Cathy Fitzgerald
Burren College of Art, Art & Ecology, Department Member
- National College of Art and Design, Fine Art & Visual Culture, Graduate StudentUniversity of Galway, Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Department MemberUniversity Of Peace, Earth Charter International, Alumnusadd
- Ecoliteracy, Ecopedagogy, Eco Art, Ecological Art, Ecological Art; Environmentalist Art, Transformational Learning Theory, and 41 moreESD, Felix Guattari, Political Art, Transversality, Participatory Action Research, Visual Culture, Ecocriticism, Art Practice as Research, Sustainable forestry management, Environmental Art, Aesthetics Of Nature, Conceptualisations of Nature, Art And Ecology, Ecocriticism, Eco-Aesthetics, Ecocriticism, art & environment, Anthropocene, Ecological Humanities, Visual Communication, Practice-led research, Practice led Design Methodologies & Theory, Ecosophy, Three Ecologies, More-Than-Human Geographies, Deep Green Political Though, Deep Green Resistance, Environmental Humanities, Practice-led research in creative arts, Action Research, Micropolitics, Art and Activism, Global education, Enviromental Aesthetics, Indigenous Studies, Ecopsychology, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Mindfulness and well being, Anna L. Tsing, Systems Thinking, Transformative Learning, Values Education, and Sustainability in Higher Educationedit
- New Zealander Dr Cathy Fitzgerald, living in Ireland, the home of her Irish ancestors, is the founder of the independ... moreNew Zealander Dr Cathy Fitzgerald, living in Ireland, the home of her Irish ancestors, is the founder of the independent Haumea Ecoversity at https://haumeaecoversity.ie
Her developing ecopedagogy on ecoliteracy and values-based transformative learning, with reference to developments in ESD and the Earth Charter activate agency for creative and cultural professionals for wise, compassionate and beautiful creativity.
Consultant, speaker, advisor and mentor Cathy's work rests on an earlier career in research science and a childhood passion for the arts and wild forested places.
Her ongoing ecological (ecosocial) art practice to transform a conifer plantation toward ecological forestry in 'The Hollywood Forest Story' (begun in 2008), was the basis of her arguments to offer a clear and accessible Guattari ecosophy-action research framework to more easily explain the transformative learning in embedded in ecological art practice for her Creative-led PhD: The Ecological Turn: Living Well with Forests ...).
She brings this framework to advise creative direction for the Drummin Bog community restoration Project, in South County Carlow, Ireland. In doing so, she explores and shares new ideas of creative ecological practice for ecosocial wellbeing to other creative professionals, local authority art professionals, the community and online audiences.
Concluding in her doctoral thesis in 2016, Cathy realised that art education, siloed from environmental understanding and limited resources, would not be able to assist creative learners how to address the ecological emergency in the short decade timeframe the world scientists have given.
In 2018, with the support of the Carlow Local Enterprise Board and Art Office, Cathy developed a unique online Haumea Ecoliteracy programme for creative professionals. Her and her collaborator philosophy educator Dr Nikos Patedakis (California) courses on 'Essential Ecoliteracy', 'Ecosensual Philosophy' and 'Embracing the Earth Charter' are attracting mid-career, postgraduate and experienced art professionals, from across the world.
See https://haumea.ie
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Creative Practice-led PhD title -- The Ecological Turn: Living Well with Forests to Articulate Eco-Social Art Practice using a Guattari ecosophy action research framework (2018).
Supervisors: Dr Paul O'Brien, National College of Art & Design, Ireland (retired)
Dr Iain Biggs, Bath Univ., UK. Environmental Humanities Fellow
Prof. Jessica Hemmings, Former Head of Visual Culture, National College of Art & Design, Ireland
Internal examiner: Prof. Siún Hanrahan, Head of Academic Affairs, National College of Art & Design, Ireland
External examiner: Prof. Richard Povall, Dartington College, Devon, UK.
Cathy was nominated by Prof Richard Povall, to the international EcoArt network during her PhD viva.edit
Insights for Sustainability Educators and Ecological Art Practitioners. This article delves into the intersections between emerging ecological art practices and values-based transformative learning for sustainability education. Cathy... more
Insights for Sustainability Educators and Ecological Art Practitioners.
This article delves into the intersections between emerging ecological art practices and values-based transformative learning for sustainability education.
Cathy Fitzgerald, an Earth Charter educator
who has been leading non-formal education
programmes on ecoliteracy and the Earth
Charter in Ireland, shares her experience and
insights in bringing ecological art practice into
education for sustainable development
programmes.
This article delves into the intersections between emerging ecological art practices and values-based transformative learning for sustainability education.
Cathy Fitzgerald, an Earth Charter educator
who has been leading non-formal education
programmes on ecoliteracy and the Earth
Charter in Ireland, shares her experience and
insights in bringing ecological art practice into
education for sustainable development
programmes.
Research Interests:
For my creative practice-led PhD, "The Ecological Turn: Living Well with For- ests,"' I developed a comprehensive theory-method framework to understand ecoart, which I call ecosocial art practice. This framework is based on Félix... more
For my creative practice-led PhD, "The Ecological Turn: Living Well with For- ests,"' I developed a comprehensive theory-method framework to understand ecoart, which I call ecosocial art practice. This framework is based on Félix Guattari's ecological philosophy, known as ecosophy, and a social inquiry meth- odology known as action research. It details why and how ecosocial art practices routinely promote ecoliteracy and agency, so practitioners and communities can learn, think, and act for their places' enduring well-being. The framework is ex- pressed through my ongoing ecosocial art practice in The Hollywood Forest Story, which centers on my learning to live well with a small forest in rural Ireland.
Research Interests: Participatory Action Research, Action Research, Ecoliteracy, Felix Guattari, Ecological Art, and 14 moreEcopedagogy, Ecosophy, Visual Arts, Land Art, Arts-Based Research, Ecological Ethics, Practice-led research in creative arts, Ecological Literacy, Place-Based Education, Arts and Culture, Ecoart; Environmentalism, Environmentalist Art, Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison, Close to Nature Forestry, Helen and Newton Harrison, Environmental Philosophy and Ecological Thinking, and ecoART
ON 13 NOVEMBER 2021, predictably disappointing news for Earth's citizens and planetary wellbeing emerged from the COP26 summit in Glasgow. Greta Thunberg and activists responded by urgently calling on UN Secretary General, António... more
ON 13 NOVEMBER 2021, predictably disappointing news for Earth's citizens and planetary wellbeing emerged from the COP26 summit in Glasgow. Greta Thunberg and activists responded by urgently calling on UN Secretary General, António Guterres, to declare the climate crisis a Global Level 3 Emergency-the UN's highest category-to enact a coordinated effort, similar to the global pandemic response. But importantly, a seismic cultural shift from the ground up is also urgently needed. More than science or politics, informed creativity has social power to imaginatively and inclusively introduce citizens' hearts to new values and activities that will advance a just and life-sustaining era. In Ireland, the Department of Education is developing strategies for the momentous UNE-SCO-mandated shift across the formal and informal learning landscape to prioritise citizens' urgent understanding of integrated sustainability and social justice. For the creative sector, this shift will insist on 'ecoliteracy' and collective-planetary wellbeing values in education. Corresponding training for cultural policy writers, art administrators and educators, and new long-term funding models to sustain creative workers interested in maintaining community wellbeing, is also foreseen1. In trying to imagine such widespread sustainable cultural renewal, the new artist-led Breaking Cover Collective developed engaging performative responses to the ecological emergency in 2020, including an innovative six-month ecoliteracy training programme. On 4 September 2021 the collective staged an inaugural two-hour performance for 100 people in the grounds of IMMA. Embodying wisdom, beauty and an inclusive ethos needed for a better world, the 15 members of the collective were led by Paola Catizone (performance artist, facilitator and member of IMMA's Visitor Engagement team) and included: Rennie Buenting (organic farmer and ceramic artist), Carmel Ennis (gardener and dancer), Karen Aguiar (dancer), Thomas Morelly (illustrator and XR activist), Laura O'Brien (embodiment practitioner), Miriam Sweeney (student), Mary Hoy (visual artist), Paul Regan (performance artist), Hilary Williams (performance artist) and Sophie Rieu (therapist and artist), Rebecca Bradley (painter), Tom Duffy (musician, artist and educator) and Deirdre Lane (environmental activist and consultant).
Research Interests:
HAUMEA Ecoversity: Changing how Art is taught since 2016. Founder Director Dr Cathy Fitzgerald with Co-Director Dr Nikos Patedakis The renowned meditator and artist Chogyam Trumpa is believed to have once said: “To change the world, you... more
HAUMEA Ecoversity:
Changing how Art is taught since 2016.
Founder Director Dr Cathy Fitzgerald with Co-Director Dr Nikos Patedakis
The renowned meditator and artist Chogyam Trumpa is believed to have once said:
“To change the world, you have to change the culture; to change the culture you have to change society;
to change society you have to change the art;
to do that, you have to change how art is taught’
Changing how Art is taught since 2016.
Founder Director Dr Cathy Fitzgerald with Co-Director Dr Nikos Patedakis
The renowned meditator and artist Chogyam Trumpa is believed to have once said:
“To change the world, you have to change the culture; to change the culture you have to change society;
to change society you have to change the art;
to do that, you have to change how art is taught’
Research Interests: Philosophy of Science, Transformative Learning, Values Education, Community Based Education, Ecoliteracy, and 8 morePerformance Art, Ecological Art, Online Learning, Critical Thinking and Creativity, Visual Arts, Earth Charter, Ecological Consciousness in Literature, and Consciousness and Creativity
Building on cognitive research and environmental philosophy, recent international cultural policy research, and as underlined by the United Nation’s publication of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for people and the planet,... more
Building on cognitive research and environmental philosophy, recent international cultural policy research, and as underlined by the United Nation’s publication of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for people and the planet, there is growing evidence that the arts have a key role alongside science to engage a wider public toward more sustainable living and overall well-being. Unprecedented and accelerating climate and other eco-social challenges, if examined through moral reasoning, require urgent action from all sectors, and in particular, the art sector. This presentation explores these ideas to begin a conversation about starting a new public art for sustainability policy in Ireland.
A recent art and sustainability study report for County Carlow and Ireland by Cathy Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald, 2017) highlights comprehensive cultural research, policy and strategies that are being implemented in Britain to foster the cultural sector to engage with issues of sustainability. This presentation reviews the report, which includes a discussion of the reasons why we in the cultural sector must act urgently, and demonstrates the diverse ways creative practitioners can engage with complex scientific issues. The study highlighted strategies from developed national art and sustainability programmes in England and Scotland, which include: assisting national and local cultural institutes to adopt energy audits so they become public champions of sustainability-learning for their visitors and audiences, and which also reduce running costs and make carbon savings ; curating events to educate cultural practitioners in sustainability science; and developing strategies that enable closer partnership between art and science and improved ecoliteracy for the sector.
A recent art and sustainability study report for County Carlow and Ireland by Cathy Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald, 2017) highlights comprehensive cultural research, policy and strategies that are being implemented in Britain to foster the cultural sector to engage with issues of sustainability. This presentation reviews the report, which includes a discussion of the reasons why we in the cultural sector must act urgently, and demonstrates the diverse ways creative practitioners can engage with complex scientific issues. The study highlighted strategies from developed national art and sustainability programmes in England and Scotland, which include: assisting national and local cultural institutes to adopt energy audits so they become public champions of sustainability-learning for their visitors and audiences, and which also reduce running costs and make carbon savings ; curating events to educate cultural practitioners in sustainability science; and developing strategies that enable closer partnership between art and science and improved ecoliteracy for the sector.
Research Interests:
From the Invisible Scotland Conference, Dundee: PLaCE International, Uni. of Highlands and Islands, Moray School of Art, Univ. Dundee -Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art And Design.
Research Interests:
Our images of nature do not capture the 'slow violence' of ecocide.
Research Interests: Art History, Photography, Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, Ecocriticism, and 6 moreNature Photography, Place-Based Learning, Place Based Pedagogy, Ecocide, indigenous knowledge systems—especially pedagogy—critical/postcolonial theory.Current research is the arts as a medium for sustainable education and cultural healing . . ., and Ecological Literacy, Place-Based Education, Arts and Culture
Ecocide was the name given to the widespread and long-term ecosystem destruction when toxic herbicides were used by the US during the Vietnam War. According to Arendt's biographer, Hannah Arendt in the early’ 1970s thought about ecocide... more
Ecocide was the name given to the widespread and long-term ecosystem destruction when toxic herbicides were used by the US during the Vietnam War. According to Arendt's biographer, Hannah Arendt in the early’ 1970s thought about ecocide as a new form of totalitarianism in the 21st Century.
Research Interests:
Cathy Fitzgerald, an artist based in rural Carlow, reflects on the role of online technologies in the development and promotion of cultural activities in the art, ecology and sustainability field
Research Interests:
Two artists, Mark Dion and Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, whose work practices outline some interesting developments occurring between contemporary visual art reveal current ideas of how society relates to nature. And following recent trends in... more
Two artists, Mark Dion and Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, whose work practices outline
some interesting developments occurring
between contemporary visual art reveal
current ideas of how society relates to
nature. And following recent trends in the
UK, Ireland too is creating a dialogue
between the art and science communities...
some interesting developments occurring
between contemporary visual art reveal
current ideas of how society relates to
nature. And following recent trends in the
UK, Ireland too is creating a dialogue
between the art and science communities...
Research Interests:
A project by ecological artist Dr Cathy Fitzgerald turning a conifer plantation destined for clear-fell into a permanent, species-rich productive forest using new continuous cover forestry methods. Fitzgerald worked with professional... more
A project by ecological artist Dr Cathy Fitzgerald turning a conifer plantation destined for clear-fell into a permanent, species-rich productive forest using new continuous cover forestry methods. Fitzgerald worked with professional foresters and used her perspective as an artist to tell the story of the process and help others envision and enact new land practices with environmental, social and economic benefits for enduring local and planetary wellbeing. The project thus contributes to a broader shift in cultural attitudes towards more ecological ways of thinking and acting for sustainable living.
Research Interests:
Placemaking can offer engaging, inclusive invitations for diverse communities to live well within their places. In its broadest scope placemaking contributes to 'an ecological turn' toward alife-sustaining era (Fitzgerald, 2018a) recently... more
Placemaking can offer engaging, inclusive invitations for diverse communities to live well within their places. In its broadest scope placemaking contributes to 'an ecological turn' toward alife-sustaining era (Fitzgerald, 2018a) recently articulated as the Symbiocene (Albrecht, 2019;
Fitzgerald,2019a, b). Albrecht argues that with a shift to the Symbiocene era, society prioritises functioning symbiotic ecosystems over erroneous economic growth-at-all costs indices that permit the ecocidal atrocities of the Anthropocene. In this chapter, I present The Hollywood Forest Story and new-to-Ireland continuous cover forestry practices, which I have explored
and adopted to transform the small monoculture conifer tree plantation in which I live in rural South East Ireland, into a thriving, mixed species, permanent forest (Woodworth, 2020).
Exploring Close-to-Nature continuous cover forestry within an ecosocial practice becomes an act of symbiotic placemaking in creating 2.5 acres of biodiverse landscape that benefits more-than-human flourishing.
The Hollywood Forest Story, begun in 2008, is a live and ongoing ecosocial art placemaking practice. I introduce the Guattarian ecosophy and action research theory method framework that explains durational ecosocial art practice (Fitzgerald, 2018a, b).
Blogging my multi-constituent ecoso cial art practice significantly helps my collaborators, my community, and myself develop ecoliteracy to assess this more ecological forestry as a critical alternative to dominant extractive monoculture industrial forestry that is inherently ecocidal in the long term (Fitzgerald, 2018a, pp. 110-14). Therefore, I use extracts from my blog 'The Holywood Forest Story' (www.hollywoodforest.com) and the action research part of the ecosocial art practice framework to detail the key stages of symbiotic placemaking.
The chapter aims to explain the Earth-aligned values of an ecosocial art practice - for its contribution to symbiotic placemaking- to community development professionals, art educators, creative practitioners, and cultural policymakers.
Fitzgerald,2019a, b). Albrecht argues that with a shift to the Symbiocene era, society prioritises functioning symbiotic ecosystems over erroneous economic growth-at-all costs indices that permit the ecocidal atrocities of the Anthropocene. In this chapter, I present The Hollywood Forest Story and new-to-Ireland continuous cover forestry practices, which I have explored
and adopted to transform the small monoculture conifer tree plantation in which I live in rural South East Ireland, into a thriving, mixed species, permanent forest (Woodworth, 2020).
Exploring Close-to-Nature continuous cover forestry within an ecosocial practice becomes an act of symbiotic placemaking in creating 2.5 acres of biodiverse landscape that benefits more-than-human flourishing.
The Hollywood Forest Story, begun in 2008, is a live and ongoing ecosocial art placemaking practice. I introduce the Guattarian ecosophy and action research theory method framework that explains durational ecosocial art practice (Fitzgerald, 2018a, b).
Blogging my multi-constituent ecoso cial art practice significantly helps my collaborators, my community, and myself develop ecoliteracy to assess this more ecological forestry as a critical alternative to dominant extractive monoculture industrial forestry that is inherently ecocidal in the long term (Fitzgerald, 2018a, pp. 110-14). Therefore, I use extracts from my blog 'The Holywood Forest Story' (www.hollywoodforest.com) and the action research part of the ecosocial art practice framework to detail the key stages of symbiotic placemaking.
The chapter aims to explain the Earth-aligned values of an ecosocial art practice - for its contribution to symbiotic placemaking- to community development professionals, art educators, creative practitioners, and cultural policymakers.
Research Interests: Forestry, Transformative Learning, Action research (Methodology), Felix Guattari, Ecological Art, and 15 moreEcosophy, Ireland, Sustainable forestry management, Wendell Berry, Emergent Literacy, Placemaking, Green Politics, Arts-Based Participatory Action Research, Anthropocene, Suzi Gablik, Creative Placemaking, Culture and the Anthropocene, ecoART, Soliphilia, and Symbiocene
A chapter from the Earth Writings book by Cathy Fitzgerald and Nessa Cronin: "The Little Wood that Could", pp. 30-39. Earth Writings: Bogs, Fields, Forests, Gardens (2020) received the Geographical Society of Ireland Book of the Year... more
A chapter from the Earth Writings book by Cathy Fitzgerald and Nessa Cronin: "The Little Wood that Could", pp. 30-39.
Earth Writings: Bogs, Fields, Forests, Gardens (2020) received the Geographical Society of Ireland Book of the Year Award at the 53rd annual Conference of Irish Geographers held in Limerick in May 2022. The book, which focuses on community-engaged arts and geography practices in Ireland, was supported by the Maynooth University Department of Geography Research Incentive Fund, Kildare County Council, and Creative Ireland. Edited by Karen E. Till Professor of Cultural Geography at Maynooth University, the volume was designed by Pure Designs and features writings by artists, curators, and academics: Patrick Bresnihan, Nessa Cronin, Monica de Bath, Cathy Fitzgerald, Gerry Kearns, Pauline O’Connell, Seoidín O’Sullivan, Lucina Russell, and Karen Till. The award was in the edited collection category and decided by an international awards committee.
The criteria for consideration were that the works: had been published for the first time (in Irish or English) between 1st January 2018 and 31st December 2021; were of clear relevance to a theme related to the geographies of Ireland and/or were authored by a geographer employed in Ireland at the time of publication; and were comprised substantially of previously unpublished work. Books are available for purchase at the Temple Bar Arts Book store Dublin https://shop.templebargallery.com/collections/books-publications/products/karen-till-earth-writings-bogs-forests-fields-gardens or online at https://haumea.ie
Dr Cathy Fitzgerald was interviewed by Dr Nessa Cronin, Irish Studies, NUIG about her ongoing ecological art practice: The Hollywood Forest Story, begun 2008 - " the little wood that could". See the Earth Writings podcasts page for a conversation between Cathy and Nessa.
See more about the evolving Irish Earthwritings.ie programme in association with Cork University Press at https://earthwritings.ie
Update:
In 2022-3, Dr Cathy Fitzgerald is providing ecoliteracy training via her Haumea Ecoversity https://haumea.ie for a 3-county Irish Arts Council Invitation Award, led by County Carlow Arts Services, for Carlow, Kildare and Meath. Gnáthóga Nádúrtha (Natural Habitats) is an arts-led community engagement programme centred on wetland restoration https://drumminbog.com/2022/02/07/3047/ Cathy will again work with Earth Writings collaborators Monica de Bath and Lucina Russell.
Earth Writings: Bogs, Fields, Forests, Gardens (2020) received the Geographical Society of Ireland Book of the Year Award at the 53rd annual Conference of Irish Geographers held in Limerick in May 2022. The book, which focuses on community-engaged arts and geography practices in Ireland, was supported by the Maynooth University Department of Geography Research Incentive Fund, Kildare County Council, and Creative Ireland. Edited by Karen E. Till Professor of Cultural Geography at Maynooth University, the volume was designed by Pure Designs and features writings by artists, curators, and academics: Patrick Bresnihan, Nessa Cronin, Monica de Bath, Cathy Fitzgerald, Gerry Kearns, Pauline O’Connell, Seoidín O’Sullivan, Lucina Russell, and Karen Till. The award was in the edited collection category and decided by an international awards committee.
The criteria for consideration were that the works: had been published for the first time (in Irish or English) between 1st January 2018 and 31st December 2021; were of clear relevance to a theme related to the geographies of Ireland and/or were authored by a geographer employed in Ireland at the time of publication; and were comprised substantially of previously unpublished work. Books are available for purchase at the Temple Bar Arts Book store Dublin https://shop.templebargallery.com/collections/books-publications/products/karen-till-earth-writings-bogs-forests-fields-gardens or online at https://haumea.ie
Dr Cathy Fitzgerald was interviewed by Dr Nessa Cronin, Irish Studies, NUIG about her ongoing ecological art practice: The Hollywood Forest Story, begun 2008 - " the little wood that could". See the Earth Writings podcasts page for a conversation between Cathy and Nessa.
See more about the evolving Irish Earthwritings.ie programme in association with Cork University Press at https://earthwritings.ie
Update:
In 2022-3, Dr Cathy Fitzgerald is providing ecoliteracy training via her Haumea Ecoversity https://haumea.ie for a 3-county Irish Arts Council Invitation Award, led by County Carlow Arts Services, for Carlow, Kildare and Meath. Gnáthóga Nádúrtha (Natural Habitats) is an arts-led community engagement programme centred on wetland restoration https://drumminbog.com/2022/02/07/3047/ Cathy will again work with Earth Writings collaborators Monica de Bath and Lucina Russell.
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Wetlands, Gardens, Ecological Art, Environmental Humanities, and 10 moreSocial Practice, Ecological Humanities, Forests, Land Art, Ecological Restoration, Invasion Biology, Irish Cultural Studies, Ecological Literacy, Place-Based Education, Arts and Culture, Ecoliterature, Art as Social Practice, Close to Nature Forestry, and Critical Ecoliteracy
A review article about Irish-based New Zealander Cathy Fitzgerald's doctoral creative practice research into an expanded ecological art practice, which she refers to as 'eco-social art practice'. This draws from review of pioneering... more
A review article about Irish-based New Zealander Cathy Fitzgerald's doctoral creative practice research into an expanded ecological art practice, which she refers to as 'eco-social art practice'. This draws from review of pioneering ecological art practices and her own practice that explores new-to-Ireland continuous cover forestry. Cathy explains such practices as expanded, ethical social enquiries. She clarifies the critical position of creative activities in these practices and how such expanded durational practices are best collated and shared with audiences using blogging. Eco-social art practices are foremost open-ended question-based processes, inviting communities to explore their relationship to their places in the ecological emergency. Cathy concludes that eco-social art practices are memes for the Symbiocene - the new sustainable era that succeeds the Anthropocene. They contribute to The Great Turning on how to live well with the Earth and all its inhabitants.
This article appeared in Minding Nature, Vol. 12. No. 3 (Fall 2019), a publication of the Center for Humans and Nature (www.humansandnature.org).
This article appeared in Minding Nature, Vol. 12. No. 3 (Fall 2019), a publication of the Center for Humans and Nature (www.humansandnature.org).
Research Interests: Action Research, Contemporary Art, Community Engagement & Participation, Ecoliteracy, Ecological Art, and 13 moreCreative Practice, Ecoart; Environmentalism, Environmentalist Art, Socially Engaged Art, Ecoartivism, Art, Activism, Ecoartivismo, Culture and the Anthropocene, Social Art, Socially Engaged Arts, Community Engagement In the Arts, ecoART, Socially Engaged Practice, Art and the Anthropocene, and Eco-Social Art Practice
Symbiotic science is increasingly helping envision an ecological era. As I already view my ongoing ecological art practice in advocating ecological forestry (The Hollywood Forest Story, begun 2008), as fundamentally restoring symbiotic... more
Symbiotic science is increasingly helping envision an ecological era. As I already view my ongoing ecological art practice in advocating ecological forestry (The Hollywood Forest Story, begun 2008), as fundamentally restoring symbiotic biodiversity, I recognise the critical importance of Australian farmer - philosopher Glenn Albrecht’s work for the planetary emergency. Albrecht’s 'Symbiocene' - an era that contrasts the Anthropocene, directly connects with symbiotic science that confirms that life survives and thrives through interrelated mutuality between many species. As Albrecht writes, ‘symbiosis has now emerged as a primary determinant of the conditions of life’. This article reviews Albrecht's emergent terms for an ecological age beyond the alienation and ecocide of the Anthropocene with reference to Albrecht's new book Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World (Cornell Uni., 2019). Also discussed are his terms solastalgia, soliphilia, sumbioregionalism as they relate to emergent durational ecological art practices - what I call 'eco-social art practice and Donna Haraway and others' terms.
Research Interests:
Eco-social art practitioners routinely foster cycles of multi-constituent translation, reflection and action, across lifeworlds, art, science, and other socio-political domains to progress new life-sustaining knowledge. This enquiry,... more
Eco-social art practitioners routinely foster cycles of multi-constituent translation, reflection and action, across lifeworlds, art, science, and other socio-political domains to progress new life-sustaining knowledge. This enquiry, however, reveals the absence of a guiding theory and a clearly articulated methodology for such transversal practices. A lack of a general theory and methodology, I argue, significantly hinders the education, practice, and appreciation of such practices’ value and, inevitably, understanding of the art and ecology field as an innovator of creative practice particularly suited to respond to 21st century eco-social concerns. As a consequence, the central research objective of this enquiry is to model, through creative practice and theory analyses, why, and how, a selected theoretical-methodological framework may articulate a clearer understanding of eco-social art practice. This framework formulates a foundation to advance sophisticated transversal practice responses, and makes a contribution to knowledge for the art and ecology field in articulating an accessible, transferable framework for eco-social art practice.
The proposed framework builds on my ongoing Hollywood Forest Story eco-social art practice, ecological knowledge and actions, and critical review of a suitable theory and methodology. From 2008, this includes transforming Hollywood forest, the monoculture conifer plantation where I live in rural South County Carlow in Ireland, into a permanent forest.
This thesis is framed by critical reflection on and is an extension of new mappings of the emergent art and ecology field. Suzi Gablik (2004), Sacha Kagan (2011), David Haley (2011a; 2016), Linda Weintraub (2012) and others chiefly view transdisciplinarity as best describing long-term art practices that aim for a deeper understanding of sustainability in emergent eco-social contexts. While transdisciplinarity is evident in such practices, I propose a hybrid theoretical- methodological framework to fully articulate the overarching purpose and common methodology of transversal eco-social art practices.
I apply Félix Guattari’s theoretical concept of ecosophy, which articulates transversality, with an action research methodological approach. I thus define eco-social art practices as working creatively in an ecosophical-action research mode to develop ecoliteracy and agency for their practitioners, collaborators and audiences. Such practices encompass emergent transversal endeavours directed by innovative, yet recognisable pattern of social enquiry. My research draws attention to recent advances in understanding the value of artful activities in action research for sustainability from Chris Seeley and Peter Reason (Seeley, 2011b; Seeley and Reason, 2008) and the usefulness, and under- explored potential of online social media to support the connected learning and sharing of eco-social art practice. The significance, challenges and transferability the eco-social art practice framework advances are characterised and evaluated in application to my practice and the exemplary eco-social art practice of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. From these studies, I conclude that the eco-social art practice framework has potential to advance understanding that transversal practices are as critical as scientific, economic and political responses to advance a life-sustaining, ecological turn.
Keywords: art and ecology, eco-social art practice, Guattari, transversality, ecosophy, action research, ecoliteracy, agency, blogging, continuous cover forestry, social art practice
The proposed framework builds on my ongoing Hollywood Forest Story eco-social art practice, ecological knowledge and actions, and critical review of a suitable theory and methodology. From 2008, this includes transforming Hollywood forest, the monoculture conifer plantation where I live in rural South County Carlow in Ireland, into a permanent forest.
This thesis is framed by critical reflection on and is an extension of new mappings of the emergent art and ecology field. Suzi Gablik (2004), Sacha Kagan (2011), David Haley (2011a; 2016), Linda Weintraub (2012) and others chiefly view transdisciplinarity as best describing long-term art practices that aim for a deeper understanding of sustainability in emergent eco-social contexts. While transdisciplinarity is evident in such practices, I propose a hybrid theoretical- methodological framework to fully articulate the overarching purpose and common methodology of transversal eco-social art practices.
I apply Félix Guattari’s theoretical concept of ecosophy, which articulates transversality, with an action research methodological approach. I thus define eco-social art practices as working creatively in an ecosophical-action research mode to develop ecoliteracy and agency for their practitioners, collaborators and audiences. Such practices encompass emergent transversal endeavours directed by innovative, yet recognisable pattern of social enquiry. My research draws attention to recent advances in understanding the value of artful activities in action research for sustainability from Chris Seeley and Peter Reason (Seeley, 2011b; Seeley and Reason, 2008) and the usefulness, and under- explored potential of online social media to support the connected learning and sharing of eco-social art practice. The significance, challenges and transferability the eco-social art practice framework advances are characterised and evaluated in application to my practice and the exemplary eco-social art practice of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. From these studies, I conclude that the eco-social art practice framework has potential to advance understanding that transversal practices are as critical as scientific, economic and political responses to advance a life-sustaining, ecological turn.
Keywords: art and ecology, eco-social art practice, Guattari, transversality, ecosophy, action research, ecoliteracy, agency, blogging, continuous cover forestry, social art practice
Research Interests: Participatory Action Research, Action Research, Ecoliteracy, Environmental Aesthetics, Felix Guattari, and 15 moreEnvironmental Art, Political Art, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Environmental Arts Education, Ecological Art; Environmentalist Art, Arts-Based Participatory Action Research, Forests, Ecocriticism, environmental aesthetics, nature and urban ruins, Ecological Art and Science, Ecological Literacy, Place-Based Education, Arts and Culture, Action-research and networking for natural resources management, Continuous Cover Forestry, Transversality, Blogging as Art, and Political Art and Activist Art
This eBook now available to download from the APPLE iBook Store here https://itunes.apple.com/ie/book/the-hollywood-forest-story/id1441958722?mt=11 is the cultural artefact (the evidence from my creative practice) and the critical... more
This eBook now available to download from the APPLE iBook Store here https://itunes.apple.com/ie/book/the-hollywood-forest-story/id1441958722?mt=11 is the cultural artefact (the evidence from my creative practice) and the critical introduction for my successful PhD by Practice - The Ecological Turn: Living Well with Forests to Articulate Eco-Social Art Practices Using a Guattari Ecosophy and Action Research Framework (2018).
The text and audio-visual material in this eBook reflects the central creative practice of blogging for this eco-social practice, from my blog www.hollywoodforest.com. My blog follows the ongoing (since 2008) transformation of a monoculture tree plantation into a permanent, mixed species forest following new-to-Ireland Close-to-Nature continuous cover forestry practices.
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Alternatively, a copy of the eBook is available as a print-on-demand book http://www.blurb.com/b/9056929-the-hollywood-forest-story
or as PDF http://www.blurb.com/b/9056929-the-hollywood-forest-story
Note: if reading the print or PDF version, the videos from the eBook can be seen on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/album/1668287
See the accompanying written PhD thesis at https://ncad.academia.edu/CathyFitzgerald
This creative PhD by Practice was undertaken at The National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland.
The text and audio-visual material in this eBook reflects the central creative practice of blogging for this eco-social practice, from my blog www.hollywoodforest.com. My blog follows the ongoing (since 2008) transformation of a monoculture tree plantation into a permanent, mixed species forest following new-to-Ireland Close-to-Nature continuous cover forestry practices.
*****
Alternatively, a copy of the eBook is available as a print-on-demand book http://www.blurb.com/b/9056929-the-hollywood-forest-story
or as PDF http://www.blurb.com/b/9056929-the-hollywood-forest-story
Note: if reading the print or PDF version, the videos from the eBook can be seen on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/album/1668287
See the accompanying written PhD thesis at https://ncad.academia.edu/CathyFitzgerald
This creative PhD by Practice was undertaken at The National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland.
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Digital Humanities, Participatory Action Research, Action Research, Intermediality, and 15 moreVideo Art, Felix Guattari, Environmental Art, Ecological Art, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Multimodality, Ebooks, Ecological Art; Environmentalist Art, More-Than-Human Geographies, Deterritorialization, Ecological Literacy, Place-Based Education, Arts and Culture, Disintermediation, Continuous Cover Forestry, Transversality, and Close to Nature Forestry
My creative doctoral inquiry develops an accessible theory-method framework to articulate ‘slow art’ and ecology projects—what I call ‘eco-social art practice.’ I argue these practices routinely foster new ecological values for society.... more
My creative doctoral inquiry develops an accessible theory-method framework to articulate ‘slow art’ and ecology projects—what I call ‘eco-social art practice.’ I argue these practices routinely foster new ecological values for society. Such transversal practices translate and ground global eco-social concerns through local, transformative activities.
My research analyses diverse practices, including my own, which involve the ongoing (since 2008) transformation of a conifer plantation in rural Ireland, into a permanent forest. While art and ecology practices may appear dissimilar, my work determines broad commonalities in aims and method approaches. Consequently, my research proposes a guiding theory and a clear methodology to describe the common drivers and methods found in these multi-constituent practices. The eco-social art practice theory-method framework I developed employs Guattari’s ecosophy and action research.
I also explore the value of social media to advance ecosophic refrains by accelerated ‘connected learning’. I highlight how blogging has been my primary art research and creative practice method. I present a summary journey of the framework applied to my eco-social art practice through an interactive audio-visual ebook format.
Overall, I argue the theory-method eco-social art practice framework empowers practitioners’ articulation of these important value-creating endeavours. Importantly, it increases understanding of the art and ecology field as an innovator of practice particularly suited to respond to 21st- century eco-social concerns.
See more at www.hollywoodforest.com
My research analyses diverse practices, including my own, which involve the ongoing (since 2008) transformation of a conifer plantation in rural Ireland, into a permanent forest. While art and ecology practices may appear dissimilar, my work determines broad commonalities in aims and method approaches. Consequently, my research proposes a guiding theory and a clear methodology to describe the common drivers and methods found in these multi-constituent practices. The eco-social art practice theory-method framework I developed employs Guattari’s ecosophy and action research.
I also explore the value of social media to advance ecosophic refrains by accelerated ‘connected learning’. I highlight how blogging has been my primary art research and creative practice method. I present a summary journey of the framework applied to my eco-social art practice through an interactive audio-visual ebook format.
Overall, I argue the theory-method eco-social art practice framework empowers practitioners’ articulation of these important value-creating endeavours. Importantly, it increases understanding of the art and ecology field as an innovator of practice particularly suited to respond to 21st- century eco-social concerns.
See more at www.hollywoodforest.com
Research Interests:
Cathy FItzgerald's creative doctoral research develops an accessible theory-method framework to articulate "slow art" and ecology projects - what she calls 'eco-social art practice.' These practices routinely foster new eco-social values... more
Cathy FItzgerald's creative doctoral research develops an accessible theory-method framework to articulate "slow art" and ecology projects - what she calls 'eco-social art practice.' These practices routinely foster new eco-social values for society, as they translate and ground global environmental concerns through local, transformative activities.
Her research analyses these apparently diverse practices, including her own, which involves the transformation of a conifer plantation into a permanent forest, video workings, blogging and national 'Close-to-Nature' continuous cover forest policy development in Ireland.
Cathy's research highlights an absence of a guiding theory and a clear methodology to describe the common drivers and methods found in these practices. In response, she develops a theory-method framework to characterise these commonalities, using Guattari's ecosophy, particularly his concept of transversality and action research. She also explores the value of social media to advance accelerated 'connected learning'; blogging has been a primary art research and creative practice method, and she presents her theory-method framework applied to her eco-social art practice through an interactive audio-visual ebook format.
Cathy argues the eco-social art practice framework empowers practitioners' articulation of these important value-creating endeavours and increases understanding of the art and ecology field as an innovator of practice particularly suited to respond to 21st-century eco-social concerns. To view the summary and accompanying video 'Reversing Silent Spring' that shows highlights from this 8-year and ongoing project see www.hollywoodforest.com
Her research analyses these apparently diverse practices, including her own, which involves the transformation of a conifer plantation into a permanent forest, video workings, blogging and national 'Close-to-Nature' continuous cover forest policy development in Ireland.
Cathy's research highlights an absence of a guiding theory and a clear methodology to describe the common drivers and methods found in these practices. In response, she develops a theory-method framework to characterise these commonalities, using Guattari's ecosophy, particularly his concept of transversality and action research. She also explores the value of social media to advance accelerated 'connected learning'; blogging has been a primary art research and creative practice method, and she presents her theory-method framework applied to her eco-social art practice through an interactive audio-visual ebook format.
Cathy argues the eco-social art practice framework empowers practitioners' articulation of these important value-creating endeavours and increases understanding of the art and ecology field as an innovator of practice particularly suited to respond to 21st-century eco-social concerns. To view the summary and accompanying video 'Reversing Silent Spring' that shows highlights from this 8-year and ongoing project see www.hollywoodforest.com
Research Interests: Environmental Education, Action Research, Felix Guattari, Environmental Art, Ecological Art, and 12 moreEcopedagogy, Art And Ecology, Environmental Arts Education, Ecological Art; Environmentalist Art, Contemporary Art Practice, Ecological Literacy, Place-Based Education, Arts and Culture, Green Theory and Praxis: The Journal of Ecopedagogy, Ecoartivism, ecoART, Contemporary Art and Ecology, Contemporary Art Research, and Symbioncene
The Hollywood Forest Story: since 2008, is an ongoing example of a transversal eco-social art practice Cathy Fitzgerald, 2016. In my case, my eco-social art practice explores the transformation of a monoculture conifer plantation to a... more
The Hollywood Forest Story: since 2008, is an ongoing example of a transversal eco-social art practice Cathy Fitzgerald, 2016. In my case, my eco-social art practice explores the transformation of a monoculture conifer plantation to a permanent forest in Ireland. This is a transversal practice, as I bring and pursue lifeworld experience and diverse activities, with input from others in non-art domains (from forestry, politics, eco-jurisprudence, environmental humanities). This enables me and followers of the project to practice and reflect on new-to-Ireland, Close-to-Nature continuous cover forestry as an alternative to unsustainable clearfell, monoculture forestry. It is a practice that translates local, real-world learning and practices as a response to global ecological concerns. Close-to-Nature forestry is an integrated, ecological forestry approach to respond to the catastrophic loss of biodiversity, the disrupted geo-biochemical processes and diminished soils and lost carbon capture potential that results from industrial, clearfell plantation forestry.
Research Interests: Art Practice as Research, Ecological Art, Art And Ecology, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Ecosophy, and 9 moreArts-Based Research, Practice-led art research, Art-practice led interdisciplinary research, Arts Practice Based Research, Practice-led research, Practice-led research in creative arts, Social Science, systems and process thinking, action resarch and organizational change, Transversality, and Eco-Social Art Practice
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Cathy Fitzgerald is a practice-thesis PhD candidate in Visual Culture at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland. Her current transdisciplinary eco art inquiry* is focused around her involvement with transforming Hollywood,... more
Cathy Fitzgerald is a practice-thesis PhD candidate in Visual Culture at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland. Her current transdisciplinary eco art inquiry* is focused around her involvement with transforming Hollywood, the small forest where she lives in South-East Ireland, from clear-fell conifer plantation to mixed continuous cover forest. In this post she talks about the film-making element of her creative practice. For more about Cathy’s work, see www.ecoartfilm.com
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Experimental filmmaker and forest grower, Cathy Fitzgerald describes why she became involved in developing new sustainable forest policy in Ireland.
Research Interests:
This article reflects upon how eco-social art strategies can be a tool for expanding both methodologies and, even more importantly, onto-epistemological positions in qualitative research. Three different examples, rooted in eco-art, are... more
This article reflects upon how eco-social art strategies can be a tool for expanding both methodologies and, even more importantly, onto-epistemological positions in qualitative research. Three different examples, rooted in eco-art, are used as empirical material to discuss characteristics that can be productive in a further onto-epistemological and methodological analyses. The research highlights perspectives that advance theoretical and relevant positions in qualitative research connected to art.
Research Interests:
Thinking about relating identity, art and ecology to each other. The second presents the work of five people who, in different ways, I think enact this relationship. My underlying concern is with our urgent need to cross-reference skills... more
Thinking about relating identity, art and ecology to each other. The second presents the work of five people who, in different ways, I think enact this relationship. My underlying concern is with our urgent need to cross-reference skills learned through art with those acquired in and between other lifeworlds. This should make it possible to better translate between different ex- isting social framings and, in consequence, to think beyond them, both essential tasks in our current eco-social situation.
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At one extreme environmental art engages directly with crucial scientific and political issues, asking questions that would otherwise be unasked by scientists and politicians; at the other end it becomes difficult to distinguish from... more
At one extreme environmental art engages directly with crucial scientific and political issues, asking questions that would otherwise be unasked by scientists and politicians; at the other end it becomes difficult to distinguish from gardening.
Research Interests:
Normalization is inevitable within the university system, itself always in paradoxical tension between the two contradictory aims of providing a collective educational space in which genuinely new understandings can appear and training... more
Normalization is inevitable within the university system, itself always in paradoxical tension between the two contradictory aims of providing a collective educational space in which genuinely new understandings can appear and training individual for a professional 'life as' that conforms to the status quo. Because an increasingly feral political and economic elite have done everything in its power to suppress the first possibility, it is all the more important to address arts practitioners who are interested in doctoral study as an educational experience, one concerned with an unconditional re-negotiation of the relationship between the "poetry of values" and "the prose of bureaucratically useful expertise" in and through their own lived experience.
Research Interests: Higher Education, Art Practice as Research, Contemporary Art, Felix Guattari, Artistic Research, and 9 moreVisual Arts, Arts-Based Research, Practice-led art research, Arts Practice Based Research, Phd in Studio Art, Transversality, Arts Practice PhDs, Arts-based Research Pratices, and Transversal Skills
This article has two concerns. The first is with how rural lifeworlds are understood and conceptualized from outside, usually in terms of normative assumptions predicated on notions of unity, consistency, and totality. The second is with... more
This article has two concerns. The first is with how rural lifeworlds are understood and conceptualized from outside, usually in terms of normative assumptions predicated on notions of unity, consistency, and totality. The second is with how better to articulate the richness and complexity of such lifeworlds. These concerns are set out in terms of an understanding of the relationship between lifeworlds and a spectrum of experience located between twin poles: position and place. It then refers to a number of creative projects in Ireland seen as indicative of a new way of acknowledging and articulating the richness and complexity of rural lifeworlds.
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Land: The Chapters in this section celebrate transitional art practice in action.
The ultimate work of art, is to create ourselves anew. Practising the 'art of living' may well be the most vital and challenging work of our time.
The ultimate work of art, is to create ourselves anew. Practising the 'art of living' may well be the most vital and challenging work of our time.
Research Interests: Contemporary Art, Joseph Beuys, Social Sculpture, Art And Ecology, Sustainable forestry management, and 7 moreBeuys Social sculpture, Ecological Literacy, Place-Based Education, Arts and Culture, Joseph Beuys Social Sculpture, Contemporary Art and Ecology, Art Theory Joseph Beuys, Transitional Art, and Eco-Social Art Practice
'In this short essay, I outline three reasons to invest in shared artistic labour: its collaborative discovery in multiple fields, its creative practices of social and ecological sustainability, and its educational outreach to a range of... more
'In this short essay, I outline three reasons to invest in shared artistic labour: its collaborative discovery in multiple fields, its creative practices of social and ecological sustainability, and its educational outreach to a range of publics.' Karen Till, Field Findings, 2012, p. 23.
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In parallel to the writing of the 'Stories of the Great Turning', curators James Aldridge, Chris Seeley and Kathy Skerritt invited other visual practitioners around the world to respond to ecophilosopher Joanna Macy's 'The Great Turning'
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This book by filmmaker and educator Ronald B. Tobias, is important in helping us begin to think ecocritically about the enormous influence cinema, and particularly our hugely popular forms of “nature cinema” have, on how well we perceive... more
This book by filmmaker and educator Ronald B. Tobias, is important in helping us begin to think ecocritically about the
enormous influence cinema, and particularly our hugely popular forms of “nature cinema” have, on how well we perceive
and relate to the earth and its inhabitants. and
its inhabitants.
enormous influence cinema, and particularly our hugely popular forms of “nature cinema” have, on how well we perceive
and relate to the earth and its inhabitants. and
its inhabitants.