FROM ENVIRONMENTAL ART TO

Timo Jokela

In M.H. Mantere (Ed.), (1995). Image of the Earth: Writings on art-based environmental education. (pp. 18- 28) Helsinki, Finland: University of Art and Design.

My article is based on practical experience in the areas of art education and environmental education. As an instructor, I have had the opportunity to plan and carry out environmental education projects for several years. My views are also influenced by my work as an environmental artist.

Working in co-operation with representatives of environment. What is more, exercising other fields of knowledge has forced me to think observational skills is an important goal in art more thoroughly about the role of art education education. It has been pointed out that visual art as a part of environmental education, and to look is actually a history of evolving and varying for those elements which the can offer schemes of observation. The way in which we to environmental education, but which are observe and describe our environment is, to a lacking in other fields. My aim has been to create large extent, dominated by what we have learnt. projects which are based on the tradition of art Our observations are based on the sum of our education, but which are also relevant to the new previous experiences and our expectations of the interdisciplinary and cultural-ecological future. Seeing requires conceptual facilities, philosophy of art education (see Käpylä, 1991, mental preconditions, which are often passed 1993). unnoticed (Gombrich 1972, 28, 84-87, 175).

After initial prejudice, art has been welcomed as Recent research on environmental aesthetics has part of environmental education, even to the emphasized the importance of the phenomenal extent that expectations are being placed on it. environment. In the words of Berleant (1992, Environmental research is looking for new 155): ‘environments are not physical places but points of view and is striving to detach itself perceptual ones that we collaborate in making, from scientific positivism, the tradition of and it is perceptually that we determine their 'knowledge is power' (see Maula 1994, 87-106). identity and extent’. The starting point of In the following, I will attempt to shed some light aesthetic environmental education is precisely on the relationship between visual arts and the this phenomenal environment. Art, for its part, environment, concentrating mainly on has a long tradition of studying the phenomenal environmental art. This way, it is possible to environment. identify the underlying determinants which guide the preparation of instruction. VISUAL ART AND ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVATION IN THE BEGINNING THERE IS OBSERVATION Many of the phenomena brought to our The artistic-aesthetic learning process involves consciousness through art can be understood as observation, experience and increasing the sharpening of schemes of observation and awareness in a holistic way. Observation is a core activity. The romantic artist climbed a mountain issue in interpreting and evaluating the and created an aerial perspective model of

1 observation, teaching us to see the beauty of the ENVIRONMENTAL ART – ART DEFINED BY A dim shades of blue in the distance. The PLACE impressionists led us to observe the color of light Art is one means by which people rearrange the determined by weather, and the beauty in the environment. It clearly reflects its maker’s, user’s changes of natural phenomena. Art creates new and the existing society’s values and ways of observing, and examining art can act as a relationships to the environment. A work of art is model for seeing one’s own everyday a sort of crystallization of values, reflecting the surroundings in a new way, enriching one’s thinking of its community. This is why knowledge, experience and understanding. understanding art enables us to notice also other, Observational schemes can also stiffen and more everyday, incidents and structures become confining conventions. In this case there between people, their sphere of activity and their is great educational significance in enriching environment. From this basis we can find three them. Re-examined aesthetic models lead to new categories of relationship between art and the models to observe, classify, understand and environment. (The classification is partly based construct one’s own relationship with the on Robert Irving’s thinking, 1985.) A work of art environment. Here the tasks of aesthetic can: environmental education and art education join together on a theoretical level. Both rise from 1. Dominate a place (the subjugation and ways of observation constructed by man, and conquest of the environment) both are models of reality based on these ways. 2. Be characteristic to a place (the The similarity between the interpretation adaptation to the environment) process of visual art and that of the environment has encouraged people to make rather far- 3. Be defined by a place, environmental art reaching conclusions, for example Richardson (created by the environment) (1976, 191): ‘Since conventional aspects are involved in the appreciation of nature, then I The works of art which belong to the first conclude that nature-appreciation conventions category are usually made in the artist’s studio unequivocally belong to the art world, and are a without taking their future location into account. variant or type of art-appreciation conventions.’ Their purpose is to act as a reminder of, or However, we do not have to identify the reference to something other than the environmental world with the art world to such environment or the artistic expression. The an extent to find a mutual educational task. Art works do not have an identity of their own in itself presents many environmental viewpoints. relation to a particular place or artist. They It can initiate and direct an individual’s or a overpower their surroundings and subject them whole society’s reflection on a relationship with to serve their own intentions and ends. The the environment. Meeker (1994, 116) reminds work’s symbolic value exceeds the importance of us, that both art and are abstract, man- the artistic expression. Usually the works are made models of reality: ’A common ground exists societal reminders or manifestations of power; between art and ecology which may help to end images of the status of the people who erected the long strife between thought and intuition, them (e.g. statues of rulers, monuments, murals). science and art, and possibly even that between A central location is chosen for exhibiting them, mankind and nature.’ and they are usually mounted on a pedestal to emphasize their distinction from, and often also their command over, the surroundings and their actual users.

2 The works belonging to the second category, concerning the constructed environment. The characteristic to a place, are likewise made in the creative birth process of a work of art defined by artist’s studio, but are assembled at the site of a place is a good example of an activity involving exhibit. The work’s suitability to its surroundings experience-based learning. Formal education has is taken into consideration in its placing and called for such a learning process, where evaluation (e.g. in its proportions, materials). information is gained through personal This process slightly approaches the idea of experiences, and which is anchored to lasting integrating a work into a place. The motivation practical knowledge through communal activity. for the work’s existence may arise from a place or the presence of a space (e.g. an empty square, THE BACKGROUND OF ENVIRONMENTAL suitable for a statue). The work is no longer ART: THE ARCHETYPAL LANDMARKS simply collective; instead, it begins to gain meaning through the individual artist. The The trend towards environmentally oriented viewer is required to have a certain knowledge visual art, which started in the 1960s, has of art: history, technique, style, materials, the obtained many names according to different artist’s means of expression, etc. Such works are points of view. In Finland, the general very often modernist works of art, striving to phenomenon is described by the terms ’earth art’ function purely on their visual references. and ’environmental art’, which are often used as synonyms. The terms ‘earth art’, ‘’,’ ‘field The motivation of a work of art belonging to the art’, ‘site art’ and ‘environmental art’ classify the third category rises completely from the art form more specifically. All these concepts environment. The form, material and even the describe the artist’s experimental studies with birth process of the work takes the location into natural elements like water, snow, ice and grass, account. The surrounding space in itself may act and the use of natural forces like gravity, wind as an artistic element. This requires that the and growth in art. The birth of environmental art birth process begins with a close orientation to as an avant-garde phenomenon is clearly the location: sitting, watching, smelling, walking connected to the same trend as ecology, in its – in other words a holistic exploration of the awareness of the problems in Western place. The completed process, however, must not and looking for alternative models. rest solely on empirical means of gaining information. Usually the process also includes One can also find other parallels like feminism, orienting to the history of a place, the stories it the ’earth mother’ cult, the hippie movement and tells, and the meanings given to it by its users. the search for the Orient, the interest in Zen, the This means that, in scientific terms, the stage idea of the holistic work of aft and minimalism. preceding the conception of such a work of art is Environmental art can, in my view, be called ‘interdisciplinary field work’. understood as the of the visual arts (see Walker 1977, 108, 42-43; Moving from art that dominates a place to art Levanto 1990, 77-125; Sandqvist 1991, 13-26). characteristic to a place and, finally, to environmental art, has been typical in the recent Environmental art was born as earth art in the development of visual art. At the same time, a 1960s. At that time, the modernist idea of the new model for the integration of innovative art meaningful form was accepted by the visual field and educational processes has emerged for the as an established truth and the focus of interest. benefit of art education. This phenomenological Architects and artists made and remade forms view of art and its functional principles is also which were considered characteristic to the strongly linked to environmental issues, both to human species and human existence all over the ecological ones and to values and actions world and at all times. Studies in Gestalt

3 psychology and Jung’s theories of archetypes possibility to restore, for example, marks which inf1uenced these views. The simplification of industry has made in the environment. This idea forms and various working methods lead to emphasizes the process-like character of works of large sizes, which immediately received environmental art, and its similarities with the a lot of criticism. They were even seen as a threat processes of nature. In this case, environmental to the environment. art is a healing process of an injured place.

ENVIRONMENTAL ART AS AN ECOLOGICAL Smithson (Hobbs 1982) used the term ’anti- RISK place’ when he described the ruining of the regional identity of America’s roadsides. Roads Seeing environmental art as an ecological risk is everywhere were made out of the same kind of clearly connected to . This material, they were lined by the same stones, view is based on separating the work of art and their banks grew the same vegetation eaten by nature from one another. Their aesthetic the same animals, and the roads were bordered character is considered to be different. The by the same service stations and motels. Building aesthetics of a work of art is seen as permanent roads wiped out the traveler’s possibility to and static. It is not considered to have the right experience the character of a place. A similar to influence the aesthetics of nature, which are birth process of anti-places seems to be going on dynamic, changeable and process-like. in our own forests, on the fringes of our cities, on Environmental works are considered to be the ski slopes of our mountains and in our instrumental and utilitarian, they are seen as villages. The fact that such anti-places have come traces, which derive from human needs, injuring to exist, and some groups of people are forced to and offending the environment. The value of a live in these areas, has been seen by Foucault as work of environmental art is defined in the same an example of structural violence in our way as the value of a grave pit or a mine. This community. In this sense, aesthetic point of view also received support among environmental issues are an exercise of power. environmental aestheticians (see Carlson 1985, Art has always given us new observational 224-231). According to Kinnunen (1981, 53), models, and the ‘Smithsonian’ tradition has aesthetics which do not concern themselves with helped us to notice these buffer zones of people moral values or an undamaged natural process, and nature, the anti-places, left at the sides of our are grotesque in their anthropocentrism. cities and settlements. Creating and marking places with spatial and temporal experience The works which have received criticisms such became one of the aims of environmental art (see as those mentioned above are usually massive Hobbs 1992). and permanent; they consist of a great deal of material to move, requiring lorries and MARGINAL NOTES IN THE ENVIRONMENT: caterpillars, and are clearly in contrast with their THE SYMBOLS OF EXISTENCE surroundings. Especially in the United States, around the time the art form was born, European environmental art has drawn ideas commitment to minimalism produced works from the United States. Initially, many artists’ toned by such utilitarianism (cf. Beardsley 1984, starting point was the use of archetypal symbols, 10-11). similar to those the Americans used. However, their method was completely different. The large ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AS A HEALER amount of material and the moving of masses OF THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT was replaced by very slight interference with nature or the use of very sensitive and fragile Environmental art can also be seen as a materials (for example, A. Goldsworthy, R. Long).

4 This way the artist’s connection to nature is from the eleven islands he encircled with pink respectful, almost sacral. It is as if the work fabric. Nevertheless, he had to pay the local refers to nature’s own beauty or significance. The conservationists a considerable amount of work of art opens one’s eyes to see something money in order for them to permit the ordinary and everyday in a new way. This way construction of the work (see Spies, 1985, 15, 28- the work refines one’s perceptions and makes 47). It is interesting, that many works of art that one more sensitive to the environment. The gently touch (disturb) nature’s processes are artist or the viewer of the work does not need to condemned, while the typical examples of overcome the environment, but rather to re- utilitarian thinking are accepted as natural and discover it. Such a work of art, which considers necessary human activities: gravel pits which eat respect for the processes of nature a primary away natural ridges; trunk roads which violate concern, can go far indeed in terms of the landscape, and ski slopes which scar the immateriality and non-interference with the sides of mountains. The possibility environment. Climbing a mountain can be a work environmental art offers as a part of culture- of art. What about a hiking trip to the mountains, ecological environmental education seems to be a full pail of berries on the side of a Northern hill, that it functions in the same way as works of art shooting the rapids, the stroke of a fishing rod’s do in general: it strives to create the biggest line in a stream? The importance of aesthetic possible thought-provoking charge of values and reflection is growing, the borderlines between discussion, by using the smallest possible means. art and philosophy are disappearing, environmental art and environmental ENVIRONMENTAL ART AS A METHOD OF philosophy merge together. ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Underlying this tradition, one can often find an Taking the above-described, perhaps somewhat interest in the nature-relationship of Eastern roughly classified, tradition of environmental art, philosophies and indigenous . There are one can easily derive functional models which also traits of nature mysticism (see Beardsley are applicable to art education and also to the 1984, pp. 41-54). working methods of environmental education. The didactic planning of art education takes, as a ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES AS WORKS OF basis, artistic models which work as underlying ART determinants of activities and exercises. Alongside these determinants, the pupil’s own In its search for new forms, following the reign of inner models are also taken into consideration: modernism, environmental art has abandoned his or her phase of development and previous archetypal symbols to some extent, and moved knowledge of the subject. In the preparation on to a more conceptual and process-oriented process, the art world and the learner’s world identity. Many works of environmental art can, in are combined into a project, in which fact, be seen as environmental processes which experiencing, searching for information, and aim to change environmental attitudes on an structuring all merge together (see Seitamaa- individual or community level. These processes Oravala 1990, 185-192). So, the determiners of can relate to or support nature’s own healing the didactic models in environmental education processes. can be found in the tradition of environmental art. For example, Christo’s ‘Surrounded Island’- project can be seen as looking after the Forms of environmental art are remarkably environment. During the two weeks he built his suitable for field work and research practiced in work, Christo and his crew cleaned all the litter the environment by learners of all ages. On the

5 one hand, these kinds of exercises are faithful to 3. Exercises which aim to alter set ways of the structures of environmental art, and are viewing the environment. basic matter of art education, in this sense. On the other hand, they are methods of increasing The starting point of the work can be an one’s sensitivity towards the environment, or agreement made in advance, a way of moving in models of analyzing it, and are essentially the environment. This way one avoids always environmental education. From this basis we can being drawn to observe the same things, already derive at least the following categories of accepted as ‘beautiful’. For example: Move in the exercises which can be adapted as methods of environment according to your watch. Stop environmental education. precisely every five minutes at exactly the place you are at that particular moment. Describe and l. Exercises on focusing your observations document the environment in front of you, or and perceiving them more sensitively. what you are feeling. Alternatively, roughly sketch a line or circle on a map. Walk the The ‘chaos’ of the environment is organized distance of the line in nature. Stop every hundred according to certain chosen variables. Your meters, document and gather samples. choice can be based on visual observations: Afterwards, analyze the differences between the color, form, size; on tactile sensations: soft, hard; experiences you gained this way, and the or cognitive concepts: living, lifeless, belonging preconceived impressions you had (see Anttila to nature, left behind by a human. 1989, 99-104).

The work starts by making observations and it 4. Exercises which test the scale of the continues with methods of comparison, environment and human ’limits’. The starting classification and organization. One can make point is a large amount of material and the small ’marginal notes’ from gathered materials, aim is a clear change in the environment. human marks and arrangements in the environment. Especially well-suited as starting ‘Real works’ such as these require sociability, co- points are the archetypal symbols: the circle, operation and planning as well as bodily square, triangle, point, line, cross and spiral in exertions, and are in this way, alongside personal different variations and combinations (see observational education, useful methods of Horelli 1982). communal education (work pedagogics). Suitable locations for works like this are places where 2. Exercises which bring forward the nature brings the material back into its cycle: processes happening in nature, and help one beaches, gravel pits, growing coppices, snow and in perceiving them more sensitively: growth ice, etc. Some examples of exercises include the and decay, the flow of water, the turning of following: Arrange, in a mathematical order, the day and night, the changes of light, the wind, flotsam on a shore. Change the yard with a snow etc. in a way which creates new spaces and pathways. Build huts according to models from This category includes, for example, sundials, different cultures using cleared thickets of water mills and other that work on saplings – create new spaces and spatial hydro-power, wind sculptures and kites, planting experiences. seedlings, etc. In addition to static works, it also includes paths of movement and rituals in which the participant or viewer takes a part. The work creates a moment of change; movement and time create new spaces and environments.

6 CHALLENGES: FROM EVERYDAY Berleant, A. 1992. SURROUNDINGS TO ENVIRONMENTAL Environmental Criticism. In Berleant: The CRITICISM Aesthetics of Environment. Temple University Press, USA, 126-203. In this article, I have dealt with environmental education and environmental art from a limited Beardsley, J. 1984. viewpoint, concentrating mainly on the meeting Earthwork and Beyond. in the of art and the natural environment. However, Landscape. New York, USA: Abbeville Press. more attention should be drawn to architecture, material objects, and people’s everyday Carlson, A. 1985. surroundings. This is an arena where the Interactions between Art and Nature: individual’s authority on his or her own Environmental Art. Ottawa, Canada. environmental actions is the strongest, and which is, therefore, the ground for very strong Gombrich, E. 1972. commercial manipulation, for example Art ond illusion. A study of psychology of advertising, fashion and uncontrolled traveling, pictorial representation. Princeton, New Jersey, which steer consumption and exploit aesthetic USA; Princeton University Press. values (see Jokela 1995a). Hobbs, R. 1982. In this article I do not go into the issue of Epätilan jäsentäjä (Organizer of Anti-Space, in environmental critique. One must remember, Finnish). (ed). Retrospective though, that like art, the environment includes, exhibition. Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, as a phenomenon, a maker, a medium and a Finland. recipient (Sepänmaa 1994, 10). In the art world, critique has its own recognized and precise place Horelli, L. 1982. between the maker and the recipient. For this Ympäristöpsykologia (Environmental reason, an art education based on the context of Psychology, in Finnish). Espoo, Finland: Weilin & the art world involves improving the skill of Göös. analytical receptiveness to art, i.e. art critique. In the curriculum of art education this is included in Irwin, R. 1985. the subject material of ‘knowledge of the arts’. A Being and Circumstance. Notes Toward a conscious training of receptive and Conditional Art. California, USA: The Lapis Press. interpretative skills should also belong to the Jokela, T. l995a. subject matter in aesthetic environmental Esteettisen ympäristökasvatuksen perusteita education. Working models for environmental (Principles of environmental education, in critique are easily derived from the working Finnish), to appear in Jeronen, E. (ed.), methods of research into the arts (see Jokela Perustietoa ympäristökasvattajille 2 (Basics for 1995b). Environmental Educators, in Finnish), University at Oulu, Centre for Training, Oulu, Finland. REFERENCES Jokela, T. 1995b. Antrilu, L. 1989. Ympäristökohteen esteettis-visuaalinen analyysi Ajatus ja havainto. Kirjoituksio vuosilto 1976- (Aesthetic-visual analysis ot the environmental 1987 (Thought and Observation. Writings from obiect, in Finnish) to appear in Jeronen, E. (ed.), the years 1976-1987, in Finnish). The Academy Perustietoa ympäristokasvattajille 2 (Basics for of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland: Governments Environmental Educators, in Finnish), University Printing Centre. of Oulu, Centre for Training, Oulu, Finland.

7 Kinnunen, A. 1981. Richardson, D. 1976. Luonnonestetiikka (Nature aesthetics, in Nature-Appreciation Conventions and the Art Finnish), in Kinnunen, A. & Sepänmaa, Y. World. ln: The British Journal of Aesthetics, UK, Ympäristöestetiikka (Environmental Aesthetics, vol. 16, No. 2, Spring 1976, 186-191. in Finnish). Mänttä, Finland: Gaudeamus. Sandqvist, T. 1991. Käpylä, M. 1991. Leikkaus maataiteesta postmodernismiin (From Kahti ympäristökasvatuksen kokonaismallia Earth Art to Past-Modernism, in Finnish). The (Towards a holistic model at environmental Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland: education, in Finnish). Kasvatus 22, 5-6 Government’s Printing Centre. (Education 22, 5-6, in Finnish), Finland, 439-455. Seitamaa-OravaIa, P. 1990. Kuviotkuvien takana: kuvaskeemoista Käpylä, M. 1993. kuvauskeinaihin. Historiallinen orientaatio Kultuurriekologinen viitekehys kagnitiiviseen nakcikulmaan kuvoamataidon ympäristökasvatuksen tietoaineksen jäsentäjänä opetuksessa. (The Figures Behind Pictures: From (Cultural-ecological frame ofmreference as an Pictorial Schemes to Means at Depiction. A organiser of environmental education data, in historical orientation to the cognitive viewpoint Finnish). Manuscript, in The Department of in art education, in Finnish). Licentiate thesis. Environmental Education for Teacher Trainers. University at Art and Design, Helsinki, Reader. University of Jyväskylä, Finland. publications at the Department of Art Education / Research / No. 2. Finland. Levanto, Y. 1990. Täydellinen torso. Kirioituksia kuvataiteesta Sepänmaa, Y. 1994. l976-1990 (The Perfect Torso, Writings on visual Ympliristoestetiikan uusi aalto (The New Wave art 1976-1990, in Finnish). Helsinki, Finland: of Environmental Aesthetics, in Finnish), in Government’s Printing Centre. Sepänmaa, Y. (ed.) Alligaattorin hymy. Ympäristöestetiikan uusi aalto (Alligator Smile. Maula, R. 1994. The New Wave at Environmental Aesthetics, in Onka tieto valtaa ympäristötutkimuksessa (Is Finnish). University ol Helsinki. Lahti Centre knowledge power in , in of Research and Extended Studies. Jyväskylä,, Finnish) in Vilka L. (ed.) Ympäristöongelmat ja Finland: Gummerus, 7-12. tiede. Ympitristotutkimuksen filosafiaa (Environmental Problems and Science. Spies, W. 1985. Environmental research philosophy, in Finnish). Christo. Surrounded Islands. New York, USA. Helsinki, Finland; Helsinki University Press, 87- 106. Walker, J. 1977. A Glossary at Art, Architecture and Design since Meeker, J. 1994. 1945. London, UK. Ecological Esthetics. In Meeker: The Comedy of Survival - In Search of an Environmental Ethic. International College, Guild of Tutors Press, Los Angeles, USA, 106-117.

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