Eco-Human Theory and Practice
ISSN 2713 – 184x
Ecophilosophy
Ecopsychology
Ecotherapy
Eco Art Therapy
Ecological Education
The "Green" Arts
Eco-aesthetics
Volume 5 (2024) Issue 1
Current Issue
Current Issue
EDITORIAL: ECO-HUMAN PERSPECTIVE. WORLD TRADITIONS AND CONTEMPORARY VISIONS
EDITORIAL: ECO-HUMAN PERSPECTIVE. WORLD TRADITIONS AND CONTEMPORARY VISIONS
EDITORIAL: ECO-HUMAN PERSPECTIVE. WORLD TRADITIONS AND CONTEMPORARY VISIONS

 

There is a complex turmoil taking place in the world in this historical moment: violence in Gaza, and war in Ukraine involved the whole world community and revealed the fragility and dysfunctional nature of the current state of affairs involving humanity and the more-than-human world. The present issue of the journal, again, presents an internation network of people and ideas that help recognize and further develop the ‘counterforce’ to the anthropocentric worldview. The ideas of natural and cultural ecology united with human sciences and the arts are able to withstand the disintegration of modern knowledge about humans, the dehumanization of culture and undermining its fundamental values, to form the platform that serves the understanding of the present and revealing the ways of moving into the future.

RETHINKING POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY THROUGH ECOLOGY AND ECOPOIESIS
RETHINKING POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY THROUGH ECOLOGY AND ECOPOIESIS
RETHINKING POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY THROUGH ECOLOGY AND ECOPOIESIS

 

The failure to effectively confront major challenges facing humanity, most importantly, the global ecological crisis, it is argued, is due to the failure of those analysing the root causes of these challenges to engage with and invoke political philosophy to find a way out, and concomitantly, the failure of ethical and political philosophers to effectively engage with the deep assumptions, power structures and dynamics actually operative in the current world-order. It is claimed that this is due to a tacit acceptance of a cultural dualism manifest in the opposition between the sciences and the humanities, with the humanities having been marginalized by the sciences. To overcome this dualism and marginalization of the humanities, and to defend communitarian ethical and political philosophy in a way that both challenges mainstream thinking and engages with the world as it is, with the potential to inspire and orient people for effective action, it is shown how communitarian ethical and political philosophy can be defended and developed through ecology incorporating the notion of ecopoiesis.

ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION, ORGANIC-PROCESS THINKING AND THE FUTURE OF CHINA
ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION, ORGANIC-PROCESS THINKING AND THE FUTURE OF CHINA
ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION, ORGANIC-PROCESS THINKING AND THE FUTURE OF CHINA

 

For all of its numerous benefits, modernization is a double-edged sword. After wholeheartedly embracing Western-style modernization in the 20th and 21st centuries, China has achieved astonishing world-renowned achievements, most notably in terms of its rapid economic growth and development. However, contemporary China has had to cope with many of the bitter aftertastes of the pill of modernization, especially in regards to the serious ecological crisis faced by most developed countries. In order to avoid the fate of self-destruction of both China and the wider world, a new civilization—ecological civilization—is urgently needed. Different from industrial civilization that holds in the highest regard all things related to machines and tools, an ecological civilization is a civilization that respects nature and aims for the common good of humans and nature. It is the transcendence of modern industrialization, and thus requires a great all-round transformation. Organic-Process thinking can provide a theoretical framework for such an ecological civilization. Although China has made great efforts thus far to create such an ecological civilization, the road toward building one is long and difficult, as there is a great deal of obstacles that must be overcome to reach this goal.

SETTING THE COORDINATES FOR AN ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION
SETTING THE COORDINATES FOR AN ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION
SETTING THE COORDINATES FOR AN ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION

 

An ecological civilization represents an exciting potential future of human flourishing on a regenerated Earth. It would require a transformation of our current economy, politics, and mainstream culture, leading to a fundamentally different civilization based of different values, goals, and collective behavior. An ecological civilization arises from modeling human society on nature’s wisdom—the same core principles that have kept natural ecologies healthy and resilient over millions of years. It is a vision inspired by life-affirming groups worldwide—Indigenous, political, community-based, and spiritual. While it’s visionary and seems a long way off, it may be closer than many people realize.

NATURAL ARCHETYPE OF THE MOON IN CULTURE AND THE ARTS
NATURAL ARCHETYPE OF THE MOON IN CULTURE AND THE ARTS
NATURAL ARCHETYPE OF THE MOON IN CULTURE AND THE ARTS

 

The article examines the influence of the Moon as a celestial body of the solar system, closely connected with the Earth, on humans. It is shown how, through creative activity in the interaction of humans with this celestial body, new meanings and forms of experience are formed and their renewal in culture takes place. In this case, the Moon acts not only as a physical object, but also as one of the natural archetypes, due to which a complex of human potentials is realized in their connection with the environment. When considering the Moon as a natural phenomenon, special attention is paid to those types of activities when it is perceived through the prism of non-pragmatic, artistic and aesthetic experience, closely related to the experience of beauty. When considering this mode of perception of the Moon, the concepts of poiesis and ecopoiesis are used.

Featured Articles
1107.24

We are pleased to introduce a new section of our journal, "In Resonance with the Earth." We see poiesis as providing the basis for human beings' creative responses to the world of nature. The arts in particular offer forms that crystallize these responses in ways that touch and move us. "In Resonance with the Earth" contains poetry, artworks, photography and essays relevant to this theme. In this issue of the journal, this section includes an essay by Vadim Ryabikov and a poem by Alexander Kopytin (recitation by Alexandra Kirillova).

0607.24

The article examines the influence of the Moon as a celestial body of the solar system, closely connected with the Earth, on humans. It is shown how, through creative activity in the interaction of humans with this celestial body, new meanings and forms of experience are formed and their renewal in culture takes place. In this case, the Moon acts not only as a physical object, but also as one of the natural archetypes, due to which a complex of human potentials is realized in their connection with the environment. When considering the Moon as a natural phenomenon, special attention is paid to those types of activities when it is perceived through the prism of non-pragmatic, artistic and aesthetic experience, closely related to the sense of beauty. When considering this mode of perception of the Moon, the concepts of poiesis and ecopoiesis are used.

0107.24

There is a complex turmoil taking place in the world in this historical moment: violence in Gaza, and war in Ukraine involved the whole world community and revealed the fragility and dysfunctional nature of the state of affairs. In this issue of the journal, both world environmental traditions and new ideas in ecology are contributing to a new eco-human approach to understanding the world and humanity. The constructiveness of the eco-human approach or a paradigm is determined by systemic environmental thinking. “Ecology” is a radical system-forming concept necessary to rethink the entire cultural practice of humankind and realize new opportunities to solve the problems of preserving humanity and the planet.

3006.24

The new section of our journal, “Poetic Anthology of Eco-Human Experience”, presents poetry from different ages, dedicated to various facets of our human relationship with the moon as a natural object. Poetic works allow us to comprehend the eco-human, eco-poietic nuances of our ability, together with this natural phenomenon, to generate new facets of subjectivity, to discover new forms of experience and meanings revealed on the threshold of human and more-than-human reality.

1206.24

Authors of this essay recognize themselves as living in a particularly difficult time for peaceful coexistence between countries, cultures and with nature. Presenting themselves as part of this system and complex fabric, they ask themselves about a way to live healthily in a hostile environment. They describe the experiences of faculty, students, and alumni at Estudios en Artes Expresivas (TAE) in Lima, Peru, in hosting creative activities. They welcomed the events present in their reality by making art in community, to imagine different ways of responding to it. They know that the arts and their vitality allow them to respond to what they have experienced and bring them closer to beauty. Arts are part of human nature. In them human beings find the possibility of transforming pain and responding aesthetically, in community.

Название
Book reviews and interviews
News and Events
ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS THERAPY UK NEWSLETTER (SUMMER)
2024-08-19 07:58:30ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS THERAPY UK NEWSLETTER (SUMMER)

This newsletter published by Environmental Arts Therapy UK presents activities and reviews initiated by a growing community of environmental arts therapists driven by the need to understand and develop the vital connections between Nature, psychotherapy, creativity, and the environmental climate emergency. At a time of increasing crisis and suffering on our planet the arts therapies are being shaped by social and political forces that ultimately generate change, one of those changes is the joining of ideas and communities so that we can grow and support each other’s creative practice in the interests of Nature and human beings.

THE 16th CLAREMONT INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION
2023-05-27 20:59:33THE 16th CLAREMONT INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION
The Claremont International Forum on Ecological Civilization (a.k.a. the Claremont Eco Forum) is the earliest and largest forum on ecological civilization in the West. The Forum is organized by Institute for Postmodern China and Center for Process Studies since 2006. The 16th International Forum on Ecological Civilization & 5th International Youth Forum on Ecological Civilization have been held on May 25-27, 2023, fully online, and their main theme was Deep Transformation for Ecological Civilization. The mission of the forum is to bring together creative academics, non-profit leaders, governmental officials, and leading activists, Chinese and Non-Chinese, to explore new worldviews, new way of thinking, new models of development, new way of organic farming, and new models of education in the transition toward ecological civilization.
 
MEMORIAL TO NEWTON HARRISON, A FOUNDER OF THE ECO-ART MOVEMENT
2022-10-02 08:59:20MEMORIAL TO NEWTON HARRISON, A FOUNDER OF THE ECO-ART MOVEMENT

Newton Harrison, who, with his wife, Helen Mayer Harrison, was a founder of the eco-art movement, died on Sept. 4, in Santa Cruz, Calif. He was a Research Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Director of Harrisons Studio, and Professor Emeritus at the University of California at San Diego, an Advisor of the “Ecopoiesis: Eco-Human Theory and Practice” journal

TOUCHING NATURE: TOUCHED BY NATURE: AN ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS THERAPY EXHIBITION REVIEW BY STELLA PHIPPS
2021-05-07 17:59:03TOUCHING NATURE: TOUCHED BY NATURE: AN ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS THERAPY EXHIBITION REVIEW BY STELLA PHIPPS
Stella Phipps shares her perception of TOUCHING NATURE: TOUCHED BY NATURE: AN ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS THERAPY EXHIBITION she attended in north London on last November. The exhibition aimed to raise awareness about environmental arts therapy and the many benefits it can offer artists, expressive/creative arts therapists, and the communities in which we live.
THE DEEP WEALTH OF THIS NATION SCOTLAND
2021-05-07 17:34:09THE DEEP WEALTH OF THIS NATION SCOTLAND

Newton Harrison produced a work entitled The Deep Wealth of This Nation Scotland. In it, in 10 images and 10 texts, he proposed how the country of Scotland can move successfully and abundantly through a heatwave. Some images and texts of The Deep Wealth of This Nation Scotland when it was last shown in the TaiPei Biennial illustrate his new project. It will soon be shown again in Scotland, as the country is going into a discourse on its well-being given temperature shock.

Recent videos
NEWTON HARRISON. SENSORIUM: THE THINKING
2021-08-07 20:48:01NEWTON HARRISON. SENSORIUM: THE THINKING

Sensorium is both a work of art and of science that sets out to synthesize the survival problems that the world ocean faces in our emerging heat shocked future. The work is designed by Newton Harrison, and emerges from the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure, located at the University of California Santa Cruz. Personally, Sensorium is his most recent effort in addressing the ongoing degeneration of our world ocean’s life web. Sensorium is presented as a work of art and an interface for our human interaction and dialogue with our world ocean’s life web. In this video he is proposing a form of expression that references the whole systems knowing that our ancestors practiced as their everyday survival motif and that has now faded to a whisper in everyday western life.

ALEXANDRA KIRILLOVA - VOICE WORK AS A WAY OF ESTABLISHING CONNECTION WITH THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
2020-05-04 14:37:35ALEXANDRA KIRILLOVA - VOICE WORK AS A WAY OF ESTABLISHING CONNECTION WITH THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
Alexandra Kirillova, singer, psychologist and vocal practitioner, talks about how singing and voice work are based on synchronizing a person’s state and inner nature with the environment, establishing a deep healing connection with the natural world and a specific landscape.
VLADISLAV GRISHIN: THE ROLE OF DOCUMENTARY FILM IN SUPPORTING ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES.
2020-04-22 22:28:55VLADISLAV GRISHIN: THE ROLE OF DOCUMENTARY FILM IN SUPPORTING ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES.

Vladislav Grishin, director and screenwriter of the documentary film “Bears of Kamchatka,” shares his impressions of working on the film and the film’s ability to convey the direct experience of interacting with the natural environment and its inhabitants, which may support the spectator’s yearning to be closer to nature.

LEONID TISHKOV: ART AS AN ECOLOGICAL ACTION
2020-02-09 13:54:32LEONID TISHKOV: ART AS AN ECOLOGICAL ACTION

The artist Leonid Tishkov talks about his participation in a number of projects that help to draw attention to environmental problems and emphasizes the role of art in promoting environmental values.

VADIM RYABIKOV ON PSI-GEOGRAPHICAL MUSIC
2020-02-09 13:52:36VADIM RYABIKOV ON PSI-GEOGRAPHICAL MUSIC
Psychologist, musician, composer Vadim Ryabikov speaks about psi-geographical music as a special way of human interaction with natural landscapes, turning the experience of the landscape into aesthetic images that can change our attitude to the environment and have a healing effect.
Featured artists

An artist from St.Petersburg, Alexandra Dvornikova, gave an interview to our journal, talking about her work and its connection with nature, about the artist's role in promoting environmental values and ecological culture, developing an environmental awareness, about communicating with the natural world as a source of inspiration, beauty and healing.

At times of crisis, environmental and human challenges and transitions, music is a powerful force that can connect people across borders, touch people’s hearts and build empathy, trust and understanding. Music has an incredible therapeutic power to heal through expression of deep feelings and experiences in the current times of the eco-human crisis. Music is a universal language interwoven in all cultures. It is from this universal heart of music that ‘The Alchemy of Therapeutic Songwriting’ project, initiated by Carrie Herbert, musician and songwriter, was born.

This essay was written in response to Alexander’s Kopytin’s questions inviting Shaun McNiff to expand upon his presentation at the Ecological/Earth-Based Arts Therapies Conference in August of 2020 where he discussed the need for a depth psychology of art and nature. Based on an all-inclusive idea of nature and with reference to the ideas of James Hillman and Thomas Berry, the author presents his understanding of art as a force of nature. He illustrates his statements with his own art.

In this excerpt from their book, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens explore the realms of ecosexuality as they became lovers with the Earth and made their mutual pleasure an embodied expression of passion for the environment. Since 2008, they have been not just pushing but obliterating the boundaries circumscribing biology and ecology, creating ecosexual art in their performance of an environmentalism that is feminist, queer, sensual, sexual, posthuman, materialist, exuberant, and steeped in humor. 

Moscow artist Maxim Demin gave an interview to our journal, in which he talks about the connection of his work with traditional iconography and its interaction with the environment, time, space, his study of natural dynamics and life cycles of natural materials and objects, and spiritual sources of creativity.

Musician, composer, poet and singer Riya Volkova talks about her creative endeavors related to playing the Russian harp (the ‘gusli’), her attitude to the traditional musical culture of the peoples of North-West Russia and traditional music’s connection with new musical trends, as well as the importance of nature for her work.

Two artists from NYC, Jean Davis and Nancy Wu, gave an interview to our journal in which they talk about their environmental artistic endeavors linked to Resurrect Studio which entails gathering broken, discarded, but ultimately luminous pieces of glass fragments found on the ocean coastal line.  The glass sculptures collectively tell a story of hope and inspiration, of sacred and profane.

"Memories of the Future" is an ecopoietic project by artist / expressive art teacher, Roseline de Thélin, who is aiming to raise awareness on the disappearance of the Prickly Pear cactus, in the Balearic Islands and mainland Spain due to a plague of Cochineal. Inspired by Donna Haraway's writings (“Staying with the trouble”, in particular) the artist created surreal scenes as “speculative fabulations” from a mix of artificial intelligence, digital and analogue manipulation, with the aim of fostering new narratives and perspective shifts in the face of ecological issues.

About the journal

In accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation on the Mass Media, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) on September 22, 2020, the web-based publication - The peer-reviewed scientific online journal "Ecopoiesis: Eco-Human Theory and Practice" was registered (registration number El No. FS77-79134).

“Ecopoiesis: Eco-Human Theory and Practice” is the international multidisciplinary Journal focused on building an eco-human paradigm, disseminating eco-human knowledge and technology based on the alliance of ecology, humanities and the arts. Our journal aims to be a vibrant forum of theories and practices aimed at harmonizing the relations of mankind and the natural world in the interests of sustainable development, the creation of Eco-Humanity as a new community of human beings and more-than-human world. The human being is an ecological being, not separate from the world. The Ecopoiesis journal is based on that premise and aims to develop a body of theory and practice within that framework.

The Journal promotes dialogue and cooperation between ecologists, philosophers, doctors, educators, psychologists, artists, musicians, designers, social activists, business representatives in the name of eco-human values, human health and well-being, in close connection with concern for the environment. The Journal supports the development and implementation of new environmentally-friendly concepts, technologies and practices in the various fields of health and public life, education and social work.

One of the priority tasks of the Journal is to demonstrate and support the significant role of the arts in their alliance with ecology and the humanities for the restoration and development of constructive relations with nature, raising environmental awareness and promoting nature-friendly lifestyles.

The Journal publishes articles describing new eco-human concepts and practices, technologies and applied research data at the intersection of humanities, ecology and the arts, as well as interviews and conference reports related to the emerging eco-human field. It encourages artwork, music and other creative products related to eco-human practices and the new global community of Eco-Humanity.