Sustainability science as if the world mattered: sketching an art contribution by comparison

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Here, I investigate some of the potential contributions of art to the emerging field of sustainability science. First, the involvement of sustainability thinking in art is massively increasing. Second, there is a line of interactions between art and science that do not necessarily take sustainability as their content, at least in an ecological sense. Third, there are a considerable number of examples of sustainability science projects that are intended to link knowledge to social action without involving art. I exemplarily compare these different combinations to gain a concise overview of and differentiate between current activities and to identify some shortcomings and potentials of various contributions. The utilitarian and rather pragmatic question I ask is: What does art have to offer to sustainability science that the latter currently lacks? This question is asked from my own anthropological viewpoint, that of cultural and social science, partaking in sustainability science. I use empirical insights from sustainability projects in Africa that I took part in, which specifically dealt with sustainable land management. I blend these findings with results from a broad literature review and a comparison of multiple existing art projects. I show that a sustainability science that aims to matter to people and that takes its core tenet of linking the produced knowledge to sustainable social action seriously while facing an existing crisis of agency and knowledge would strongly benefit from opening to an experimental and experiential approach to knowledge production that explicitly includes processual, affective, and sensory types of knowledge, imaginative agency, and conceptual forms of interaction.

Music and sustainability education – a contradiction?

“…In highlighting the diverse combinations of art and sustainability, Pröpper (2017) states that contributions from art involve both experimental and experiential approaches to knowledge production. Art represents much more than means to aestheticize science's content and processes.…”

“…The concept of nature is disputed in current sustainability discourse. In order to avoid the term, and still describe the environment as something different than humans and culture, several concepts have been introduced, like for example the "more-than-humanlifeworld" (e.g., Kagan, 2011), "non-humans" (Pröpper, 2017), and "non-human systems/world" (Kagan & Kirchberg, 2016;Turner & Freedmann, 2004). Such characteristics might deepen the humans-nature division, in a time where students should be encouraged to seek nature connectedness.…”

“…In their review paper Music and sustainability, Kagan and Kirchberg (2016) claim that a specific focus on music lacks in sustainability science. Whereas several projects combine the visual arts and sustainability teaching (e.g., Lutnaes & Falling, 2017;Pröpper, 2017;Jolly, Boeckel, & Slåttli, 2017), only rarely we find research projects on the intersection of music and sustainability education. When art is included in STEM subjects (as STEAM), the attention seems to be primarily on visual arts and media, not on the performing arts and music (Gershon & Ben-Horin, 2014).…”

Finding CreativeVoice: Applying Arts-Based Research in the Context of Biodiversity Conservation

“…This can be done during any or all phases, such as in data generation, analysis, interpretation, and/or representation of results. The integration of art in participatory environmental research specifically is also now an emerging and growing field with the potential to deliver numerous benefits to biodiversity conservation [5]. This is because art can evoke emotions, cultivate empathy, capture the multi-sensorial nature of lived experience, and promote self-reflection and consciousness about complex environmental changes [3,6].…”

“…This is because art can evoke emotions, cultivate empathy, capture the multi-sensorial nature of lived experience, and promote self-reflection and consciousness about complex environmental changes [3,6]. Through art, researchers can identify different perceptions, emotions, and social values related to nature, which are often overlooked by traditional research and that unavoidably influence conservation efforts [5,7]. Art also offers unique ways to build bridges between indigenous knowledge and other types of knowledge, enriching the possibilities for genuine knowledge co-production and the stimulation of critical thinking [7,8].…”