Creating inspiration: how the visual and performing arts shape environmental behaviour

Abstract

<p>Australia faces many environmental problems of considerable scale and complexity. These include high greenhouse gas emissions, pressures on coral reefs, continuing net loss of tree cover and native vegetation, soil erosion, soil salinity, declining water quality and quantity, continuing threats to biodiversity, increasing pressures from urban areas due to population increases and increased per capita consumption, and climate change. Many factors contribute to the environmental behaviour of individuals, and through their combined actions, to society's. Australia faces many environmental problems of considerable scale and complexity. These include high greenhouse gas emissions, pressures on coral reefs, continuing net loss of tree cover and native vegetation, soil erosion, soil salinity, declining water quality and quantity, continuing threats to biodiversity, increasing pressures from urban areas due to population increases and increased per capita consumption, and climate change. Many factors contribute to the environmental behaviour of individuals, and through their combined actions, to society's.</p> <p>This study investigated the effects that visual and performing arts can have on the environmental behaviour of individuals, communities and broader society, with a view to providing recommendations on how to more effectively harness the arts in order to promote ecological sustainability. The research aims were to: This study investigated the effects that visual and performing arts can have on the environmental behaviour of individuals, communities and broader society, with a view to providing recommendations on how to more effectively harness the arts in order to promote ecological sustainability. The research aims were to:</p> <p>• investigate how the visual and performing arts are both deliberately and unconsciously used in shaping perceptions towards the environment in Australia and internationally;</p> <p>• describe how people and organisations working towards environmental repair and conservation have used arts-based modes of communication; </p> <p>• integrate theory of how environmental behaviour is determined and the impact that the arts have on that process;</p> <p>• use a series of events that incorporate the arts and environmental repair, to evaluate the role of the arts in changing people's behaviour towards the environment; </p> <p>• determine if art events can aid participation by a broad cross section of the community, can strengthen a community's abilities to promote inclusion, and can be powerful vehicles for community mobilisation, empowerment, and information transfer;</p> <p>• determine what role the arts might have in shaping ecological sustainability at a societal level; and</p> <p>• develop policy recommendations for extension and environmental education programs. </p> <p>The selection of research methods was guided by methodological pragmatism, drawing from a range of social science paradigms according to circumstance. A quasi-grounded theory approach was used in some stages of the project. This interlaced data collection and analysis so that emerging concepts and theoretical constructs were grounded in the life experience of the research participants. In other stages, social constructivist methods such as focus groups and in-depth semi-structured interviews were employed. Through data collection prior to and after arts events, the project approach used logical positivist methods to provide evidence of the impact of arts events and the causes underlying these impacts. The purposeful methodological diversity added cross-disciplinary force to the thesis, and enabled triangulation between the different types of data, to afford greater confidence in the conclusions. </p> <p>I found that the work of individual artists can influence the behaviour of citizens through 'internally derived I found that the work of individual artists can influence the behaviour of citizens through 'internally derived' interventions, which impinge on a person's values, beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, self-identity and habits, and through these, on social norms. However, desire by individuals to adopt pro-environmental behaviour can be hampered by situational or infrastructure constraints. I also found that the arts have a role in reducing some of these constraints, through 'externalist interventions' where the arts are embedded into ecologically sustainable development. This might be where community and public art are incorporated into urban planning as a means of making active transport modes more attractive, or where the arts provide alternative forms of consumption which are lower in embodied energy and higher in embodied labour.The degree to which a person responds to the arts will depend on personal characteristics (e.g. gender, class, etc.), situation, institutional factors, as well as the type of art. The accumulated result of individual behaviours leads to macro-level impacts on the environment. A knowledge of these impacts in turn influences individual artists, and affects their practice. </p> <p>I found that the arts could foster pro-environmental behaviour through one of three 'pathways'. The first pathway is where the visual and performing arts are used to synthesise complex ideas and to communicate them to non-specialist audiences in an engaging form. This makes the arts valuable in enhancing the teaching of scientific or environmental material and raising awareness about environmental issues in a wide range of contexts. The arts have been used because of these qualities by practitioners, both in Australia and overseas. The arts are also a medium for articulating a dissenting or critical voice which prompts people to look at issues in new ways. Some artists are at the forefront in challenging dominant social paradigms and are active participants in attempts to improve the environmental behaviour of individuals and of society. I found that the arts could foster pro-environmental behaviour through one of three 'pathways'. The first pathway is where the visual and performing arts are used to synthesise complex ideas and to communicate them to non-specialist audiences in an engaging form. This makes the arts valuable in enhancing the teaching of scientific or environmental material and raising awareness about environmental issues in a wide range of contexts. The arts have been used because of these qualities by practitioners, both in Australia and overseas. The arts are also a medium for articulating a dissenting or critical voice which prompts people to look at issues in new ways. Some artists are at the forefront in challenging dominant social paradigms and are active participants in attempts to improve the environmental behaviour of individuals and of society. </p> <p>A second pathway is where the arts and particular artists connect their audience to the natural environment through thoughtful or evocative representations of the environment or by being in the natural environment itself. Similarly, the celebratory aspects of the performing arts make them useful in affirming ecological restoration and environmental repair activities in a non-didactic way. Modem life in Western society has disconnected most people from the natural environment, and the arts provide a way of re-establishing this link. The art described under this pathway exemplifies the important role of artists in aiding understanding of the Australian natural environment and its native flora and fauna, complementing the role of ecologists. Through experiencing artistic explorations a community can develop empathy toward the natural environment, and this is vital in developing a caring relationship for it. A second pathway is where the arts and particular artists connect their audience to the natural environment through thoughtful or evocative representations of the environment or by being in the natural environment itself. Similarly, the celebratory aspects of the performing arts make them useful in affirming ecological restoration and environmental repair activities in a non-didactic way. Modem life in Western society has disconnected most people from the natural environment, and the arts provide a way of re-establishing this link. The art described under this pathway exemplifies the important role of artists in aiding understanding of the Australian natural environment and its native flora and fauna, complementing the role of ecologists. Through experiencing artistic explorations a community can develop empathy toward the natural environment, and this is vital in developing a caring relationship for it. </p> <p>Several case studies were studied that had elements of both the first and second pathways. The case studies demonstrated that celebrations and festivals can be successfully linked with conservation of the environment, and can allow conservation and care of the environment to penetrate many social networks. An event involving music, theatre, dance and spectacle can have many effects on participants and audiences. Such events can encourage people to reflect on their and others' relationship with the environment, and can affect people emotionally and engender positive feelings for the environment. They also have a strong capacity for engendering appreciation and pride in community and can act to strengthen those bonds. They can involve a large number of people, and therefore expand the audience or awareness-rasing about the environment I hey alow partcpants to develop the for awareness-raising about the environment. They allow participants to develop their ideas, to learn about issues and to express their feelings for those issues. They also have an effect in affirming beliefs, reminding, and reinforcing existing knowledge and values, and in prompting changes in people who have not been exposed to those ideas. The case studies showed that large art events with an environmental theme can influence both those whose environmental behaviour is poorly developed as well as those whose behaviour is already good. The process of engagement is particularly important, especially if the message of the work can be carried through in the ways the work is realised. The actual process of being involved is important in learning and consolidating one's ideas and knowledge. The impact of the message is enhanced through repetition and added exposure, and the effects can endure long after the event 1s over. </p> <p>The third pathway is where the arts are embedded in ecologically sustainable development, through the combined effects of community development, economic development, and changes in the patterns of consumption. Examples from urban contexts were examined, where public and community art were integrated into urban planning which was designed around improved active transport modes. Australia's environmental impact is driven by consumption that is high in embodied energy, water and resources. Because the arts industry is low in embodied energy and resources and high in embodied labour, it will be an important segment of the economy in a 'post-consumer' society that has lower levels of environmental impact. The arts can also be integrated with ecologically sustainable development in rural areas. Examples include the links between landscape architecture and landscape aesthetics and the farm planning and landcare movements, as well as the linking of ecological art with ecological restoration. The community and participatory arts have an important role in catalysing ecological sustainability, particularly through their ability to foster altruism. Community arts events have a strong community-building role and can be linked with celebrations of ecologically sustainable behaviours and aspirations. </p>