12-03-2021
When talking to various individuals and artists that are not actively involved in sustainability… the meaning and concept of what sustainability is, kept upcoming up…
It became apparent that the term sustainability has been so overused that its core has been washed away. It feels too far removed and unapproachable set only for those that are going to recycle, up-cycle, be vegetarian or vegan etc. It’s place in the broader sense just like the word Art didn’t seem to be understood. This was surprising for me, things that I took for granted that I knew because of my investigation and involvement with other pockets of society that are actively exploring sustainability, such as the business world and social entrepreneurship etc. I have been able to see what from a broader and deeper scope of what sustainability truly can encompass. By breaking down the term and Sustain – Ability, going back to its core roots and original meaning. By unfolding the 3 pillars that the modern term of sustainability is build off of (Environmental Protection, Society Development and Economic growth for all) an easily relatable dialog on the subjects opens up to the all-encompassing elements of what sustainability truly entails. Questions like, what are we sustaining, for whom, how and why? What are the abilities that we have to do so, who has these abilities, what, with whom and how are these abilities being use, do they need to be modified changed etc.? The intricacies of sustaining our lives and living things within the structures and systems that have been built for us and those that we are now living within and having to deal with on a daily basis come into question. The wonderful thing about this is that these intricacies are explored within the Arts! Artistry deals with expressing these realities, struggles, visions, dreams, passions and desires of our world. Making tangible what is sometimes hard to grasp. Opening up other avenues and perspectives to discuss, perceive and share in other ways. These realities hold physical connections to the environments and entities that can be revised and re-imaged through the artistry. When incorporating a physical engagement with broader ranges of society, art can emulate and explore the realities of what is being sustained and with what abilities. For this to happen a major didactic part of art has to shifts outside of the white cube art, individualistic, cultural bubble and by having direct contact with the myriad of realities, characters, issues and systems that are at play in the everyday realities of life, it can become more honest and alive, with an impact that empowers staining abilities of the current and future realities.(1)*
Creative ideas can be showcased and tested with live active responses. Drawing in a more inclusive form of art that goes beyond the galleries, auction houses, exhibitions, highflying performances and experiments that speak only to those that understand the same terminology and language and regurgitate, discourse and the elements of freedom from a position of economic wealthy and bubbles of comfort, the modern Bourgeoisie* (*MAX JORGE HINDERER CRUZ). All the while excluding, editing out the majority of those that truly represent the back on which society is formed shaped and built upon. It is the art that connects to and engages with this society learning from its reality and emulating its unpolished, multi-layered, turbulent and interconnected elements that is truly honest rich and deep. This form of art connects back to what Art truly comes from and represents artist that are apart of and made up of this society. Not just the edited white clean forms of art that are selected presented and pitched against each other in an economic boxed framework that caters to consumerism and division. It is this polished version of art that derives the skewed meaning and assumptions of what Art is or should be. This waters art down, airbrushed, boxing it in, dividing and separating it from society.
Art is transdisciplinary it its nature and is used in in combination with and for economics, philosophy, politics, science and much more. Interestingly the economic world has used art to understand human characteristics. In her book Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth refers to artists like Leonardo da Vinci because art makes things tangible and graspable, by visualising things, taste, touch, smell, see, hear, feel, touch etc. The by doing this human behaviour becomes more tangible and workable. (*Pg. 95 Donut Economics) The economists used this process to highlight certain features, simplify the complex moral behaviours in order to formulate strategies that can shape, predict and control the desired economic results, “a single average individual – the Homo Economicus". (2)
Unfortunately, when art is controlled by economics it is stripped of its complexities, boxed in and made for a predesigned client, made by a predesigned and preselected artists and art forms, polishing and setting it up on countless pedestals and frames, ready for mass consumption. All the while maintaining hold of the strings around those that are allowed into or get kicked out of these white cube exhibitions, symposiums and discussions. But in reality, complex artist and art can’t be boxed in, fully explained and controlled. Art shouldn’t be put in this system with little nurturing and care, only expected to put within a specific framework, to producing something that is qualifiable, sellable and that can be explained away. It is here that the same value and understanding of what are in tales is lost to the majority of society. Artists want to be understood and yet it is the economic framework that they are at first glance put within. Having to fend for what their practice stands for and why it's considered art, because it doesn’t fit on the pedestal or in the acclaimed halls of fame. This goes for all forms of artistry, the pitching of one against another for monetary purpose that the meaning of what art adds up to becomes more and more boxed in, certain features are highlighted more than others and priority is placed up the values within these boxes and rectangles. Thus, society is stripped out of the arts and the arts out of society.
These boxes and rectangles are stacked one upon another in ranking of power, creating deeper divides as they go along. Rising up to a stack pyramid, with a few of humankind standing at the top trying to dominate it all. Even when we look at the pillars of sustainably everything is boxed in with its boundaries as if nature and our natural way of being is part of nature. “The boundaries between the categories of the natural and the cultural have been displaced and to a large extent blurred by the effects of scientific and technological advances.” *(3) Rosi Braidotti, hits the heart of where connectivity is stumped, by critiquing what humanism is set and founded upon. To put it really simply, by boxing things in and categorising everything, this leads to power plays and dominance. She highlights that in order to re-understand the powers that are influencing us subconsciously and that define the way we make connections to these boxed in systems. We need skills of endurance, of imagination and of transversal connectivity. Especially when dealing with such a dissonant and opposing ways of thinking when it comes to a book in technology and the destruction of our planet happening simultaneously. * (4)
For art, culture, society, nature and economic viability to truly reach the Global Sustainability Goals. The divides must be crossed and instead give room to form natural relationships that flow together. Supporting one another, caring for one another and allowing the need for one another to be present. In essence shifting from the individualism to transversality/transversal connectivity. This way they will be relevant, have true value and play an active role for current and future actions for reimagining and being together.
Some fantastic more open and transversal supportive approach can be found from the following examples:
- Caroline Woolard *https://carolinewoolard.com
- Casco* and in the C words for the Commons…. CAI Assembly 2020 We Owe Each Other Everything and C-Words A4 Handout. https://casco.art/
- Jeanne van Heeswijk
1. https://mailchi.mp/cultureactioneurope/culture-sustainability?e=a1d9ec8ee6
2. Kate Raworth, Donut Economics Pg.99
3. Rosi Braidotti, Posthuman Humanities Pg. 3
4. Rosi Braidotti, 13:48 https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/rosi-braidotti/
