The imaginary worlds of sustainability

The imaginary worlds of sustainability: Observations from an interactive art installation

Bendor, R. (TU Delft Design Conceptualization and Communication)
Maggs, David (University of British Columbia)
Peake, Rachel (External organisation)
Robinson, John (University of Toronto)
Williams, Steve (University of British Columbia)

2017

We report on preliminary results from a public engagement project based on a procedural approach to sustainability. The project centered on an interactive art installation that comprised a live actor, an immersive soundscape featuring a handful of different characters, an interactive touch-table, and four interactive rooms within which participants wandered, partially guided by a narrative through-line, yet at the same time left to make sense of any larger meanings on their own. The installation was designed to experiment with two propositions: (1) that there is value in public engagement with sustainability based on the exploration and articulation of deeply held beliefs about the world—the worldviews, values, and presuppositions that mediate perception and action; (2) that there is value in replacing the infocentric tendency of most public engagement on sustainability with an approach premised in aesthetics and experiential resonance. Following the installation’s two-week pilot run, our preliminary results indicated that the majority of participants found the experience both resonant and thought provoking, and were mostly willing to critically engage with their preexisting notions of sustainability.

Art
Cultural dimensions of sustainability
Imagination
Ontological agency
Social constructivism

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:cb7a21ba-2ce1-4168-b8e1-25bb09e609ce

https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09240-220217

1708-3087

Ecology and Society: a journal of integrative science for resilience and sustainability, 22 (2), 1-11

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2017 R. Bendor, David Maggs, Rachel Peake, John Robinson, Steve Williams