Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
book design for An Inconvenient Truth (Gore, 2006) mimics that of the feature
documentary, with striking colour photographs and diagrams creating a powerful
montage of attraction. People communicate with each other in many ways. Virtually
everything we do gives off 'signals' of some description, whether we like it or not
- our manner of dress, lifestyle, body language, choice of interior or exterior decor,
car, and so on. Some of this communication is intentional and some not. Some
occurs within private spaces and others in the public sphere. Marketing, advertising,
public relations, radio and television broadcasting, theatre, music, photography,
cinema, architecture and fine art are all elements of a communication process that
may, or may not, facilitate debate, dialogue, discussion, knowledge, and understanding
of sustainability, justice and peace. Art is not necessarily for art's sake - and never
has been.
The American art critic Suzi Gablik (2002) believes that it is necessary to re-
enchant art by breaking down the barriers between the individual and the wider
world, showing how artistic creativity may serve a wider purpose than self-expression.
For Gablik (2000), her writing simply puts down what is already 'in the air':
Ours is a 'doing' culture, however, which means that there is unrelenting pressure
to produce, and to produce something visible, a saleable product, or you will
get left behind. Thinking of art as an essentially social-dialogical process - as
improvised collaboration or relational activity - definitely steps on the toes of
those who are deeply engaged with the notion of self-expression as the signal
value of art's worth. Often, in my lectures, I would talk about artists who had
shifted their work from the studio to the more public arenas of political, social
and environmental life. They looked at art in terms of its social purpose rather
than its aesthetic style. Many of them were exploring a more 'feminine' and
responsive way of working, opening up spaces for 'deep listening' and letting
groups that had been previously excluded speak directly of their own experience.
Creative artists are frequently concerned with stimulating reflection, thought and
action on specific issues, events and experiences. Environmental artists, for example,
tend to work with nature, natural forms and natural materials to produce works of
aesthetic value and beauty, but also, perhaps, to invite the spectator to meditate on
human, social and natural relationships. Such meditation requires contemplative time
and maybe an immersion in the spatial, spiritual and emotional experiences the
artworks afford. Art can foster dialogue and conversation about culturally sensitive
and politically controversial issues (Kester, 2004), empower disadvantaged com-
munities by harnessing latent talent and repressed creativity (Cockcroft et al ., 1998),
and even physically transform a local ecology through a process of 'ecovention' -
artists working in collaboration with local communities (Spaid, 2002). The cultural
geographer Ian Cook (2000, 2004), taking a lead from Gablik, looks at what the
aesthetic connections and stories, photographs, paintings and installations may offer
the engaged spectator. Lowenstein (2001) refers to the Scottish environmental artist
Andy Goldsworthy's primary concerns being simplicity and process - with making
connections tracing the journey from the leaf to the tree, to growth, to the resonance
of place. It is this that animates Goldsworthy's use of natural materials. The Canadian
multimedia artist Janet Cardiff has produced 'audio walks', replicating three-
dimensional (binaural) sound that enables the listener to explore external and interior
 
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