EDITORIAL. THE ECOPOIETIC VISION AND THE ROLE OF ARTS
“O brave new world that has such beings in it.” (from Shakespeare’s Tempest)
We live in a time of ecological crisis. The world we live in has almost been destroyed by industrial pollution, war, neglect and overdevelopment. The concept of the Anthropocene, the sense that today there is no such thing as nature independent of human activity, signifies ultimately that we have created a world in which we may destroy ourselves. We may well ask, what kind of beings are we that could do such a thing?
The concept of the Anthropocene tells us that we can only be understood in ecological terms. We indicate this with the term, “Eco-human,” a term which itself signifies a shift in the Western conception of human being. From Plato to Descartes, we understood ourselves as separate from nature, distinguished by our capacity to reason. Now we see that we ourselves are natural beings, part of the world in which we live.
However, although we are part of nature, we do have a special relationship to it, indicating this by the term, “ecopoiesis.” The word “poiesis,” from the Greek for art-making, means a capacity to respond to what is given and to shape it in a way that aims at beauty. Of course, our shaping may aim at profit or domination rather than beauty, but even our mis-shaping shows us that we are, we might say, ecopoietic by nature. We are not only ecological but ecopoietic beings.
The complex issues of our human and societal development as ecopoietic beings are presented in the different sections of this issue of the journal.
The quest to create an ecological civilization, in particular, through the lenses of eco-Marxism, is considered in Arran Gare’s article, THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIALIST ECO-CIVILIZATIONAL PROGRESS. It continues a series of publications on the ecological civilization presented in the previous issue. Though such terms as ‘ecological civilization’, or ‘eco-Marxism’ are problematic, they can be clarified by defining them through concepts deriving from ecology, and as such, the quest for ecological civilization can be seen as the quest to develop and realize an ‘ecological culture’, taking ecology as the root metaphor for comprehending the whole of reality.
It is argued in the article that the concept of ecopoiesis, deriving from ecology, provides a bridge between the natural sciences and the humanities, providing the basis for the reformulation of the social sciences and political philosophy required to create a new world order, an order that is committed to augmenting the life of the biosphere and human communities at all levels, while facilitating the comprehension of humanity as part of nature required to achieve this. In the immediate future, this project involves upholding the rule of law internationally, integrating the quest for a multipolar world-order with the quest for a global ecological civilization.
In Varvara Sodorova’s article, UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURE AND NATURE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE EXPRESSIVE ARTS, the way in which the human body produces the unity of the cultural and natural dimensions of the human being is considered. It is believed that the body acts as the natural basis of humans, connecting us with the organic foundations of natural life. At the same time, the arts act as a means of organizing and expressing different aspects of human bodily experience. Thus, the role of the arts is outlined. It is emphasized that the arts restore our connection with the body, nature and traditional cultures, returning ancient wisdom to humans in modern conditions.
Some advantages and the ambiguous relationship between nature and the arts are explored in the articles presented in the second section of the journal, Practices and technologies of the eco-human approach. In Monika Wigger’s article, NATURAL AND ARTISTIC ASPECTS OF ART THERAPY, those issues are scrutinized on the examples of the works of artists and by clients’ work in art therapy. The projects of some artists who turned to the depiction of nature or the study of human relations to nature, such as Joseph Beuys, Andy Goldsworthy, Claude Monet and Thomas Wrede, are commented on. Brief descriptions of examples of artistic design of a psychiatric hospital and of the reflection of nature through art in the psychiatric hospital in Münster (Germany), as well as interaction with the natural world during art therapy, in particular, with patients suffering from oncological diseases, are given.
In Alexander Kopytin’s article, DEVELOPING HUMAN BONDS WITH NATURE THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY, the role of photography in providing a meaningful human connection to nature is analyzed and illustrated though some examples of using photography as a powerful means of developing ecological culture. Some reasons why photography can be a valuable tool of nature-based practices supporting the environmental consciousness are presented.
IN RESONANCE WITH THE EARTH section of the journal our vital human bonds to nature is further explored though the means of expressive arts. In this issue, this section includes poetry and artworks by Judith Greer Essex and Jenna Montgomery and a new series of poems by Stephen K. Levine and Alexander Kopytin.
In the interview, British environmental arts therapist, Gary Nash, talks about the growing area of nature-based creative arts-therapy practice in the UK and environmental arts therapies initiatives that he and his colleagues have developed. He makes a special tribute to the memory of his colleague and the pioneer of environmental arts therapy, Ian Siddons Heginworth, who has sadly passed this year.
We also make a special tribute to Dr. John B. Cobb, who died on the 26th of December, 2024. He was a world-renowned process philosopher and process theologian, a leading figure of constructive postmodernism, and a pioneer of ecological civilization theory.
Stephen K. Levine