gaining affective and environmental engagement through socially engaged art between China and Australia
Revisiting
Lifeworld
Objectives
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How art can translate environmental information or issues and provide active space for an in-depth debate or a closer dialogue?
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How to transform a place into art?
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What are the factors that affect audience perception and participation?
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How do people respond to art engagement?
Processes
Information
Starting with Place, I searched the impacts of climate change in Australia and regarded them as the problems of place and space. According to the Department of the Environment and Energy, Australia is facing significant impacts of climate change across different sectors, especially on coasts, cities and the built environment, natural ecosystems, health and wellbeing, disaster risk management.
Site
Then, in terms of the above impacts, I find some sites that could have a close connection with these specific issues. considering site-specificity, community and place connection, I translated these specific problems into different artistic forms and reconstructed a virtual reality in a narrative context to help the audience identify and affirm these issues.
Methods
Aiming to attract the public and engage them to understand the issues. I explore different mediums in terms of the conditions of various sites.
Engagement
I create various experiences and dynamic exchanges to enhance the perception in which the environment informs message and knowledge to the audience.
Response
There are various levels of engagements among different works. I find that participation is a significant factor to maintain sustainable communication and exchanges. and corporeal haptic experiences of space that are developed through movements, touch and other senses can inform aesthetics experiences. Before the collaboration and further discussion, there is always a transformation from information input to emotional affect output.
Findings
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Regarding the climate change issues as the problem of place and space is necessary and effective because of the two main reasons. One is that climate change is caused by different reasons and also results in various impacts in different places. Another is that place has its own productivity of sensibility and deep associations with individuals. Therefore, starting from place pedagogy can increase the urgency and relevance to the environmental issues for the public.
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The form of projection is attractive for the audience and as a kind of street art, it has a higher acceptance that promotes the communication between me and the public.
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Images can have some psychological engagement and encourage the audience to realize the significance through the content, but also have its indeterminacy that leaves some imagination for audiences. Compared with the vision, sounds can broaden our imagination and produce more emotional responses.
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Narrative details can enhance the audience’s understanding while the direct sensory experience can promote people to imagine with the combination of their personal experience.
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Comparing with images, installation can draw bodies into sensations and the immersion can extend the affective transmission. Then engagement the audience into the transforming experiences.
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Apocalyptic imagery can raise awareness about the consequences of climate change by cultivating the feeling of fear and guilt or inciting urgency. but it also has the possibility that generates the feeling of hopelessness.
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For the translation of environmental issues, effective engagement is that art serves an emotional affect trigger, which attempts to realize the mutual influence between psychology and behaviours.
Problems in the process
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Can we understand an artwork which is ongoing, performative and immersive? are these elements as the catalysts for engagement?
An ongoing artwork and performance can eliminate the distance between audience and artist, people can be easily engaged in the creating process. Under this circumstance, as a participant, they play a significant role in the development of the artwork. and participation promotes further exchange and communication.
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When collaborating with others, how to find common ground?
Considering the collaboration with others, especially in this multicultural context, there are some points that need attention: Conflicting interests, Egos, Cultural barriers and losing control.
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How to balance public interest and my personal intention? consider public psychology?
As a means of social engagement, the artwork related to environmental issues is a serious topic, so it is important to consider the public interest and psychology, avoiding personal intense emotions. Site-specificity and the decolonisation should be thought about in advance.
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How to prevent audiences' hopelessness responses and how to make up the gap between virtuality and reality. Since Apocalypse can easily turn into an entertainment activity whose goal is to seek a temporary sense of pleasure filled with fear, audiences, after recovering from the above feeling, might get adapted to their own life without any reflections.
Rejecting the exaggeration of the translation of issues and the intense fear feelings, the artwork themed on “doomsday” should emphasize its function of revelation so as to remind people of their limited cognition of the world rather than reductionism.
Conclusion
What are the key points of that art reconstruct the ecological issues and provide active space for an in-depth debate or a closer dialogue?
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Place connection (relevances to the individual)
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Rejecting exaggeration (translate according to the fact; The sense of fear and guilt is not necessary)
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Narrative formation or Phenomenological effect
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Public interest and psychology (different community and space)
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Direct message --- Trigger emotional affect --- Emotional reaction and behaviour change