscape, Looking Forward into the Past, Daydreamer,
Rhododendrons 1-3, Fastener Series, Eco Line. The speculative fable We are the Flock
marks a shift in the research trajectory from bearing witness to environmental change to engaging communities in responding, through art, to these changes. Socially engaged
components are described, including a series of creative and participant-led workshops exploring individual and collective reflections on ecological challenges. The final chapter discusses the synthesis of the strands of my research in a mobile interactive toolkit shown at the final exhibition, Fables for a Reconstruction. The toolkit is a pedagogical space designed
to facilitate a variety of creative happenings, including workshops, screenings, and temporary
pop-up exhibitions. The tools include art packs, an exercise book, To Imagine the Symbiocene, and story cubes. These elements engage participants in playful reflection, the telling of stories or fables and the envisioning of alternative futures. The toolkit provides a space to collectively unpack the messy implications of the Anthropocene concept and to propose speculative solutions reframed through a conceptual lens of symbiosis, interconnectedness, and interdependence.