“The wings of transformation are born of patience and struggle.”— Janet Dickens
Introduction: A Multispecies Study
Art often serves as storytelling and it has the power to convey emotion and awareness. From an ecological standpoint, art can support an understanding of organic life’s interconnection as well as cultivate empathy for the world around us. Nevertheless, art typically needs language to aid in activating that power. By establishing a basis for thinking about specific works of art, one can help individuals truly see beyond an artist’s composition. According to Karl Kusserow in Picture Ecology: Art and Ecocriticism in Planetary Perspective,
By developing ecocritical frameworks of interpretation, we enable people to see ecological and environmental meanings in art of both past and present. And the more diverse those frameworks are, the greater their impact across audiences and different forms of art.1
In other words, looking at art with a purposeful lens can help us discover new ways of seeing the value of all living things as well as their right to be on earth.
For this unit, I have chosen to take on a multispecies approach in pursuit of environmental conservation of essential living creatures. For instance, multispecies storytelling through monarch butterflies and human being migration in art draws on a narrative method that looks at nature through a beyond-human lens. By rethinking our relationship with other species, we invite the creation of new narratives through illustrative practices, and reshape our understanding and knowledge of landscape value, culture, and aesthetics.2
This study cogitates a way to think about who speaks on behalf of nature, and uses various art forms to contribute to participatory valuation and decision-making processes about nature itself and the lives that inhabit it. More importantly, this is an analysis of a passionate immersion in the lives of animals and humanity in order to uncover new understandings, relationships, and accountabilities. The idea is to explore such connections and become responsive to the diverse ways of life that constitute the world.
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