This article is embraced in a series of publications for a new thematic issue of the journal entitled: ‘Animals as partners: cultural, ecological, therapeutic implications.’ It offers a critical exploration of how a shifting cultural, aesthetic, political and media-shaped landscape assigns various roles and values attributed to animals in contemporary society, and the consequences for living conditions of animals and humans alike. It integrates research from innovative critical animal studies and a range of areas such as ecology, sociology, philosophy, and cultural studies, and considers human-animal relationship from the post-human, environmental humanity and eco-human perspectives. In order to grasp the relevance of the deeply intertwined relationship between human and animal, or between the culture/nature dichotomy, the nexus between science and contemporary art is discussed and illustrated with artworks of some renowned artists.

This article is embraced in a series of publications for a new thematic issue of the journal entitled: ‘Animals as partners: cultural, ecological, therapeutic implications.’ Following the thinking of Jacques Derrida, in which difference implies commonality, this essay problematizes the distinction between human beings and animals which is taken for granted in and constitutes the Western philosophical tradition. Philosophy defines human being by the capacity to reason in opposition to animal existence, but suffering is common to both humans and animals. Derrida refers to the novel, Elizabeth Costello, by J. M. Coetzee, in which the eponymous character, Elizabeth Costello, testifies to feeling “wounded” by the suffering of animals as the primary mode of encountering them, thus shifting the discussion from reason and philosophical discourse to that of feeling and the arts.

This interview is embraced in a series of publications for a new thematic issue of the journal entitled: ‘Animals as partners: cultural, ecological, therapeutic implications.’ In an interview, Scottish artist and art therapist Beverley A'Court talks about the holistic, environmental/ecological approach in art and art therapy. Considering the role of the environment from the point of view of such art therapy, she dwells on the phenomena of spontaneous participation of animals in creative acts and the art therapy process, their ability to “resonate” with the experiences of clients and respond to their emotional needs. Holistic art therapy is presented as allowing on a new basis to understand the participation of different forms of life in interaction and co-creation with each other aimed at restoring health, beauty and well-being.

In 2018, a writer and an architect created a program called ECOPOESIS with the goal of gathering diverse groups to discuss climate change as feeling and experience, while engaging in shared design craft work. The project has three forms to date, curated, invitation-only gatherings, large public events attached to festivals, and online global reflections on local ecologies aligned with Earth Day. As in-person gatherings produced to counteract the doomsday data fixation around climate change, ECOPOESIS leverages human imagination via design, writing, and art to provoke pragmatic and positive hope for creating the Next Earth. This essay describes the participation of ECOPOESIS in The Performance Arcade Festival in New Zealand, dedicated to the topic of climate change. The Festival showed the role of the expressive arts and its ability to support the unity of the human community and to undertake large-scale initiatives, based on imagination and creativity, in order to overcome the consequences of the destruction and trauma brought about by climate change. In describing the group’s participation in this festival, the author refers to the devastating cyclone that occurred during the event and affected some areas of New Zealand.

'Ecopoiesis: A Manifesto for Ecological Civilization' contains the main provisions related to a new type of civilization, which should replace the industrial civilization, which has actually exhausted the potential of its development and has become the leading force for the destruction of humans and the living environment. A Manifesto for Ecological Civilization is the basis of the scenario for the development of culture and various public institutions, recognizing the potential of people to control their own destiny, to take effective steps to preserve life on earth.