Making Home: Life as a Work of Eco-Art
Over the six years it took to complete, my Ph.D completely changed the way I think about life and art. Most importantly, it showed me that there is a a different way that we can live on and with our planet.
To live differently we need to think differently
My degree was motivated by the realisation that the dire state of our environment cannot be simply attributed to the failings of government or technology, but rather it is the result of a failure in the way that we think. To live differently we need to think differently, and my hypothesis was, for this change in thinking to happen, art is the key.
For my thesis I investigated the intentionally sustainable settlements known as ecovillages. Rather than subscribing wholesale to capitalist values, ecovillage dwellers willingly choosing to live more simply with less. Their intentionally low carbon lifestyles are focused on connection with nature and to each other. Instead of looking at these groups through the lens of social science I looked at how art is produced in these spaces as a way to think about them as works of eco-art in and of themselves. To think differently about ecovillages, I used the conceptual thinking tools devised by French post structuralist philosophers Gilles Deleuze (1925 - 1995) and Felix Guattari (1930 - 1992). To give you an overview of my thesis, here is an edited version of a talk that I gave for Earth Day 2023 in conjunction with the University of New South Wales.
Thinking eco-spaces as works of eco-art
There is no doubt that life on earth is being threatened by human existence. If our species is to survive and thrive, it is becoming clear that a business-as-usual attitude which promises that we can maintain our current levels of consumption with technological solutions and sustainability guidelines is simply not viable. Moving towards a sustainable society requires a collective change in thinking. The question is, with the marketing forces of the capitalist system urging us to consume ever-more, how does such a cultural shift happen? I suggest that art is critical to our transformation, but not in the form that we currently know, art itself also must be rethought.
While indigenous peoples of the world hold knowledge of ways in which humans can most sympathetically coexist with their environment, for my Ph.D. I explored the ecovillage as a western culture example of communities who aspire to inhabit the earth in ways that don’t necessarily subscribe wholesale to capitalist values. I found that in these inherently artful environments the social structures, built environments and the people themselves are all artfully created in such a way that the ecovillage itself can be thought of as a work of eco-art.
What is Eco-Art?
Mainstream Eco-art is an expanded form of environmental art which began in the 1970s. According to arts academic Sacha Kagan, eco-artists pay attention to things such as: the interrelationships between ecological systems; they reclaim, restore and remediate damaged environments; they inform the public about ecological relationships and the problems we face; and re-envision ecological relationships, creatively proposing new possibilities for co-existence, sustainability and healing. Eco-art is typically authored by an eco-artist whose name is attached to the work and the realised work is intended to be understood as eco-art. The goals of the Global Ecovillage Network are strikingly similar to those of the eco-art movement. They are articulated as: sharing the best practices and experiences of sustainable communities and serving as a think tank for projects that expediate the shift to sustainable lifestyles; making advances in human rights; sharing conflict resolution and reconciliation skills; promoting a culture of mutual acceptance and respect for humans and non-humans alike, to influence policy makers and advance community participation in local decision making and to nourish and repair the environments in which they find themselves.
What is the difference between eco-art and eco-villages?
Even though ecovillages are often initiated by groups of artists, the settlements are not necessarily intended as works of eco-art. The desire is, rather, for a place that provides sustainable, low-cost accommodation which will enable them to practice their various art forms amongst like-minded people. In this case, the ecovillage functions as self-generating systems that operates through experimentation. I am not suggesting that the mainstream eco-art movement is not a valid art form, nor am I arguing that eco-artists have not been able to change thinking about our relationship with the earth. Rather, my research indicates that an expanded understanding of eco-art can be considered.
Using different thinking tools to reimagine the ecovillage as a work of eco-art
To reimagine the ecovillage and art, I used the thinking of French post structuralist philosophers, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. For Deleuze and Guattari, thought happens in three modes. Philosophy is responsible for the creation of concepts, science for the creation of material reality, and art, for them, is responsible for the creation of new thinking. Deleuze and Guattari are not interested in defining or describing what art is, they are more interested in what art can do. What good art does, is it produces consciousness changing experiences. In the case of my study, I was interested in how the ecovillage, understood as a work of art, can change thinking about our relationship with the earth and the way we live.
In 1989, Guattari published a short essay titled The Three Ecologies in which he proposes an expanded version of eco-art. He talks about eco-art as a way of living life itself as art by the artistic creation and amalgamation of three key areas or ecologies. These are the social, the environmental and the mental. Looking for the ways in which art functions to support the sustainability aims of the ecovillage dwellers, I initially focused on these three areas, looking at how art works to create the social body and the physical environment of the ecovillages and the subjectivities of the ecovillage dwellers. Secondly, examining the ecovillage itself as a work of eco-art enabled me to explore how the ecovillage functions to counter the excessively consumptive values of the capitalist lifestyle, and the ways in which it orients the communities towards a different relationship with each other and with the natural world.
Most ecovillage dwellers live in ecovillages because of their desire for a clean, low carbon lifestyle and community connection. However, all my interviewees told me about some form of art practice that is part of their lives. What is important for both trained artists and non-artists, is being engaged in creative practice, be it a solo pursuit or a collective endeavour. As well as the more widely accepted art forms such as painting, sculpture, music, poetry, the idea of what constitutes art is expanded in the ecovillage to include things such as the building of a house, the tending of a garden or a shared community meal. Rather than judging the various art forms and practices by their aesthetic or market values, there is an emphasis on participation which is seen in things like music events, jam sessions, community art exhibitions and in group events such as choirs, dance groups, drumming groups, music ensembles and visual art groups such as painting and weaving groups. These groups and events serve to connect the ecovillagers to each other and to different aspects of social life. In other words, art provides a blueprint for all elements of ecovillage life. Entwined with the idea of living a socially and ecologically sustainable life, art is seen as an elemental necessity that is available to all. Art is the ground from which the ecovillage communities grow and the glue that holds them together.
Art practice as a healing tool
Art practice in the ecovillage is often undertaken with a desire of healing, which encompasses the healing of the self, the community, and the natural world. There is a general attitude that an art practice is also a spiritual practice. This is not understood in a religious sense, but rather it is the desire of a spiritual connection with the earth which is expressed in language such as wanting to feel a ‘one-ness with the earth’ or viewing ‘nature as my temple’. This type of spirituality, which is expressed by ecovillage author William Metcalf as an eco-spirituality, selects from different belief systems such as Buddhism, Taoism, earth dreaming, Gaia, to express the essential need for a deeper connection to the earth.
Social life as eco-art
The ways in which art informs the social structures of the ecovillage simultaneously manifests the built environment. Expressing the eco-spiritual desire for connection to nature, homes and community spaces are decorated using eco-spiritual symbols and imagery including cosmic or ‘new age’ imagery as well as natural themes and materials, and the use of colour in the clothing of the ecovillagers and in the landscape in things such as flags and mosaic work. These elements form the ecovillage style if you like, which values experimental low-tech technologies and construction methods, which can also be thought of as a form of art. In my field study I saw cement and sawdust buildings, the use of wobbly boards, rammed earth, mud brick and straw bale constructions. All of these experimental techniques, which were pioneered in the ecovillage environment are now becoming more commonly seen in the mainstream.
If everyone’s an artist, what about actual artists?
As an artist, I was confused as to whether there is a place for those of us who make a living making art in this type of community where everyone is considered to be an artist. However, I discovered that while there is not necessarily a large cohort of trained and practicing artists in any of these spaces, that the art and craft forms endemic in a particular village often reflect the practice of artists who reside there. For example, Crystal Waters has a theme of leadlight windows which is the results of workshops and skills share events run by resident painter and leadlight artist Regine Ruppert. In Aldinga Arts Ecovillage, mosaic artist Linda Caldwell has similarly created a culture of mosaic work through her open workshops. At Billen Cliffs there is a strong musical culture that stems from the fact that the founding members were all musicians, even though many of these artists have since moved on.
Making ourselves works of eco-art
The third of Guattaris ecologies is the mental. For Guattari, this is the most crucial element of the change we need to make if we are to survive and thrive on our planet. Put simply, the mental ecology is what goes on inside our heads. Our mental ecology creates who we are and our ways of being in the world, it is the way we think about ourselves and our relationships with others. In other words, it is the formation of our subjectivities. The ideas of the individual coalesce in the group. Consciously or not, our thinking influences the thinking of those around us. On the one hand, one can carry on with life without thinking too much about it, or one can undertake a certain fashioning of the self. Deleuze and Guattari talk about this as creating life itself as a work of art.
Self-development comes with the ecovillage territory, and the positive culture around practices such as meditation and yoga, or therapies such as psychotherapy or massage encourages the people of the community to engage. Self development can also be an art practice. When I asked community members about their relationship with art making, most often the response was that they found creative work therapeutic.
The Ethics of sustiainbility
It can be argued that the idea of living life as a work of art is simply a hedonistic pursuit. Guattaris proposal of an eco-art involves not only paying attention to your environment in terms of aesthetics, but also to the ethical framework within which this aesthetic production takes place. I found that the ecovillage spaces operate in adherence to a distinct set of ethical principles, often based on the principles of permaculture which are; care of the earth, care of humans and fair share. At its heart, permaculture principles are designed to aid the development of positive actions rather than destructive ones by cultivating beneficial relationships not only between humans, but also between humans, non-humans, and the natural world. The design principles that support permaculture ethics produces an aesthetic that reflects the system. Indeed, Robin Clayfield a permaculture educator at Crystal Waters firmly believes that creating a permaculture environment is an art.
Conceptualising the ecovillage as art challenges established systems of judging and categorising art, instead embracing an expansive idea of art that includes its ability to generate ecologically oriented social systems, lived environments and subjectivities. Art in the ecovillage, then, is way of life and a whole of life practice.
As I have indicated, environmental scholars worldwide are in agreement that a change in thinking is crucial for life on the planet. I am arguing that art in the ecovillage is signposting this change. Ecovillage dwellers are engaged in the very real and sometimes messy pursuits of growing communities who are committed to experimenting with a life geared against consumerism and towards the possibility of long-term survival. Reimagining the ecovillage as a work of art opens the possibility that the human relationship with the environment can be thought of as an artistic process of co-creation.
Every life can be eco-art, every village can be an eco-village
Reimagining the ecovillage as a work of eco-art does not suggest that everyone needs to uproot and move into an ecovillage. Instead, it suggests an opening of the possibility that all lives can be reimagined as eco-art which would involve, as Guattari might say, composing our lives as an artist would compose colours on a palette. Being concerned with an ethics of sustainability, such an art practice fused with life, would open creative engagements that hold the potential for transformation not only of the self but of the whole earth community. It does not mean, either, that trained and practising artists must cease to operate in their practice. Instead, the artist becomes involved in a mutual enrichment of community life. In this sense, reimagining the ecovillage as a work of eco-art would stand as an affirmation; engaging in life as an artistic endeavour is not a threat to the current mainstream ways of being in the world, nor is it a threat to the lives and occupations of trained and practising artists. In contrast, an art-as-life thinking style, such as is found in the ecovillage, fosters an opening into new ways of thinking. Reimagining art, and reimagining the ecovillage as a work of art, thus illuminates the potential for the transformative processes that are inherent in our lives, our lived spaces and our communities to be oriented towards a regenerating earth and a different thinking people.
For the full transcript of my thesis: A Deleuzian Reimaging of Art and the Ecovillage, please click the link on the ‘study’ page on my web site.