Flora And Fauna

New metaphors for sustainability: an indigenous tribe of the Amazon

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Francesca Galeazzi is a sustainability engineer and artist, currently working for the design studio of Arup Associates in Shanghai, in pursuit of a greener and more sustainable model of urban development in China. Her art work focuses on issues of climate change, urbanisation and sustainable development. Here, she continues our series on New metaphors for sustainability.

I underestimated the amount of time and thinking that it would take me to come up with something that I am happy with. Sustainability not only is something that I care about, but it is also extremely difficult to pin down to something specific. It holds many facets and most are often equally important!
Having said this, I still believe that diversity is key to sustainability.
Ecosystems rely on a complex set of relationships and interdependence of diverse species and creatures to sustain themselves. This is the basis of all life on our planet and applies to flora and fauna, as well as society and culture. However, the current aggressive approach to global development that we have experienced in the last century is threatening diversity at all levels.
Visualising diversity is a difficult task. The first images that sprung to my mind were not too dissimilar to the United People of Benetton campaign in the 90’s, highlighting the beauty of multiculturalism. But how obvious it is! I also thought about cities, food, gardens, oceans, the coral reef – but none seemed really appropriate.
The metaphor that to me best evokes the idea of both ecological and social diversity is the Amazon, probably the most important biodiverse and rich ecosystem of our planet, under so much threat of irreversible change. But the image of that magnificent tropical rainforest is not sufficient to me to evoke the notion of sustainability; as a general metaphor I think it is too obvious and worn out.
I am instead choosing the image of an indigenous tribe of the Amazon. To me this conveys not only the ecological issues that rainforests around the world face today (deforestation, illegal logging, land exploitation, mining, etc) but also talks about that fundamental element that is societal diversity. Indigenous tribes, ethnic minorities and rural communities around the world represent a huge treasure of culture and unique heritage that is under increasing threat of disappearance.
The indigenous tribe of the Amazon is a metaphor for all those ethnicities in the world under physical and cultural threat, and indirectly for their endangered environment, too. It is also a metaphor for knowledge and strength, for cultural richness and social resilience, for strong community cohesion, for respect and adaptability to the natural environment, all of which to me are the pillars of sustainability.

 

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The editors are Robert Butler and Wallace Heim. The associate editor is Kellie Gutman. The editorial adviser is Patricia Morison.

Robert Butler’s most recent publication is The Alchemist Exposed (Oberon 2006). From 1995-2000 he was drama critic of the Independent on Sunday. See www.robertbutler.info

Wallace Heim has written on social practice art and the work of PLATFORM, Basia Irland and Shelley Sacks. Her doctorate in philosophy investigated nature and performance. Her previous career was as a set designer for theatre and television/film.

Kellie Gutman worked with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture for twenty years, producing video programmes and slide presentations for both the Aga Khan Foundation and the Award for Architecture.

Patricia Morison is an executive officer of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, a group of grant-making trusts of which the Ashden Trust is one.

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Unruly ecologies: Biodiversity and art

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A SymbioticA Symposium

November 26 to 28 2010

A symposium exploring the possibilities and difficulties of the diversity of life through critical investigations in art, ecology and activism.

The ecology of biodiversity is based upon an uncertain definition, incomplete statistics and the need to act in a world without balance. While multiple flora and fauna databases have being established and are being coordinated, there is an urgent need to engage even more proactively with complex ecosystems and human responses. Artists, scientists, humanities scholars and conservationists will come together to talk of the ‘matters of concern’ around the potentials and futures of biodiversity.

Confirmed Speakers include Professor Bruce Clarke (Professor of Literature and Science, Department of English, Texas Tech University), Professor Timothy Morton(Professor of English (Literature and the Environment), Department of English, University of California, Davis), Associate Professor Anas Ghadouani (School of Environmental Systems Engineering, The University of Western Australia), Greg Pryor (Artist and Lecturer, School of Communications and Arts, Faculty of Education and the Arts, Edith Cowan University), Dr Lesley Instone (Lecturer, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and
Information Technology, Newcastle University) and British Artists Dr Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson.

Dates: Friday 26 November to Sunday 28 November

Locations: Perth and Mandurah, Western Australia

Registration: Symposium sessions free but please RSVP for catering purposes sym@symbiotica.uwa.edu.au

Call for contemporary artworks for a survey of examples:

Artist whose work explores the idea of biodiversity are invited to post links to their work under the following categories or email an image and paragraph of text to: perdy@perditaphillips.com

  • 1. as a concept or idea (eg taxonomy and classification, issues of scale in ecology, resilience)
  • 2. as an issue (habitat loss, over-exploitation of resources, alien species, pollution and climate change)
  • 3. as a way of thinking — diversity (human/nonhuman), complexity and interconnectedness, compositionist strategies (Latour), resilience

Art from Above and Within: Daniel Dancer

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Art is magical. And when it focus on engaging people’s connection to nature, it becomes even more so. Daniel Dancer is one of my favorite artists working this way. He assembles youth into football sized representations of local flora and fauna.  Check his work out and get him to come to your school – and don’t be surprised when the local media show up! Photo below is taken from a hot air ballon of students on a field.

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OPEN CALL FOR MAMMUT MAGAZINE #3

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Submission Deadline: August 15
Submit to: mammutmag@gmail.com
Anticipated release date: Mid-October, 2009

The first two issues of Mammut focused on various topics related to art and the environment. For our third issue we will focus on megafauna, one of the original inspirations for this magazine, which was named after the extinct American Mastodon or Mammut americanum.

We are looking for essays, artwork and other proposals about megafauna, such as how to co-exist, preserve or even how to define them. We welcome contributions from all fields, while keeping in mind the magazine’s general focus on art and the environment.

In addition, we are working with the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles to cosponsor Megafauna Awareness Day and a subsequent conference, to take place at some point in winter/spring 2010. The publication of this issue will most likely precede the conference and the date for Megafauna Awareness Day, which is yet to be determined.

BACKGROUND

At the end of the last ice age (about 11,000 years ago), humans shared the Americas with a wide variety of megafauna (very large mammals), including mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, giant armadillos and the dire wolf. These animals all went extinct in a relatively short period of time and though the causes are still debated, many agree that human-caused habitat destruction along with hunting caused the extinctions. Now we are facing another wave of extinction caused by human development that affects flora and fauna of all sizes. Ours being the anthropocene (epoch of man) or homogenocene (epoch of diminished and similar ecosystems worldwide) the most likely reality is that we will share the planet with generalist species (like us) in a scenario science writer David Quammen has called “The Planet of the Weeds.” Megafauna—such as elephants, rhinos, hippos, moose, and whales—reproduce slowly and may not make it through the bottleneck of human development without our help.

Some of the earliest art—cave paintings—depicted bison, horses and aurochs, illustrating the interrelated history of humans and other large animals. What can artists and those in creative fields do today about megafauna and the associated habitats they represent? It is our belief that artists have plenty to contribute to this discussion and by working with scientists and politicians, we can all help prevent further habitat destruction and preserve species.

Megafauna Awareness Day, initially proposed by scientist Paul S. Martin in his 2005 book, Twilight of the Mammoths, is necessary because every schoolkid knows about the long-extinct dinosaurs, but not about animals that lived until very recently. To support the inauguration of the Megafauna Awareness Day, we plan on launching a website and hosting a conference in Los Angeles to bring together artists, scientists, museums workers and others interested in the topic of megafauna.

Finally, we acknowledge that it is not just megafauna that are worth preserving. But like the spotted owl controversy in the Pacific Northwest, megafauna are often charismatic emblems of the habitat they  populate. Preserve the megafauna and we preserve the habitat for all.