Sustaining fecundity: artistic creation as care for life
Art is as old as human culture. For most of the time, art was part of an exchange between humans and the cosmic order. Art was meant as a gift to nourish the fecundity of life. Art was communication with ancestral creational powers — the invocation of a poetic space from which creation entered the m...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Australian Journal of Environmental Education |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0814062623000265/type/journal_article |
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| author | Andreas Weber |
| author_facet | Andreas Weber |
| author_sort | Andreas Weber |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Art is as old as human culture. For most of the time, art was part of an exchange between humans and the cosmic order. Art was meant as a gift to nourish the fecundity of life. Art was communication with ancestral creational powers — the invocation of a poetic space from which creation entered the material realm. This paper explores art as a way of tapping into the invisible forces of reality. I argue that humans can experience these forces as aliveness (joy/desire to give) and can transmit them by poetic creation. Through art, humans have a capacity to nourish life, in parallel to how natural productivity unfolds from the unseen into the embodied domain. This capacity is a source of artistic creation. It is a crucial means to participate in a life-giving cosmos. Although the Western understanding of art is far from this attitude, art has remained the domain where aliveness is accommodated not with empirical, but with imaginational means. In the current global crisis of life, it is crucial to remember the potential of art not only to relate but to contribute to aliveness. Programs in environmental education should build on the direct perception and expressive imagination of aliveness. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-120fd0ee3d584ccebc4957f0f3f58c12 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0814-0626 2049-775X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Australian Journal of Environmental Education |
| spelling | doaj-art-120fd0ee3d584ccebc4957f0f3f58c122025-08-20T03:40:44ZengCambridge University PressAustralian Journal of Environmental Education0814-06262049-775X2023-09-013930731910.1017/aee.2023.26Sustaining fecundity: artistic creation as care for lifeAndreas Weber0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4871-7775Bard College Berlin, Berlin, GermanyArt is as old as human culture. For most of the time, art was part of an exchange between humans and the cosmic order. Art was meant as a gift to nourish the fecundity of life. Art was communication with ancestral creational powers — the invocation of a poetic space from which creation entered the material realm. This paper explores art as a way of tapping into the invisible forces of reality. I argue that humans can experience these forces as aliveness (joy/desire to give) and can transmit them by poetic creation. Through art, humans have a capacity to nourish life, in parallel to how natural productivity unfolds from the unseen into the embodied domain. This capacity is a source of artistic creation. It is a crucial means to participate in a life-giving cosmos. Although the Western understanding of art is far from this attitude, art has remained the domain where aliveness is accommodated not with empirical, but with imaginational means. In the current global crisis of life, it is crucial to remember the potential of art not only to relate but to contribute to aliveness. Programs in environmental education should build on the direct perception and expressive imagination of aliveness.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0814062623000265/type/journal_articleArtwangarralivenesscommonsgiftreciprocityanimism |
| spellingShingle | Andreas Weber Sustaining fecundity: artistic creation as care for life Australian Journal of Environmental Education Art wangarr aliveness commons gift reciprocity animism |
| title | Sustaining fecundity: artistic creation as care for life |
| title_full | Sustaining fecundity: artistic creation as care for life |
| title_fullStr | Sustaining fecundity: artistic creation as care for life |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sustaining fecundity: artistic creation as care for life |
| title_short | Sustaining fecundity: artistic creation as care for life |
| title_sort | sustaining fecundity artistic creation as care for life |
| topic | Art wangarr aliveness commons gift reciprocity animism |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0814062623000265/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT andreasweber sustainingfecundityartisticcreationascareforlife |