Art, Activism & Environment: Practical Approaches to Contemporary Ecologies

with Aoife Desmond

Duration: Aug 17 – Sep 14, 2021
Fee: 172€
Max seats: 32
Enroll before: Aug 12, 2021
Dedication: 3 hrs/week

This 5-week course offers a practical introduction to contemporary and historical practices connecting Art, Activism & Environment. Suitable for curators, artists, cultural workers and environmental activists, this course will explore relevant and nuanced art events and actions that relate to ecological concerns. Participants will discuss practical, ethical and conceptual issues that may occur in the realisation of environmental projects. Particular attention will be paid to site-specific projects and to current ecological and environmental concerns both local and international.

Participants will develop a project proposal throughout the course, solving questions both as a group and individually. Challenges to consider include the legacy of a project, the relationship to local communities human and non-human, the different strengths of guerrilla activities versus organised and sanctioned activities. How can an environmental project be deemed successful? On what terms? On whose terms? With an understanding of some of the potential problems specific to projects that span art, activism and environment, it is intended that participants can deliver more effective projects.

Creating art projects that span this area between activism and the environment calls for an interdisciplinary approach and understanding. It is important to identify key research and communities that link to the theme or location of your intended project. By comparing approaches and projects from different locations and contexts, this course intends to create a living body of knowledge that can be translated into practice.

Week 1. Presentation

• Introduction to the program and course overview.

This is a one-hour-only welcome session. The lecturer will introduce the program and participants will introduce themselves. No prior preparation is necessary.

Week 2. An introduction to art, activism and the environment.

• Introduction to current and historical art practices in relation to ecology and the environment.
• Introduction to key reference texts in relation to art, activism and environment.
• Exploration of the social, ecological and political relevance of a selection of artist’s precedents.
• Preparations and research questions for participants’ project proposals.

Week 3. Key questions and methodologies to consider in the realisation of projects that combine art, activism and the environment.

• Conceptual and ethical concerns specific to ecological and environmental projects.
• Outline of key questions and methodologies in the practical realisation of projects.
• An exploration of crossovers and intersections between art, activism and environment.
• Further questions and points for development in relation to participants proposals.

Week 4. Practical and ecological concerns for both gallery based and offsite/outdoor works.

• An examination of relevant networks and communities in relation to ecological projects.
• An exploration of practical and contextual concerns in relation to gallery and off-site projects.
• A global comparison of ecological art projects to outline cultural specificity but also similarities and potentials.
• Re-structuring and contextualisation of participants project proposals.

Week 5. Identification of key issues to be developed further in participants projects and ideas of legacy and relevance.

• Discussion of legacy, documentation and re-contextualisation of specific environmental art projects.
• Comparison of urgent and long term approaches within activism, art and environmental practices.
• Situation of specific projects within global critique and discourse.
• Group discussion of participants proposals.

Aoife Desmond is an independent curator, lecturer and artist based in Cork, Ireland. She is committed to the area of art, activism and environment. As well as realising films, exhibitions and performance-based actions she has recently led a short lecture series and a reading group in the area of Art & Ecology. She guest lectures at Crawford College of Art & Design, MA Space (Social Practice and Creative Environments) at Limerick College of Art and Design and Lewis Glucksman Art Gallery, UCC. She obtained a Masters in Visual Art Practices from Institute of Technology and Design Dun Laoghaire, Dublin and a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork.