The art of future-building

Individual wellbeing is entirely dependent on the wellness of the other living beings that make up the biosphere. If arts practitioners and cultural organisations want to bring about wellbeing, they need to focus on eco-social repair by mobilising people to restore the biosphere and generate capital from it. This may seem surprising, even irrelevant, to a discussion of arts and wellbeing. However, it is relevant because without a functioning environment there isn’t a future for us. As the environmental crisis worsens, it will put massive stress on our mental health. How might we as a sector help people to cope better through cultural activity which makes the continuity of human civilisation more likely?

I often hear litanies against my perspective, such as: “Our wellbeing will be threatened if we adjust the balance in favour of the environment.” I argue that this is a fallacy because we are the environment. In the run up to the Rio Earth Summit this June, Kate Raworth at Oxfam has created a ‘doughnut model’ to show that if we exceed the Earth’s environmental boundaries – land and water use, chemical pollution – or fall short of its social boundaries – health, food, gender equality – then we exit the safe and just space in which humanity can thrive.

I also hear: “Isn’t it only the affluent in a position to use art or creative approaches to future-building? Shouldn’t we protect the vulnerable from planetary realities and focus on building their strength?” In answer I point to inspiring examples worldwide where artists, digital enablers, designers and creative educators have encouraged ‘positive deviancy’ with communities living on the very edge. These projects often focus on the basic means for survival – water, food, reducing pollution and waste, but also use aesthetics and joyful approaches to generate new ideas and motivate people. For example, Aastha Chauhan works with local and migrant communities in India. As part of a 1mile² Visiting Arts project she used wireless broadcasting to map medicinal plants and share knowledge in Delhi.

I think it’s important to be sensitive to people’s needs, but also it is clear that we all feel better when we can see the root of the problem and take action. There is a role for cultural practitioners (working broadly as social therapists) to help people navigate between panic and escapist lethargy, so that they can take action within their means and join with others to have a greater impact. Effective collaboration depends on the ability to depolarise situations of conflict and to flip dilemmas to find positive solutions. I’ve met many great cultural practitioners working in this area. James Aldridge, Director of Creative Ecology has a special ability to motivate people to develop bioempathy, in ways that counter both the perceived preachiness of some environmentalism and the vagueness of some forms of ecotherapy. He uses visual art practice with people of all ages to develop an integrated personal and environmental awareness.

And the root of the problem? Well, I’d point to one: that we mistakenly equate wellbeing with material wealth, and to attain it we blind ourselves to the evidence of ecocide. Now we are in a crisis where there is no easy solution to avert mass extinction. Art does not represent one easy solution or one definable category, so it is often dismissed in favour of industrial or consumer technologies. However, it is valuable because it is possibly the best teacher and generator we have for clumsy and multiple solutions. It accelerates learning and connection by acting as a replicator of the world and transmitter of ideas. In this, it reminds me of the symbiotic function of the hidden Mycorrhizae fungus which allows trees to communicate with each other. Chris Jordan is an artist who I think really leverages the power of imagery to expand the impact of art by exposing global patterns and communicating them on a global scale. Amongst other projects, he creates images that help us visualise statistics of our use, destruction and waste of natural resources, and uses social media to involve people in learning about and sharing ‘the numbers’.

At the close of the Play’s the Thing conference, architect Indy Johar said that we should talk less of wellbeing and more about how to live with purpose. I agree wholeheartedly. The key is in how we craft our pursuits, so that they are open enough to allow us to play and explore. We can move cultures towards sustainability, not by making machines or systems with narrow goals to change culture, but by helping people to imagine and make with as much openness and as much awareness of the context in which we live as possible. Artists and cultural organisations are well placed to do just that.