Symposium
The theme for the 2009 conference was ‘The relationship between the visual arts and ecological thinking'.
The environment has been a source of inspiration for as long as people have been making art. Art has helped to inform and shape our thinking about the environment. In the last 40 years, alongside the growth of the environmental movement, artists have created work with a growing awareness and understanding of the many ways our society impacts upon the earth. This awareness has galvanised around the fact that the relationship between humanity and our life giving planet is in a critical state.
The current situation demands that we reconsider many of the social activities upon which we depend. Ecological thinking highlights the interdependent relationships between people and planet and provides a way of engaging responsibly with the environment. Within this ecological framework artists are developing strategies and models of practice that re-conceptualise social activities and environmental understanding.
Artists now regularly produce work that considers concepts of community/health/food/waste/transport/building/economics/education/clothing etc. Similarly they now collaborate with scientists and exchange knowledge about water/air/energy/soil etc. and incorporate this knowledge into their practice.
Participants in this year's symposium had the opportunity to contribute to the dialogue and debate on this challenging theme and discuss how art can address practical concerns and provoke new ways of thinking about sustainability.
PDF versions of presentations will be available soon
- Reiko Goto - Empathetic Relationship in Ecological Art
- Renee Kool - Archeology of the Near Future: The Annunciation of New Urbanity
- Andrzej Kostołowski - What Do We Need this Landscape for?
- Lorraine Kypiotis - Adventures in Wonderland
- Gong Lijun - Ecological Thinking of Visual Art
- Hugh Pocock - Baltimore; What's Art Got to Do with It? A Discussion on the Challenge to Higher Education of Adaptation to Social and Environmental urban crisis.
- Margaret Roberts - The Contribution of Spatial Art Practices to Ecological Thinking
- Malaika Sarco-Thomas - Improvising with Twigs: Paradox in Transversal Practices
Click here for images from the workshops held as part of AIAS 2009
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