Open Access
Open access
Nature-Based Solutions, volume 6, pages 100134

Advocating for Ecoartivism: Sculpting Sustainable Choice with Nature-Based Solutions

Publication type: Journal Article
Publication date: 2024-12-01
SJR: —
CiteScore: —
Impact factor: —
ISSN: 27724115
Abstract
This paper presents the term Ecoartivism, for a novel nature-based strategy to address ecocide. Ecoartivism evolved from my ecoart practice, which sought pragmatic answers to chaotic environmental conditions. I advocate for how Ecoartivism draws from many influences to embrace a more intuitive but sustainable relationship between art, science, and law based on our values. I will track how my practice began layering basic aesthetic skills with science to restore degraded ecosystems, (Ghost Nets and Blue Rocks 1990-2005); inspired an original premise, trigger point theory, that small points of deliberate intervention can effect systemic change; and led to an Ecoartivist symphony and then an opera, (Blued Trees (2015 - present). My thinking has felt informed by Traditional Environmental Knowledge (TEK) and what some Indigenous communities term reciprocity, the idea that humans must live with mutual respect and as part of an inclusive vision of nature. Blued Trees developed a novel legal theory about ownership and what we choose to value. That redefinition led to Ecoartivism as a nature-based solution to sustainability. GPS located sentinel trees were identified as tree-notes in an aerial "score" composed of 1/3-mile increments across North America in forested corridors where natural gas pipeline installations were proposed. In a 2018 mock trial an injunction was handed down in favor of protecting the Blued Trees project on the basis of standing (a legal term establishing formal rights for due consideration in a court trial). I will explain how trigger point theory could support legal standing for Earth rights and ecosystem resilience. Blued Trees continues as an opera-in-progress to expand and deepen arguments for making ecocide accountable with serious penalties at the International Court of Justice at the Hague. This discussion will illustrate how ecoartivist strategies may support habitat contiguity, inspire and drive novel nature-based solutions to ecocide, deepening partnerships with scientists who can test and build on provocative insight.
Found 7
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MDPI
A Nature Thing: What Does Contemporary Ecological Art Produce?
Stoltz B.
Arts Open Access , 
2023-03-29,  citations by CoLab: 3 ,  PDF,  Abstract  
This article demonstrates that ecological art is a very specific art form that follows its own methods of creation and, consequently, of dealing with material and its definitions. This view of ecological art is directed by art theory factors and fundamental questions of art history. Therefore, the main question in discussions on material and the functions of art is that of what contemporary ecological art produces in terms of the concepts ‘natural’ and ‘nature-fair.’ By analysing the artists Thomas Dambo, Aviva Rahmani and Tómas Saraceno, this article finds that, compared to various artistic forms that deal with ecology and the environment, ecological art acts more in the physical reality of the environment and ecosystems. Subsequently, what ecological art is actually producing is ‘a nature thing’, meaning a concrete effect on or intervention in the environment with gestures of appropriation, regeneration and coexistence, being above all ‘art for nature.’ The article shows that, in ecological art, the linear relationship between material and artwork, in that the artist transforms the material to its final form, namely the artwork, is absent. In ecological art, the aim is an ongoing process in which material can have different facets: the material can be a mere auxiliary instrument, the art object itself can become material for something else and the material in general can be understood as an overarching aim and motive: nature.
University of California Press
The Blued Trees Symphony as Transdisciplinary Mediation for Environmental Policy
Rahmani A.
Media+Environment Open Access , 
2021-07-15,  citations by CoLab: 1 ,  Abstract  
As the devastating impacts of anthropocentric behaviors have emerged in the Anthropocene, the specter of globalized “ecocide” has also emerged, requiring creative policy solutions. The Blued Trees project was an experiment in modeling how art might forestall ecocide by legally redefining public (economic) good to reconcile with common (benefit to a community) good. This continental-scale work of interdisciplinary art was copyrighted in 2015, requiring courts to recognize an emergent overlap between copyright ownership, eminent domain law, and new forms of art. My intention was to create a transdisciplinary, art-based model for sustainable relationships with other species and across demographics, which could be scaled in the court system for policy implications. My premises were that transdisciplinary thinking—work that dissolves disciplinary boundaries—can best preserve habitat integrity in these complex, uncertain times, and that laws are the building blocks of policy. The Blued Trees Symphony was conceived as sonified biogeographic sculpture in five movements based on the eighteenth-century sonata form, with the musical structure narrating a contest between Earth rights and accountability for ecocide. The legal theory was litigated in a mock trial produced with the fellowship program A Blade of Grass in 2018. The work, which brings together art, music, and performance with law, ecological science, and dynamic systems theory, continues as a work in progress in that some of its elements, such as trees and ecosystems, the score, and the vital need to stop ecocide, remain alive and very much in play today.
MIT Press
The Music of the Trees: The Blued Trees Symphony and Opera as Environmental Research and Legal Activism
Rahmani A.
Leonardo Music Journal scimago Q3 , 
2019-09-20,  citations by CoLab: 2 ,  Abstract  
The Blued Trees project is a transdisciplinary thought experiment, physically manifested across miles of the North American continent. It melds ideas about music, acoustics, art and environmental policy. Hundreds of GPS-located individual trees in the path of proposed natural gas pipelines were painted with a sine wave sigil. Each “treenote” contributed to an aerially perceivable composition employing the local terrain. The score is the formal skeleton for systemic changes challenging several laws. A mock trial explored how this project might open new directions in legal activism for Earth rights and contribute to an operatic libretto.
SAGE
Ecocide, genocide, capitalism and colonialism: Consequences for indigenous peoples and glocal ecosystems environments
Crook M., Short D., South N.
Theoretical Criminology scimago Q1 wos Q2 , 
2018-08-30,  citations by CoLab: 78 ,  Abstract  
Continuing injustices and denial of rights of indigenous peoples are part of the long legacy of colonialism. Parallel processes of exploitation and injustice can be identified in relation to non-human species and/or aspects of the natural environment. International law can address some extreme examples of the crimes and harms of colonialism through the idea and legal definition of genocide, but the intimately related notion of ecocide that applies to nature and the environment is not yet formally accepted within the body of international law. In the context of this special issue reflecting on the development of green criminology, the article argues that the concept of ecocide provides a powerful tool. To illustrate this, the article explores connections between ecocide, genocide, capitalism and colonialism and discusses impacts on indigenous peoples and on local and global (glocal) ecosystems.
Pussy Riot and the Politics of Resistance in Contemporary Russia
Zabyelina Y., Ivashkiv R.
2017-01-25,  citations by CoLab: 2 ,  Abstract  
Pussy Riot was a feminist punk-rock group based in Moscow, Russian Federation. It was founded by a group of several young women in the summer of 2011, following the announcement that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would run for a third presidential term. Wearing colorful clothes and balaclavas, band members conducted several unsanctioned public performances, which were recorded, edited, and later distributed as music videos on the Internet. Committed to socio-political change in Russia, Pussy Riot protested against the authoritarian political regime and church-state confluence in Russia and advocated for feminism, LGBT and civil rights, and political liberties. Pussy Riot’s most famous song, “Mother of God, Chase Putin Away,” a performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour held on February 21, 2012, provoked a scandal. Following the performance, a criminal case was opened against three Pussy Riot members, leading to arrests without bail of Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich. Supporters of Pussy Riot believed the court proceedings and the verdict discredited the Russian judicial system, as the three women were found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” While Samutsevich won her appeal, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina served 21 months of their 24-month sentence before they were granted amnesty. This case has become a landmark event in Russian politics, causing a domestic and international controversy over the issues of justice, feminism, and separation of church and state.
Springer Nature
Engagement with indigenous peoples and honoring traditional knowledge systems
Maldonado J., Bennett T.M., Chief K., Cochran P., Cozzetto K., Gough B., Redsteer M.H., Lynn K., Maynard N., Voggesser G.
Climatic Change scimago Q1 wos Q1 , 
2015-10-26,  citations by CoLab: 54 ,  Abstract  
The organizers of the 2014 US National Climate Assessment (NCA) made a concerted effort to reach out to and collaborate with Indigenous peoples, resulting in the most comprehensive information to date on climate change impacts to Indigenous peoples in a US national assessment. Yet, there is still much room for improvement in assessment processes to ensure adequate recognition of Indigenous perspectives and Indigenous knowledge systems. This article discusses the process used in creating the Indigenous Peoples, Land, and Resources NCA chapter by a team comprised of tribal members, agencies, academics, and non-governmental organizations, who worked together to solicit, collect, and synthesize traditional knowledges and data from a diverse array of Indigenous communities across the US. It also discusses the synergy and discord between traditional knowledge systems and science and the emergence of cross-cutting issues and vulnerabilities for Indigenous peoples. The challenges of coalescing information about climate change and its impacts on Indigenous communities are outlined along with recommendations on the types of information to include in future assessment outputs. We recommend that future assessments – not only NCA, but other relevant local, regional, national, and international efforts aimed at the translation of climate information and assessments into meaningful actions – should support integration of Indigenous perspectives in a sustained way that builds respectful relationships and effectively engages Indigenous communities. Given the large number of tribes in the US and the current challenges and unique vulnerabilities of Indigenous communities, a special report focusing solely on climate change and Indigenous peoples is warranted.
Springer Nature
Fish Story Memphis: Memphis is the center of the world
Rahmani A.
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences scimago Q2 wos Q3 , 
2013-11-10,  citations by CoLab: 1 ,  Abstract  
In this article, artist Aviva Rahmani describes her methodology for an ecological art project about environmental restoration in Memphis, TN. The city of Memphis attracted her because it is in the middle of the third largest watershed in the world on the Mississippi River, the sixth largest river on earth. Fish Story was a transdisciplinary collaboration with paleoecologist Dr. James White and wetlands biologist Dr. Eugene Turner for Memphis Social, a citywide exhibition. The project launched May 4, 2013, and culminated with an installation that opened to the public May 11, 2013. It was a test for Rahmani's Trigger Point Theory, an approach to environmental degradation that locates nucleation sites to catalyze bioregional restoration for large degraded ecosystems. The Fish Story goal was to identify trigger points in Memphis and explore their activation. Fish were identified as iconic taxa, whose welfare reflects the welfare of the waters humans depend upon. As fish go, so go people. The story of fish is the story of our human future.
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