Art, climate change and (other) eco materials: rethinking the cosmopolitanization of aesthetics and the aesthetics of cosmopolitanization with Ulrich Beck

Abstract

Based on fieldwork in Japan and Hong Kong, I ask how methodological cosmopolitanism, as formulated by Ulrich Beck, may afford new and highly needed modes for grappling with climatically concerned art and aesthetic practices across geographical regions. I will argue that methodological cosmopolitanism serves as an important framework for approaching such art practices, and suggest that two overall intertwined strands concerning aesthetic practices engaged in global issues of climate change, emerge from this – the cosmopolitanization of aesthetics and, reversely, the aesthetics of cosmopolitanization. Departing from my fieldwork among farming artists in the Hong Kong countryside and in the Japanese satoyama – rural mountain – areas, I will, on the one hand, argue that art practices are ‘cosmopolitanized’ by the awareness of global risks, manifested in anticipation of the comprehensive climatic changes (in)discriminately affecting across nations and regions. At the same time, and importantly, art practices are actively attending to this ‘risky’ cosmopolitanization, giving aesthetic voice, form and ‘visuality’ to unfolding climatic issues and concerns and hereby practising what I will call an ‘aesthetics of cosmopolitanization’.

Revealing the Eco-aesthetics of the Pangium Edule Tree: A Natural Sources of Spices in a Time of Dendrophobia

“…Art plays a role in encouraging literacy and building awareness of the environment (Buening et al, 2022;Nnamdi et al, 2013). The creative process in the realm of art actively contributes to providing sound, form, and aesthetic visuality to express problems and concerns over climate and the environment (Thorsen, 2020). Therefore, although art has not been considered capable of initiating change, it contributes to building awareness which is an essential foundation of constructive change (Miles, 2016).…”