Examine how art and design practice involves

ecologies, in particular beyond the human (the

environment, materials, processes etc.)
Explore ecologies that exist in your ideas, and also
the ecologies you operate in. How does your work
affect some of these ecologies?
Encounter examples of cutting edge practice-led
research that deal with ecologies.

environment

feedback
relationships
evolution

system
symbiosis
temporality

diversity
species

dependency
provenance

fragility

balance
process-based

Discussion

Antti Laitinen, Self-portrait on the Swamp, 2002 http://www.anttilaitinen.com/swamp1.html

Ecology and Ecologies

Ecology, typically defined, means several things:
The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one
another and to their physical surroundings;
The study of the interaction of people with their environment;
The political movement that seeks to protect the environment, esp. from
pollution.
When we discuss the concept of ecologies in relation to artists and their
practices, all of these definitions may come into play. An ecology can be as
much geological or geographical as biological; it can be a location, an
institution or simply a series of associations.
To quote Matthew Fuller, the term ecology is useful because it is one of the
most expressive [words] language currently has to indicate the massive and
dynamic interrelation of processes and objects, beings and things, patterns
and matter. (from Fuller, Media Ecologies).

Cornelia Parker: Neither From Nor Towards (http://vicca.fi/jane-bennett-vibrant-matter/)

Image also on cover of Bennetts Vibrant Matter

Resources:
Image: scavengers hunt for recyclable waste while
smoke blows over the veterinary college
https://clearimpression.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/pondic
herrys-dumpsite-in-kurumbapet-a-crime-scene-b-environ
mental-catastrophe-c-public-health-disaster-d-phenomena
lly-profitable-business-or-e-all-of-the-above/

On a sunny Tuesday morning on 4 June in the grate over the storm drain to the Chesapeake Bay in front of Sam's Bageis on Cold
Spring Lane in Baltimore, there was:
one large men's black plastic work glove
one dense mat of oak pollen
one unblemished dead rat
one white plastic bottle cap
one smooth stick of wood
Glove. pollen. rat. cap. stick. As I encountered these items. they shim-mied back and forth between debris and thing - between, on the
one hand, stuff to ignore, except insofar as it betokened human activity (the workman's efforts. the litterer's toss. the rat-poisoner's
success). and, on the other hand, stuff that commanded attention in its own right, as existents in excess of their association with
human meanings, habits, or projects. In the second moment, stuff exhibited its thing-power: it issued a call. even if I did not quite
understand what it was saying. At the very least. it provoked affects in me: I was repelled by the dead (or was it merely sleeping?) rat
and dismayed by the litter. but I also felt something else: a nameless awareness of the impossible singularity of that rat. that
configuration of pollen. that otherwise utterly banal. mass- produced plasticwater-bottle cap.

Jane Bennetts Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things

Chapter 1 page 4
In her book Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, Bennett describes vibrant networks of change operating beyond and within
human beings without providing a purposiveness to the separable matter of nature, either coming from human beings
(anthropocentrism) or some divinity (ontotheology).
Above from an interview found in:
http://philosophyinatimeoferror.com/2010/04/22/vibrant-matters-an-interview-with-jane-bennett/

Kurt Schwitters, Merzbau

...the

Merzbau was not just a static

painting or a sculpture, but a whole
environment, and one that was in constant
flux. One day the Merzbau could have a
new column of debris stacked in the
corner, the next day a new grotto
dedicated to an artist friend. Photographs
cant quite capture the Merzbaus
expanding and shifting nature.
Schwitters Merzbaus were constantly evolving
sculptures and grottoes in the corners of his house
that expanded out slowly. They incorporated many
elements of his everyday life such as toenail
clippings, bus tickets and other found objects,
creating part archive, part ecosystem. Schwitters
work is often cited as a reference in discussions
around process-based art.

Alison Knowles, The House of Dust (1967)

Not all ecologies need be
physical: The House of Dust
by Fluxus artist Alison Knowles
is an early example of
computer-generated poetry,
running to over 27 pages.
Arranged into four line
quatrains, each beginning with
A house of, the computer
programme randomly selected
a material, a site or situation, a
light source, and a category of
inhabitants from four
corresponding lists.
Each quatrain forms an
ecology, with the entire poem
being a compendium of
inter-related imaginative
ecologies, and the process
itself a machine for generating
ecologies. Further to that,
Knowles later realised several
quatrains as physical works.

David Tudor, Rainforest IV (1973)

In David Tudors
installation work
Rainforest, a wide range of
found objects, selected for
their shape, size and
sculptural possibilities are
fitted with electric
transducers, turning them
into what he called
loudspeaker-objects.
Each speaker-object has a
corresponding batch of
sounds, selected for the
way in which they reacted
with and responded to the
materials and shapes from
which the speaker-object
was constructed.

Playing these sounds through the speaker-objects changes the character of the original sound altogether.
The sound from the speaker-objects is then reamplified throughout the space through another system of
conventional speakers. Sounds from one speaker-object can also be re-routed to any other, as can the
audio from the conventional speakers, creating a rich, interrelated, self-modulating ecology of both objects
and sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwHkK3siTYQ

Energies:
Joyce Hinterding
David Haines
Recently shown at the MCA ,Energies is a
retrospective look at the collaborative and
solo works of Sydney Artists David Haines
and Joyce Hinterding.
Their collaborative practice incorporates
experimental and traditional media to
investigate Hinterdings fascination with
energetic forces and Haines attraction to
the intersection of hallucination and the
environment. Both artists are captivated by
the unseen energies that surround us and
seek to reveal them to audiences through
work that draws upon aspects of science,
the occult and philosophy.
http://www.mca.com.au/exhibition/energieshaines-and-hinterding/

Above: David Haines and Joyce Hinterding, Geology, 2015,

an interview extensive with the artists is linked below,: the
discussion about Geology begins around 6.44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWPGLRi3CwI

Installation image: Haines and Hinterding use a collection of materials that connect our
senses to multiple unseen forces, both within our bodies and out in the world. Their work
utilises touch, sound and smell employing a variety of materials and genres.

Installation image: MCA Haines and Hinterding

Clare Milledge
Psychomagic:
Dead Matters

Psychomagic: Dead Matters was an experimental laboratory that began on

September 20th 2014 and culminated in an event on October 3rd. During gallery
opening hours visitors were be able to view the installation in various stages of
forming and deforming (although artists may or may not have been present).

During Psychomagic: Dead Matters, artists were to use, build and interact in the space. During the
exhibition performances, sculptural works and collaborative activities occurred in an inclusive and
transdisciplinary way. This image shows Joyce Hinterding and David Haines in a performance.
For more information: http://www.55sydenhamrd.com/psychomagic-deadmatters

Assemble:
Assemble is a collective of 18 architects, artists and designers that are 30 or under who make direct interventions.
They were nominated for the 2015 Turner prize. Their projects include Granby Four Streets, Toxteth, Liverpool
(pictured below). Following the 1981 riots, the housing estate was earmarked for demolition but some residents
refused to move out. With the aim of rehabilitating their area, the residents set up a community group. They invited
Assemble to help their efforts. From a proposed 'winter garden' in an empty house to artist-designed fireplaces,
Assemble used low-cost materials to revamp the houses. The group works across design and art platforms
integrating gallery, community and living environments within their work.
http://assemblestudio.co.uk/

Helmut Smits
Dutch Artist Helmut Smits is a good example of a person working (like many contemporary art and design
practitioners) across disciplinary platforms. Smits makes art objects, films, publishes books, designs household
objects, makes installation art and large scale public works. Each iteration of his work is not separated from one
another, but is integrated in a tangible way into the world he inhabits. His most recent work turns coca cola back into
water.
http://helmutsmits.nl/