ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ART IN PUBLIC PLACE TALKING TREE: WON’T YOU TAKE A MINUTE AND LISTEN TO THE PLIGHT OF NATURE? REIKO GOTO COLLINS PhD 2012 Ecology and Environmental Art in Public Place Talking Tree: Won't you take a minute and listen to the plight of nature? Reiko Goto Collins A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of The Robert Gordon University for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY. This research was carried out in connection with On the Edge Research Programme, Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, funded by the Robert Gordon University Research Degree Initiative. February, 2012 ii Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it recognises that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author's prior consent. iii Ecology and Environmental Art in Public Place Talking Tree: Won’t you take a minute and listen to the plight of nature? Reiko Goto Collins Abstract My research started with a question: Is it possible to create change if we understand life is interdependent and interrelated with nature in our environment? I researched this question from the perspective of a practising artist in the field of environmental art in the context of ecology. I chose trees as the focal point of my enquiry as trees represent the largest living thing we encounter in our day-to-day activities. Empathy, particularly as defined in the work of Edith Stein, emerged as a significant critical construct which I used to examine the inter-dependence and interrelation of humans and trees as dynamic and diverse communities on earth. Empathy is related to metaphor, particularly Donald Schön’s idea of a generative metaphor and George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s 'empathic projection'. These metaphorical conceptions can be relied upon to talk about trees without falling into anthropomorphising nature. The research was also informed by positions in the aesthetics of art. First Emily Brady positions human imagination as aesthetic mediation between human perceptions and scientific understanding of nature. Secondly Grant Kester’s dialogical aesthetics that are informed by conversation, inter-subjective exchange and empathic relationship. I then sought to understand how empathy had been embedded in practices of art over the last thirty years. Particular artworks are selected because they are internationally relevant examples of work that intended to create change in a specific public sphere: Time Landscape (1978) by Alan Sonfist, 7000 Oaks (1982) by Joseph Beuys and Serpentine Lattice (1993) by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. My interest in these works is focused on the potential for an empathic relationship with trees as living things that are embedded in specific environments. To meet this goal in my aesthetic practice, I have developed a discrete relational artwork in collaboration with a plant physiologist, a computer programmer and other artists to create the means to experience how trees ‘breathe’. This is accomplished by translating the plant physiological processes - photosynthesis and transpiration - to sound using, and extending, a custom software system. I also invented Plein Air, an easel that not only holds the plant's physiological system and the sound system but also becomes a small portable station to observe various trees in different places. In my conclusion I examined the implication of ecological and symbolic meanings that go beyond an artist’s authorship, which is created through this empathy- driven enquiry and shared experience between people, place and trees in public places. iv Table of Contents page Abstract iii Table of Contents iv List of figures vi Acknowledgements vii Author’s declaration viii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Developing an integrated critical framework 6 2.1. Edith Stein: On the Problem of Empathy 8 Theoretical study of empathy 8 Edith Stein: On the Problem of Empathy 10 Living body 10 Inner perception 11 Foreign and familiar 13 Feelings and actions 13 Symbolic relationship and sign relationship 14 Feeling of oneness 16 Empathy and sympathy 17 Empathy and trees 19 Summary 20 2.2 Empathy plus metaphor in relation to natural environment 21 Generative metaphor 22 Metaphor and empathic projection 24 2.3 Emily Brady: Aesthetic of the Natural Environment 28 Traditional aesthetic approach 28 Natural science model 30 Integrated approach 33 Time Landscape 35 2.4 Grant Kester: Dialogical Aesthetics 39 Distance between the artwork and the spectator 39 Dialogical aesthetics in natural environment 42 Groundworks 42 2.5 Summary of chapter two and conceptual framework 47 v Chapter 3: Case studies – Beuys and the Harrisons 50 3.1. 7000 Oaks (1982-1986) 51 The site visit 51 7000 Oaks 53 The artist background 54 Basalt columns 55 Oak in German culture 56 Image of the German forest 57 The reflection upon 7000 Oaks 59 3.2. The Serpentine Lattice (1993) 62 The site visit 62 The process of the artwork 64 The cultural landscape 65 A field of play 67 The metaphorical flip 69 Reflection on the Serpentine Lattice 72 Summary of the two case studies 76 Chapter 4: Enquiry through practice 78 Duke Forest 80 4.1. Phase 1.1: Investigation leading to The team members 80 The plant physiology system 81 The Headlands Artist in Residence Program 82 The sound experiment 83 Two video clips 84 Druid Circle Oak 85 Dialogue at Headlands 86 The Headlands data analysis 87 The residency outcome 88 4.1. Phase 1.2: Developing the real time system 90 The project development at the Crop Technology Unit 90 Real-time system development 91 Sound enquiry 91 Scientific tools 93 A sense of lived connectedness 94 Reflection on the project development 96 4.2. Phase 2: Plein Air: the Ethical Aesthetic Impulse 99 Overview of the exhibition 99 The context and interaction with specific trees 100 A tree is a living thing 102 The greenhouse 102 Public dialogue 103 Reflections on Plein Air 107 vi Chapter 5: Conclusion 115 Bibliography 119 Appendices Appendix A A1: Previous work in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, U.S.A. 1996 - 2005 124 A2: Journey 129 A3: The Serpentine Lattice; Somebody said; It is known / It is not known 131 A4: Interview: Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison, 8 March 2008, Bristol, UK. 138 A5: The context of the exhibition 158 Appendix B (CD Rom 1) Sound sample oak Sound sample Headlands Sound sample Peacock Gallery Exhibition Video clips Appendix C (The exhibition handout) 165 List of figures Figure 1: Time Landscape 38 Figure 2: Allegheny County Sand Mandala 46 Figure 3: A map of 7000 Oaks 52 Figure 4: 7000 Oaks 53 Figure 5: Fragmentation of the forest and old growth forest 63 Figure 6: The map of the Serpentine lattice 63 Figure 7: The drawings of the Serpentine Lattice 69 Figure 8: Video scenes 85 Figure 9: The graphs of the plant physiological data 88 Figure 10: Mock Plein Air 89 Figure 11: Notation of oak transpiration and photosynthesis 92 Figure 12: Nago no Õkusu 95 Figure 13: Exhibition at Peacock Visual Arts 100 Figure 14: Diagrams 1 108 Figure 15: Diagrams 2 110 Figure 16: Diagrams 3 111 Figure 17: Image of leaves and stomata 112 Figure 18: The diagram of the plant physiology system 112 Figure 19: Plant physiology data 113 Figure 20: Perfect data 113 Figure 21: The lower Dee Side map by Timothy Pont 158 Figure 22: William Roy Survey of Scotland 160 Figure 23: Auquhollie, Lang Stane 163 vii Acknowledgements I dedicate this work to my father Tadao Goto. He taught me how to love plants and animals. My work has been enabled through the support of many. It has been an honour to have Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison as friends and mentors. Their advice is based on world-class creativity and a depth of understanding about ecological relationships and challenges. Emily Brady, PhD and Trevor Hocking, PhD have helped me to know trees and the natural environment as sensible living things. They show me different ways to engage the natural environment. Working with Professor Anne Douglas, the director of the On the Edge research has been ideal. Working with Anne is like swimming across a river to get to the other side. I hear her firm voice encouraging me to be cautious, but rigorous and relentless. I soon lose everything but myself and have a full experience of the river. This experience has given me a new confidence and an appreciation for reflection upon where I have been and need to go. I appreciate the institutions that have given me opportunities to expand my research. Thanks to Innovation Design and the Sustainability Research Institute and Grays School of Art Robert Gordon University, The University of Wolverhampton, Peacock Visual Arts, The Headlands Center for the Arts in California, the Eco Link Association in Japan, and Bamboo Curtain Studio in Taiwan. I have learned about the trees and woodlands in Aberdeen Scotland from: Geoff Banks, naturalist and photographer; Duncan McGregor, arboriculturalist and tree officer at Aberdeen City Council; and Steve Brown, woodland officer at Grampian Conservancy. Their passion and dedication for this region and its natural environment have informed and motivated this work. My friend Dr. Stuart Hannabuss kindly offered to read and provide input during the revision stages of my thesis. His clear, precise and thoughtful advice was helpful. During this process I began to see the implications of my practice in new ways. Thank you. I relied upon all the meticulous transcription of public dialogues and intimate conversations that were processed meticulously by Kitta Roos Potgieter, of Uppercase Transcriptions.