pdf) 3.4 Palaver på grenesiska: utterances in the language of trees 137 3.5 Art-based perceptual ecology: a way of knowing the language of place 143 3. 6 Discussion 158 PART II 161 4. Determining my research questions 162 4.1 A personal history: critical anthropology, self-reflexivity and the senses 162 4.2 Environmental philosophy and indigenous peoples' world views 165 4.3 Expanding art practice into art education 166 4.4 Moving into the field of arts-based environmental education 167 4.5 Aim, objectives and research questions of this study 170 5. Research design 174 5.1 Researching lived experience: allowing the things themselves to speak 177 5.2 Practicing interpretative phenomenological analysis 181 5.3 An anthropology of experience, expression and evocation 184 5.3.1 Including the vulnerable self through autoethnography 187 5.3.2 Storytelling, narrative analysis and the aspect of time 190 5.4 An artistic approach to qualitative research? 193 5.5 A case study focus in researching AEE activities 196 5.5.1 My units of analysis 199 5.5.2 Procedures of collecting data 203 5.5.3 Methods of analysis and interpretation 205 5.5.4 Considerations on the study's trustworthiness 207 PART III 213 6. Three case studies of facilitated AEE activities 214 6.1 Case I -Wildpainting 216 6.1.1 Seeing color with fresh eyes: the context of wildpainting 217 6.1.2 The unfolding of a wildpainting course 224 6.1.3 Example: wildpainting sessions at Kandal, Norway 231 6.1.4 Narrative account: ripping a painting apart 235 6.2 Case II -Lines of the hand 237 6.2.1 Memory and imagination: the context of lines of the hand 239 6.2.2 The structure of a lines of the hand activity 240 6.2.3 Example: lines of the hand at Schumacher College 246 6.2.4 Narrative account: making poetry for the first time 253 6.3 Case III -Clay little-me's 255 6.3.1 Mapping the body: the context of little-me making 256 6.3.2 The structure of a little-me making activity 258 Theme: Body and inner world 260 Theme: Facilitating little-me making 268 Theme: Connecting to the environment through art 270 6.3.3 Example: making clay little-me's on the island of Gotland, Sweden 276 6.3.4 Narrative account: being touched by artistic process 284 PART IV 287 7. Unpacking the process of an AEE activity 288 7.1 The dramatic structure of an AEE activity 289 7.1.1 Before: exposition 290 7.1.2 During: rising action -climax -falling action 292 An open attitude 293 Liminality and initiation 296 Return to normal 299 7.1.3 After: resolution 300 7.2 Discussion 302 8. Facilitating AEE activities 304 8.1 Handling open-endedness in an artmaking process 306 8.2 The tightrope between control and letting go 312 8.3 Withholding judgment, holding the space and bearing witness 314 8.4 Patterns of relationships 320 8.5 Discussion 324 9. Experiencing the natural environment through AEE 328 9.1 Discovering one's body in a new way 330 9.2 Thinking with our hands 331 9.3 Discussion 335 9.4 Some suggestions for further study 339 PART V 343 10. Sketches of an emerging AEE pedagogy 344 10.1 AEE and sust...
This article focuses on the role of the artistic process in connecting to the natural environment. In my research I have explored what participants experience and learn when they engage in different types of arts-based environmental education (AEE)practices that I have facilitated. The premise of AEE is that efforts to learn about our (natural) environment can effectively take their starting point in an artistic activity, usually conducted in groups. I found that, on the whole, two major orientations can be distinguished. One starts from the point of aesthetic sensibility: the tuning in with the senses, or with 'a new organ of perception' (Goethe), in order to perceive 'the more than human' with fresh new eyes. This tradition can be traced back (but is by no means limited) to the Romantic Movement. Art in this context may help to amplify the receptivity of the senses and strengthen a sense of connectedness to the natural world. The other major orientation in seeking bridges between nature and art builds on a view of artistic process as leading to unexpected outcomes and 'emergent properties'. The fundamentally singular experience of making a work of art may evoke an aesthetic object that becomes a 'self-sufficient, spiritually breathing subject' (Kandinsky). The artwork can be spontaneously generative and multilayered with meanings, some of which may even be ambiguous and paradoxical.
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