Sustainability, Art and Reflexivity

Hans Dieleman: Sustainability, Art and Reflexivity

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Sustainability, andReflexivity: Reflexivity: Sustainability, Art Art and

why artists and designers may become key change agents in why artists and designers may become key change sustainability agents in sustainability Prof. Dr. Hans Dieleman Professor at the Autonomous University of Mexico-City (UACM) College of Sciences and Humanities, San Lorenzo 290, Col. del Valle, 03100, Distrito Federal, México Email: [email protected], tel.: +52 (55) 54886661 Member of Staff of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, E-mail: [email protected] Key-note speech for the European Sociological Association Conference: New Frontiers in Arts Sociology: Creativity, Support and Sustainability Lueneburg, Germany, March 28-April 1, 2007

Published in: Sacha Kagan / Volker Kirchberg (eds.) (2008); Sustainability:a new frontier for the arts and cultures. 2008 VAS – Verlag für Akademische Schriften, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Summary This paper explores the contribution of art and design in sustainability. The paper has two parts. In the first part sustainability is portrayed as a societal change process in terms of Giddens’ structuration theory. This part argues that sustainability as is a process of social structuration that is the result of many actions and practices of many actors over time and space. Society constantly changes as a result of those actions, effects of the actions, feedback loops and reflection on the effects and the feedback loops. In all of these processes, reflexivity is one of the important mechanisms that create change. The conclusion of the first part is that sustainability can be seen as a process of reflection and structuration, but that many people miss the capacities and the conditions to reflect on their lives and changes their lives styles to more sustainable ones. That is why the second part focuses on ways to provide people with more and more adequate ‘reflexive capital’ that can help them to change their ways of living and can help the structuration process towards sustainability. The paper distinguishes 4 forms of reflexivity and reflexive capital that can be considered of key importance in contemporary society: aesthetic, hermeneutic, ontological and professional. All of these forms go beyond the technical rationality that is dominant in most policy studies and scientific analyses. As a result the contribution of science and mainstream politics in these reflective processes is limited. The paper identifies that by contrast, artists and designers play vital roles in each of the reflective processes, based on the specific characteristics and competencies that they have. The paper presents a wide variety of examples of artistic projects to illustrate this. The paper concludes that by looking at sustainability as a process of structuration in which reflexivity plays an important role, and concluding that we need reflexivity that goes beyond technical rationality, art and design are potentially important change agents in sustainability. Finally the paper indicates that in practice artists are already now more often involved in sustainability projects and are more than before playing the roles of change agents.


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Creating art and design for sustainability; will it help?

The key concern in my work and in this paper is how to stimulate, guide or facilitate the change process towards sustainability. My idea is that science and politics fall short. Sciences are important in analyzing problems but have fewer capacities to contribute to sustainability that is basically a process of the creation of a new world with new institutions, products, processes and relationships. They fall short due to the analytical rationality they apply in understanding reality. Science cuts reality in parts and this is not an appropriate approach to deal with a complex issue such as sustainability. Politics fall short for many reasons. They are too much embedded in traditional institutions like nations states that have problems dealing with continental, global or multi-cultural issues. They are too much problem-oriented, very analytical in their approach as well, and over-emphasize a functional rationality. Many consultants fall short as well. I worked as a sort-of consultant for many years, when I was doing demonstration projects in Cleaner Production in industries. I discovered that the rational arguments that we presented to the companies (fully within a standard neo-classical economic discourse of Pollution Prevention Pays) did not really make the companies change1. Reasons to change do come from argumentation but are as much embedded in emotions, convictions or rules of the thumb2. In previous writing I concluded that the change process to sustainability is ‘more than rational’. It is about emotions, desires and fears, life styles, identities and intuitive notions. It is equally about visions and expectations of the future or of multiple futures. In essence changing towards sustainability is the ‘art of being different’, of using different products, designing different lifestyles and engaging in different practices, doing things in different ways and seeing reality in different ways. I started looking at the potential role of art and design in sustainability, and asked myself the question if they can play a role as change agents. For me this was a logical step. Design has everything to do with ‘creation’, and art for me is ‘a process of inquiry’. Since sustainability is a process of exploring new ways of living, new ways of being, doing and experiencing the world, art and design are obviously closely related3. Too often we look at art only in terms of the results of the explorations, the objects such as visual images (paintings, photo's, sculptures), linguistic images (metaphors, literature, poetry) or music and performances (theatre, dance). But behind that is what interests me more: the process of search and inquiry. Art is in essence exploring, shaping, testing and challenging reality and images, thoughts and definitions of reality. Artists engage in these activities in their specific ways, using creativity, lateral thinking and intuition. I concluded that art and artists can help in actual change processes and that many are already doing that4. Knowing that art is potentially interesting for sustainability, my next question was if sustainability is 1

·Dieleman Hans (1999) De arena van schonere productie, mens en organisatie tussen behoud en verandering (the Arena of Cleaner Production; man and organisation between conservation and change) Thesis, published at Eburon Delft 2 ·Dieleman Hans (2006); Cleaner Production and Innovation Theory; How the practice of Cleaner Production can benefit from theories on innovation. Conference Proceedings III International Symposium on Engineering and Sciences for Environmental Sustainability, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco 6 - 10 June 2006 3 M. Bijvoet (1994); Art as inquiry, Interdisciplinary aspects in American Art after 1965, doctoral thesis, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam 4 Dieleman Hans (2004); The Powers of Creative Practice; artists as change agents in sustainable development. Conference Proceedings of “The Art of Comparison” 6th Conference of The ESA Research Network for the Sociology of the Arts Rotterdam, Erasmus University, the Netherlands, November 3-5 2004


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interesting for the arts. And the answer is positive, sustainability is indeed interesting for the arts as it deals with exploring new ways of living, new products and new systems and new views and concepts of man, society and nature5. The question I want to raise here is if it helps to create artworks and designs for sustainability. What I mean by that is if artists and designers can indeed contribute to a societal change process. In answering I first portray sustainability as a societal change process in terms of Giddens’ structuration theory. I present a systems view in which society is a complex system that is constantly changing as a result of the effects of praxis, feedback loops and reflection on the effects and the feedback loops. Secondly I focus in more detail on various forms of reflexivity and look at the potential and actual contribution of art and design in these forms of reflexivity. Finally I draw a number of conclusions.

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Sustainability, Giddens’ structuration theory and the sociology of praxis

Sustainability involves examining, monitoring, evaluating, investigating and screening current practices, systems and cultures and to create alternative ones. It involves changes in products, management of organizations, relationships, infrastructures and technical and information systems. It involves changes in everyday praxis but it involves as much changing global structures such as the current economic system that is based on continuous material growth. It equally involves changing the dominant cultural model that is basically a cultural model of consumption. It asks for practical change as well as fundamental changes at the same time. Since nobody really sees ways to create a worldwide revolution to overthrow the current world system, most of us hope to realize change by engaging in concrete practices and concrete projects. The question is if it makes sense and how we can see the contribution of art and design in this process. I will present an argument that enables to answer this question in a positive way, largely based on the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens. For Giddens a choice between structural change and incremental change is not a real choice. For him structures emerge only because there is social action. Structures are essentially structured practices and cannot exist without human activities. Yet at the same time action is steered and guided by structures. Giddens formulated the notion of ‘duality of structure’ meaning that structure is both the result of action as well as the context and framework for action6. We can abstract from practices and refer to structures as frames that affect society but in the end they cannot be separated. Structures only exist in the moments when they are actualized. An interesting and important aspect of Giddens’ theory is the complete abolition of functionalism and the idea that structures somehow have a function and humans act to realize or fulfil these functions. Societies do not function as a structure; people only make up structures in their actions and through their actions. Giddens’ structuration theory merged out the sociology of praxis of theorists like Cooley, Mead, Garfinkel and Berger and Luckmann, and is related to the praexeology of Bourdieu7. Duality of structure is comparable to the notion of the existence of a dialectical relationship between individuals and institutions, and between processes of socialization, internalization and externalization. We humans learn to see reality ‘as it is’ through processes of learning 5

Dieleman Hans (2006): Sustainability as inspiration for art, some theory and a gallery of examples. In: “Caderno Videobrasil” Publication of the Ássociçâo Cultural Videobrasil´ in Sao Paolo, Brazil, nov. 2006 6 Giddens Anthony (1984); The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Polity Press, Cambridge 7 Giddens Anthony (1976); New Rules of Sociological Method. A positive critique of interpretative sociologies, London: Hutchinson


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and socialization. When we come into the world we encounter a world with many established institutions: values, worldviews, structures, and all kinds of norms and rules that prescribe how we should see the world and how we have to behave in many situations. While we become socialized we internalize that world of norms and values in learning processes, and these norms and values become a part of us. We start to behave like the others (parents, other children etc) and start to reproduce what we have learned. In this process of reproduction we externalize the values, routines and practices. This process of internalization-externalization goes on in basically all our live. In this way previously established social frames (norms, values, routines, institutions, structures) work as a framework for action but are at the same time reproduced in action. Bourdieu’s concept of praxis, habitus and field has clear similarities8. Bourdieu talks about the praxis that is guided by the habitus. This habitus is as a system of dispositions and subconscious schemes, whereas the field is the wider social space of institutions, positions and structures. Bourdieu sees the habitus as a dialectical intersection of structure and action: it both generates and shapes action9. Common in basically all sociology of practice is to look at day-to-day practice as being “embedded” in larger societal frameworks (fields, structures). These frameworks provide us the knowledge, skills, routines, predispositions and definitions of reality to live our day-to-day life. It allows us to behave in many situations in a prereflective way. Giddens calls this ‘ethno’- knowledge that helps us ‘to go on’ in day-to-day life, and Bourdieu talks about the habitus that provides ‘rules of the game’ and gives us a ‘feel for the game’. The language is different but the basic idea of structuring praxis in a larger society in a dialectical way is basically the same. One important difference between Berger and Luckmann and Bourdieu on the one hand and Giddens on the other hand, is the explicit linking of processes on the micro-level with those on the macro-level. The essence of Giddens’ structuration theory is to make the principal link between practices and structures, without making one dominant to the other. For Giddens changing practices means changing structures, or to be more accurate: changing practices as well as regularities around these practices over a period of time by a certain number of actors involves structuration. When changes are indeed carried out by more than a single actor and on a larger scale or broader basis, such changes can result in social change. Time and place are very important in Giddens’ theory, and are both linked to his praxeology. It is not the intention of people that is important in Giddens´ thinking count in explaining structural change and structuration; it is the praxis that counts and the effects of actions over time and in space. A feature of modern society is that practices are more and more linked over large distances, thanks to modern technology. The effects of changing practices in terms of structuration therefore can be realized in an ever-bigger space. This notion is echoed in the well-known slogan “Act local, think global”. These changes can have various sources. Individuals can make conscious decisions to change, there can be fateful moments or it can be the result of less conscious forms of adjustment and adaptation. Social movements, collective action, or parallel changes by many individuals can lead to structuration. Reflexivity is one important mechanism that can lead towards change. We do not simply reproduce the social frames but we interpret them and while we interpret them and reflect on them we change them, often little by little over time. 8

Jacobs, D. (1993); Het structurisme als synthese van handelings- en systeemtheorie? (Structuralism as synthesis between action and systems theories?)', Tijdschrift voor Sociologie , 14 (3): 335-360, (in Dutch) 9 Bourdieu, Pierre (1977); Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


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In the “Consequences of Modernity”10 Giddens talks about reflexivity when social practices are constantly examined and modified in the light of new incoming information about those practices. For Bourdieu reflexivity takes place when people experience a ‘lack of fit’ between how to act and certain objectives to realize. Also for him the habitus produces enduring orientations that are not entirely fixed and are open for change as the result of reflection. In the language of systems thinking, Giddens’ structuration theory can be characterized as follows. Society is a complex system build up by endless amounts of interacting elements that all work together and create the system. The system only exists in as far as the elements collectively and jointly create it but yet the elements are also limited in their freedom by the system. (Dis)- equilibrium and change of the system can be generated by external forces but are at the same time constantly produced internally through the effects of the actions of the elements, through numerous effects and feedback loops. The notion of feedback loops is relevant. People are knowledgeable actors in Giddens theory, but that does not mean that they have full control over their situation. Their activities (and that of others) have intended as well as unintended consequences that cannot be predicted and controlled. In this context Lash labels reflexivity ‘non-linearity’, to emphasize that reflexivity can change a system in any possible direction and from any possible position within the system11. Giddens ideas reflect contemporary thinking in policy and research circles dealing with sustainability. A common way to look at sustainability or sustainable development is to see it as a process, more than an objective or goal. And in as far as sustainability involves examining, monitoring, evaluating and screening current practices and creating alternative ones, keywords in many policy reports on sustainability are ‘engaging in a process’ and ‘learning by doing’. Only by means of engaging in the process, doing things, reflecting on the intended and unintended effects and feedback loops, and learning while we are doing, we can eventually realize the change we hope to realize. Following Giddens structuration theory change is not only possible on the level of products and practices but - as a consequence of that in time and space - also on the level of systems and structures.

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Second or reflexive modernity

Giddens structuration theory is rooted in ideas on the detraditionalization of society, and linked to the concepts of reflexive and second modernity. The central idea of the detraditionalization thesis, introduced by Habermas12, is the idea of the increasing independency of people (or agency) from structures. In traditional societies as well as in early modernity, day to day life was well embedded in a variety of institutions such as nation states, ethnic groups, jobs in stable organizations with life long employment and clear images of the family and gender roles. In the course of modernization those traditional institutions changed and started to loose their (original) meaning. The nation state is more and more embedded in larger multinational entities that take over part of the functions of the nation state. Life long employment is more and more rare and organizations are almost constantly involved in processes of management buy-outs and reorganizations. The traditional role of the nuclear family changed dramatically since the ninety sixties and so did gender roles. While many saw those changes taking place in their

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Giddens Anthony (1990); The Consequences of Modernity, Polity Press & Blackwell, Oxford. Lash Scott (2003); Reflexivity as Non-linearity, In: Theory, Culture & Society 2003. SAGE, London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi, Vol. 20(2): 49–57 12 Habermas, Jürgen. (1984); The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 1. Boston: Beacon Press 11


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own society, they received at the same time more and more information on alternative cultures and societies, and different ways of living there. As a result contemporary life is much less embedded in those traditional institutions, people are freer and have more possibilities to make choices how to live their own life. And in this process, as Adkins is pointing out, the authority of the individual is taking over external forms of authority13. The result is, as Ulrich Beck writes14, that when societies get more modernized people get more possibilities to reflect on their social conditions and change them. Following this line of interpretation, Lash concludes that reflexive modernization is a theory ‘of the ever increasing powers of social actors, or “agency” in regard to structure’15 The consequence is that the thesis of detraditionalization makes the premises of the structuration theory even stronger. Some warning is needed though. This theory, in combination with reflexive or second modernity, can easily be interpreted as neo-liberal theory, legitimating individualization as ‘modern’ process. Both Beck and Lash make important remarks in this respect. Beck acknowledges that when societies get more modernized people get more possibilities to reflect on their social conditions and have more freedom to choose. Yet he observes that at the same time these individuals hardly have time to ‘reflect’ on their choices and that they decide very often in a ‘reflex’. Reflexes are immediate responses characterized by a lack of reflection and this in fact characterizes the contemporary individual. The contemporary individual is characterized by choice and makes his choices in a world full of uncertainties that is characterized by speed and quick decisionmaking. That is why current modernization is radicalizing and why we are living in a risk society in which uncertainty is no longer manageable. It is quit interesting to read that Beck is quoting in his article of 2003 Bruno Latour, in an attempt to clarify his own definition of reflexive modernization: ”‘Reflexive’ does not mean that people today lead a more conscious life. On the contrary. ‘Reflexive’ signifies not an ‘increase of mastery and consciousness, but a heightened awareness that mastery is impossible’”16. It is in this context that Beck writes about sustainability and the ecological crisis. It is an illustration that our current society is ‘out of control’. The risks, dangers and side effects of our production and consumption exceed the possibilities of societal control and cannot any longer be solved according to the principles of our society. That is why our industrial society is adrift and has become inherently and intrinsically problematic. Lash and Urry produce yet another remark to the idea that reflexive modernization leads simply to more freed individuals. In their ‘Economies of Signs and Space” they analyze how the Information and Communication sector is gaining importance in contemporary life. In this context they observe that the new Information and Communication structures limit the access of large groups to participate in contemporary society. They acknowledge that modern societies are producing more and more independent, free and reflexive individuals that are 13

Adkins Lisa (2003); Reflexivity, Freedom or Habit of Gender? In: Theory, Culture & Society 2003, SAGE, London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi, Vol. 20(6): 21–42 14 Beck, Ulrich. (1994) in: Beck, Giddens, and Lash, Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order 15 Lash, Scott. (1994) in: Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens, and Scott Lash, Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. 16 Latour Bruno (2003); Is Re-modernization Occurring – And If So, How to Prove It? A Commentary on Ulrich Beck. In : Theory, Culture & Society 2003, SAGE, London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi, Vol. 20(2): 35–48


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capable of ‘designing’ their own life and their own personality, the so-called "reflexivity winners” of contemporary society. Yet Lash and Urry observe that at least "one third" of people in contemporary life are not cable of designing their own biography. They are labelled as the “reflexive loosers”. This notion is relevant and only one additional observation needs to be made. The United Nations calculated, in the context of their Millennium Goals, that about 4 billion people are worldwide living of less than two dollar a day. Therefore it is probably more accurate to state that we have currently only one third of “reflexive winners” and two third of “reflexive loosers”17. We can conclude by observing that –in theory- people have in second modernity more freedom of choice to design their own lives, and that reflexivity is becoming an ever more important mechanism of change. From a macro-sociological perspective reflexivity is one of the important mechanisms through which societies as complex systems change. Or to put it in terms of Giddens: through which structuration takes place. Yet the danger is radicalization and a society out of control. In a micro-sociological perspective, reflexivity is more and more, in the vocabulary of Bourdieu, the ‘capital’ through which people can change their lives and ‘lift themselves out of their life situations’. Yet here many people seems to have problems using this capital to really change their practices and realize structuration that is more in line with the ideas of sustainability. Some, and probably the reflexive winners, are too busy to really reflect and make choices in reflexes, and others, probably more to be found among the reflexive loosers, miss the capacities to participate in contemporary society.

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Towards new reflexivity, with new change agents and new reflexive capital

In this second part of the paper the focus is more explicitly on sustainability, that we now can approach as a process of structuration in which reflexivity is one of the important mechanisms of change. My conclusion of the first part is that reflexivity is -in theory- an important mechanism but that –in practice- many people lack the possibilities for reflexivity and the design of their own lifestyles. One of the possible ways to change this is to improve the reflexive capital of people and societies, and especially the reflexive capital that can facilitate a change process towards sustainability. This will not solve the whole problem of unsustainability but there are many reasons to assume that we can improve this capital considerably, and consequently make a contribution. The issue of reflexive capital brings us back to the question of the change agents to stimulate, guide or facilitate sustainability. In my introduction I mentioned that key change agents in sustainability such as politics, science and consultants fall short in stimulating sustainability because they are too analytical, too much working within existing boundaries and functional rationality, and are too less touching upon emotions, intuitions or visions. I mentioned that we should look at sustainability as ‘more-than-rational’ change process and as an ‘art of being different’. The reflexive capital that is needed should reflect this and should be based on ‘more-than-rational’ competencies, skills and activities such as ‘visioning’ and ‘imaginating’, based on ‘lateral thinking’ and enabling the ‘creation of spaces for associations’. This implies ‘out-of-the-box thinking’, ‘intuitive searching’ and ‘transcending existing boundaries’. This is rather different from the cognitive and rational-technical approaches dominant in politics and in many practical projects. What we encounter here is a huge epistemological challenge asking what kind of knowledge we really need to realize sustainability. For many, the answer is that we need a fundamentally 17

Lash Scott and John Urry (1993); Economies of Signs and Space. Sage Publications, London, UK


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different kind of knowledge. For Dennis Meadows, writer of the first Report of the Club of Rome, systems thinking requires a whole new language that represents a completely new way of thinking and seeing reality18. According to Enrique Leff, coordinator of the Latin American UN-Network for Environmental Education and writer of various books on environmental rationality and epistemology, the environmental crisis is a crisis of western thinking that is dominated by scientific and technological rationality19. That is why for him the environmental crisis is above all a question of ontology and epistemology, and of knowledge and knowing. Based on these epistemological challenges I will distinguish among two forms of reflexivity: ontological reflexivity and professional reflexivity. Interestingly, the literature on reflexive modernization and reflexivity follows a comparable path. The critique focuses to a large extent on cognitive reflexivity that is too much based on science and technical-rational knowledge. Cognitive reflexivity is conceptual and based on using our analytical capacities. Reference points in cognitive reflexivity are abstract schemes, theories, and universal ideas. An example is the plea of Ulrich Beck for a thorough examination of the key principles and the basic definitions of reality by which we live. He wants to examine the unquestioned basis of modernization in terms of its rationality. In more operational terms he proposes to organize multi-stakeholder ‘round tables’ that can contribute to the creation of consensus out of the ambivalence20. These round tables should focus on a rationality reform that transcends the instrumental rationality common in political decisionmaking. Scott Lash identified the limits of such a cognitive venture and distinguishes among two other forms of reflexivity that are more relevant in contemporary society: aesthetic and hermeneutic reflexivity21. In this second part I will explore 4 types of ‘more-than-rational’ reflexivity, the ontological and professional reflexivity based on epistemology, and the aesthetic and hermeneutic reflexivity based on sociological insights. For each type of reflexivity I will look at the reflexive capital that can be used and will look at art and design as potential change agents in the respective forms of reflexivity. Aesthetic reflexivity is based on the use of symbols, signs and allegories, instead of analysis and theory. Scott Lash claims that this form of reflexivity is becoming more-and-more important in society. Hermeneutic reflexivity is situated in communities and is a form of reflexivity that explores day-to-day life, routines and conventions. It is based on comparing existing particular practices, routines or conventions with potentially new ones. The last two forms of reflexivity are derived from literature on epistemology and learning theories. The first is ‘ontological reflexivity’ that deals with an understanding of ‘what is’ using lateral thinking and intuitive methods of exploration. Ontological reflexivity explores the reality around us but is not limited in a specific systematic methodology like the sciences, and has more space for associations and imagination. The last form is ‘professional 18

Dieleman Hans and Donald Huisingh (2006); The Potentials of Games in Learning and Teaching About Sustainable Development. Journal of Cleaner Production, Special Issue on Education for Sustainable Development, volume 14 numbers 9-11 19 Leff Enrique (2005); Nature, Culture, Sustainability: the Social Construction of an Environmental Rationality, Paper presented at the Conference: “Ecological Threats and New Promises of Sustainability for the 21 Century, Oxford, July 2005 20 Beck, Ulrich. (1994). "The Reinvention of Politics: Towards a Theory of Reflexive Modernization" in Beck, Giddens, and Lash, Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order 21 Joo Hyoung Ji; The Condition of 'Reflexive Modernization': A Critical Assessment of Beck's and Lash's Theses, available on the internet: www.lancs.ac.uk/postgrad/jijh1/writings/frame.htm


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reflexivity’ and is based on the work of Donald Schön. Professional reflexivity combines emotions, feelings and earlier experiences with rational knowledge. Schön calls this ‘artful doing’ and claims that most professionals work in this ‘artful’ way, even though this is not recognized and very often not accepted. For each form of reflexivity the paper explores the reflexive capital and the potential and actual roles of artists as change agents.

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Aesthetic reflexivity, art and design in cultural industries

The critique of Lash22 and Lash and Urry23 on the use of cognitive reflexivity is rooted in their analysis of contemporary society. For them the decline in traditional social structures, and the new emphasis on information and communication sectors in society, not only results in more reflexivity, but in an ‘aestheticisation’ of everyday life as well. People are not only freed from traditional institutions, they no longer build their identity in relation to these traditional structures. As a result identity is no longer based on class or ethnic positions in society, but on the ‘personality’. In an economy of signs and spaces, traditional social structures based on class and production, have become less important and are replaced by new structures that are based on (temporary) networks of people and on consumption. In these networks people exchange symbolic meaning and the flows of these messages, signs and symbols allow them to interpret themselves in relation to their practices. Lash uses the word ‘cultural structures’ to identify this process. Within such structures, that are basically networks of flows, people create `life spaces' through their reflexive actions, with aesthetic reflexivity shaping a cultural capital of flowing signs. As a result, images have great value in determining identity and in shaping individual lifechances. In this constellation reflexivity shifts from production to consumption, and especially the symbolic aspects of consumption (the design, the looks, the symbolic meaning). The choice for certain consumption goods is not any longer based on their primary quality, but life style elements. This explains for instance why advertisement can make products successful, relatively independent of the quality of the products. Reflexivity in the sense of ‘inquiring how to act, what rules to follow and how to lift oneself up’, becomes ‘aesthetic’. Lash approaches this as a reflection on the universal by the particular. It is symbolic, mimetic and allegoric. Lash uses aesthetic reflexivity many times in the sense of self-reflection. For him aesthetic reflexivity is the grounding principle of "expressive individualism" in everyday life of contemporary consumer capitalism. It is not any longer “I think therefore I am”, but it is “I am I’: my identity is based on my looks, my appearance, on my Nike’s or on my Rolex. The Rolex is the symbol and becomes the allegory of being rich, leading a good life, knowing your way in society, etc. It is mimetic in the sense that putting on a Rolex (and possibly even a good replica will do) is enough to acquire an identity. Lash and Urry give the example of eco-tourism to illustrate aesthetic reflexivity. For them eco-tourism has become a symbol for escaping the artificial mass tourism and going back to the original qualities of nature or of traditional life. It is a way of looking for ‘authentic experience’. It is allegoric in the sense that the experience becomes the complete representation of ‘nature’ or of ‘traditional life‘.

22 Lash, S. (1993); Reflexive Modernization: The Aesthetic Dimension, in: Theory, Culture & Society 10 (1): 1–23 23 Lash Scott and John Urry (1993); Economies of Signs and Space. Sage Publications, London, UK


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When we think of the consequences of aesthetic reflexivity for sustainability, this means that sustainability needs a process of ‘aestheticisation’. We should realize that sustainability is not only about the economic world system, wasteful technologies or unsustainable practices as such. It is at the same time about the symbolic meaning we give to unsustainable systems, technologies, products and practices on the one hand, and possible sustainable alternatives on the other hand. It is as much about how things look and what they represent, as about what they ‘are’ (in a sort of traditional material sense). It means that people look into their own ‘looking glass self’, through filters of ‘identity’, ‘personality’, ‘symbolic meaning’ and ‘symbolic signs’. It means that we need to think about the links between sustainable practices and the symbolic meaning and signs attached to these practices. Thinking about these practices, we can distinguish among various different ones. First we may want to think of communication and activism. In my opinion it was Greenpeace that worked as one of the first environmental pressure groups with the concept of aesthetic reflexivity. Their heroic action offshore to stop whale fishing for instance, or their actions to climb in huge smokestacks of chemical industries to protest against those industries, attracted lots of attention and made environmental actions more ‘cool’ and ‘young’. A more contemporary example of activism that is creating aesthetic reflexivity is the example of the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR).

Image 1: Photo’s of the 2005 World Naked Bike Ride in various cities around the world

The WNBR is an initiative of many people in cities around the world to protest against the ‘indecent exposure’ of cars to people. It is an attempt to switch perspectives and definitions of reality, and to communicate that cars are indecent, and not naked people. It is a protest against the dominance of cars in cities and at the same time a plea for the acceptance of the human body. The WNBR is organized and supported by a diversity of many groups such as the World Carfree Network, the Australian Rainforest Information Centre, the Canadian Artists for Peace organization or the US Naturist Education Foundation. In 2006, 53 cities across the world experienced the naked bike rides and the schedule for 2007 shows even more rides24. The World Naked Bike Ride initiative is a protest movement in the sense that it has as its objective a fight against car mobility. But it is at the same time it is a movement that creates temporary life spaces and networks based on flows of signs and symbolic meaning. It is all 24

http://www.worldnakedbikeride.org/


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about aesthetic reflexivity and at the same time it fits very well into Joseph Beuys’ expanded definition of art, where art is an interdisciplinary and participatory process in which thought, speech and discussion are ćore materials'. For Beuys art starts where individuals engage in a collective imaginative work with the aim to see, re-think and reshaping our lives in tune with our creative potential25. The World Naked Bike Ride initiative fits very well in the definition of a collective imaginative work to rethink our unsustainable lives. It shows how art can play a role in aesthetic reflexivity. I give three other examples of activism and communication that is combined with art and design. The examples have in common that they create podiums or spaces for artists and designer in which they can express themselves in the context of sustainability. Rather well known is the group “Adbusters”, a global network of artists and activists who design campaigns of creative resistance to corporate consumerism. Adbuster publishes a magazine and a website, and regularly organizes events and campaigns. In Johannesburg in 2002 Adbusters organized “Jo’burg Jam”, an event with the slogan “Rethink, Rise-up, Resist”. Less well known is the “Groovy Movie Picture House”, the world's first mobile and solar powered cinema. Since ten years Groovy Movie tours throughout the UK and Europe and brings underground video, independent film, digital art and multimedia performances. Groovy Movie combines green and social issues, like through their participation in the Bird's Eye View Film Festival that promotes emerging female filmmakers.

Image 2: Logo for the Adbusters “Buy nothing today” Campaign

Image 3: The Groovy Movie Picture House

Image 4: Invitation to Pop Sustainability’s Halloween Party

PopSustainability is a New York based organizations that aims to communicate sustainability with the younger generation, using artistic expressions. PopSustainability is a podium for artists to perform and organize events, exhibitions and performances. The image shows the invitation to a “PopSustainability” Halloween party with the theme: reduce, reuse and recycle. Participants were invited to wear reused and reduced costumes and a prize was rewarded for the most reused and most reduced costume. Apart from communication and activism, we have the fulfilment of our daily needs such as eating and drinking, clothing, housing, transportation and leisure. It is about lifestyles and as

25

Harlan Volker (2004); What is Art? Conversations with Joseph Beuys, Clairview Books, London, UK


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such about the environmental impact one creates through his or her ecological footprint.26 Aestheticisation of these activities in the context of sustainable can help to add a positive symbolic meaning to sustainability and can help to make people want to engage in more sustainable practices, products and technologies. Cultural industries are the first actors that come to our mind in thinking about adding aesthetic dimensions to eating, clothing, transportation or leisure. Statistical information on the contribution of cultural industries in sustainability is as yet not available27. Yet a growing number of cultural industries are working in sustainability and can be found in a variety of specialisations. One interesting example, showing that making sustainable products and adding ‘sustainability based signs’ to these products is profitable, is the industry of the artists Jan Neggers and Jos van der Meulen. There company, “JaJo Paperbags”, produces a complete line of paper products, made out of the ‘paper waste’ that is created in industries that produce posters and billboards. JaJo Paperbags use the paper that is lost during the production process and use the original images that the posters and billboards have. And it is the recognition of the images (Heineken beer, Chanel, Coca Cola etc) that makes the products special. The line of products has paper bags (see image), paper boxes, paper penholders, etc. The products and designs present a different way of looking at recycled materials and more specifically recycled paper. Consumer demand continues to rise and the company exports at this moment a big part of the production to all parts of the world, especially to Japan.

Image 5: Bags from the DIME shop in Mexico-City

Image 6: JaJo Paperbag from Rotterdam

Image 7: Image of an energy generating dance floor, used by the Rotterdam Sustainable Dance Club

Mexico-City has an interesting private design initiative with the name of DIME (means something like ‘tell me’) that focuses on the production and design of clothing. The DIMEinitiative is a network to promote Mexican design and especially young designers, using the slogan “Luchando por el Diseño Mexicano” (fighting for Mexican design). The initiative combines elements of ‘fair trade’ and ‘cultural diversity’, and the result is a stock of products that are clearly inspired by the themes of ‘recycling and reuse’. The location in Mexico-City is at the same time a shop, a podium for young designers to present their work as well as a place where people can take classes in making clothes28. 26

see: http://www.myfootprint.org Jiménez López Lucina (2004); “REPORT OF THE SEMINAR ON CULTURAL INDUSTRIES AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT”, Mexico City, 1-2 April, 2004 28 See: http://www.dimetienda.com 27


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An interesting last example, representing the world of leisure, is the Sustainable Dance Club in Rotterdam, the Netherlands29. The Club started in October 2006 with a concept that integrates sustainability in engineering, interior design and food and drinks. The facility uses rainwater to flush the toilets and low energy efficient LED lights to light up the place. Moreover the dance-floor is moving and is capable of creating energy through its movements. Dancing here means in the most literal sense creating energy (see image 7). The colour of the walls change under the influence of changes in temperature so again the more people dance the more they change the indoor physical environment. Customers can drink ‘responsible beer’ and eat ‘responsible’ fruit. In its entrepreneurship the Dance Club aims to combine the three P’s of sustainability: People, Planet and Profit. Almost immediately after the Dance Club opened its doors it was nominated as one of the 10 best eco & sustainability ideas of 2006, by the Springwise global network of spotters of new business ideas30. The obvious danger in the aestheticisation of sustainability is that sustainability becomes a ‘gadget’ and not more than a temporary fashion item. The market likes to use symbols of activism and environmentalism (vintage, Che Quevara, Bob Marley) in products with no other objective than to increase the sales of these products. Sacha Kagan identified, while he was looking at the possibilities of incorporating art in communication about sustainability towards youngsters, how symbols of resistance and protest can easily be absorbed in mainstream forms of communication31. The challenge is to go beyond ‘cosmetics’ and to link symbolic meaning with real changes in products and services. In a concluding way the relevance of the aesthetic reflexivity for sustainability is that people reflect on themselves and express themselves through ‘identity’, ‘personality’, ‘symbolic meaning’ and ‘signs’. Facilitating sustainability as a process of structuration through reflexivity means that we have to use the reflexive capital of creating symbolic meaning and adding identity, design and looks to sustainability. It is quit obvious that art and design and especially the cultural industries are the appropriate change agents to facilitate this process.

6.

Hermeneutic reflexivity, artists and social-artistic interventions

Another part of the critique of Lash on the use of cognitive reflexivity is rooted in his view on society as a complex system, and on reflexivity as non-linearity32. In this view reflexivity is a way to create endogenous change and dis-equilibrium. Beck’s roundtables are more consistent with a theoretical orientation in which societal structures change as the result of exogenous change. In this structuralist view structure constitutes action, and not the other way around. Changing the structures requires thorough examination and change of the structures by agencies that are (temporary) outside of those structures33. Lash introduces the concept of hermeneutic reflexivity to identify reflexivity that stems form praxis and practices. Hermeneutic reflexivity is situated within communities. It is an ethnomethodological concept that is consistent with the sociology of praxis and exists since long in symbolic interactionism, the phenomenology of Garfinkel, the praxeology of Bourdieu and 29

http://www.enviu.org/index.php?id=53 http://www.springwise.com/eco_sustainability/index.php?page=2 31 Kagan Sacha Jérôme (2002) ; Youngsters and Communication about Sustainability. Thesis Erasmus University Rotterdam 32 Lash Scott (2003); Reflexivity as Non-linearity, In: Theory, Culture & Society 2003. SAGE, London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi, Vol. 20(2): 49–57 33 To be fair to Beck it is important to mention that in his collaborative work with Giddens and Lash of 1994, as well as in his work with Beck-Gernsheim, he also works with this third interpretation of reflexivity. 30


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the structuration theory of Giddens. According to Lash, hermeneutic reflexivity is about comparing particulars with other particulars, comparing one particular activity or meaning with another particular activity or meaning. Hermeneutic reflexivity is in the most traditional sense ‘looking into the looking glass self’, it is a reflection on one’s routines, on ways of seeing the day-today world with the norms and values surrounding that world. It is reflexivity on many situations where we normally act in pre-reflective ways, using the ‘ethno’knowledge that helps us ‘to go on’ in day-to-day life, using our ‘rules of the game’ and ‘feels for the game’. Reflexivity on this level is personal and changing our pre-reflective routines often creates insecurity and resistance. The reflexive capital here should focus on facilitation of the reflexive processes, and providing people with tools, the motivation and the willingness to change. Three specific ways of facilitating hermeneutic reflexivity and changing day-to-day life as a result of the reflections can be distinguished: ´detachment´, émpowerment´ and énchantment´. Detachment is a process of freeing people from existing routines, definitions of reality and worldviews, and to open their minds for new routines, new definitions of reality and new worldviews. Empowerment can be characterized as a process of giving people the conviction that they can have control over their own lives and that they can change their lives. Empowerment is a process of giving mental power to people. Enchantment is a process of creating empathy or a (romantic) fusion of the soul with a desired state of affairs. Enchantment can break down the distinction between subjective feelings and objective reality, and can help to build a positive desire to change to something new. And here again, artists can play and do play important roles. More and more we can find social-artistic interventions in public spaces and in (marginalized) communities that aim to raise questions with respect to day-to-day life. The success of artist groups like “WochenKlausur” in various countries, “Creatief Beheer” in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, “Tyree Guyton” in Detroit, the USA or Olodum in Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, can be explained by the special features that artists possess. Annelies van Meel-Janssen identified these features as follows. The arts can touch upon "feelings and "emotions" and because of that, can influence behaviour, worldviews and lifestyles in a more direct way than politicians or activists that mainly use. Artists can change the way people experience the world around them because of their capacity to touch upon emotions. Artists possess the ability to reach beyond the rational aspects of life, such as tastes, perceptions, emotions, as well as convictions, values and worldviews. Art is as well capable of enhance human consciousness and symbolize alternative realities34. Also in terms of stimulating, facilitating and canalizing change, artists posses features that are potentially very helpful in sustainable development. Althöfer is stating in his work on art and environment that science merely reflects, whereas art tries to polemize35. In a change process that is surrounded with emotions, conflicting interests and that challenges existing knowledge, skills and routines, such an approach is again potentially very powerful. In my article for VideoBrasil of last year I paid extensive attention to “Creatief Beheer” in Rotterdam (Creative Management). Creatief Beheer is an Art Collective that works to

34

Meel van-Janssen A. (1987); Understanding the message in visual art, paper for the XXVI INSEA World Congress, Hamburg 35 Althöfer Heinz (2000); Kunst und Umwelt - Umwelt und Kunst. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main


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facilitate processes of empowerment as well as detachment36. Their projects are no regular community art projects but examples of social-artistic interventions in the public space. One of such distortions was a ‘garbage collection parade’ with music and dance (see image). The artists’ objectives are to help people improve their lives by means of manipulating their social and physical environment: reshape it, distort it and create new and unusual contexts.

Image 8: "Touch Sanitation“, Mierle Laderman Ukeles

Image 9: Garbage Collection Parade as part of Creative Management

Image 10: Result of the WochenKlausur Intervention to utilization waste material in Chicago in 2005

A classical example of social-artistic intervention that aims to empower people is "Touch Sanitation“, an intervention/performance of Mierle Laderman Ukeles37. Ukeles executed the intervention/performance in 1977-1978. She shook hands with all of the 8,500 garbage men of the New York City Department of Sanitation, telling them all individually that with their work “they make a difference’. Later she became the ‘artist in residence for the New York City Department of Sanitation’ and developed various projects on art and recycling and maintenance art. More contemporary but already rather ‘classical’ is the Austrian art collective ‘Wochenklausur’. Since 1993 they perform social-artistic interventions on invitation from different art institutions. Their concept is to work on concrete solutions that can be realized initially - within one week, and that contribute to real changes in deprived neighborhoods or communities. Image 10 shows a result of one project carried out in 2005 during the ‘Beyond Green: Towards a Sustainable Art’ exhibitions of the Smart Museum of the University of Chicago. Here for a period of three weeks a temporary office was created in the Art Department of the University. WochenKlausur collected and “upcycled” waste material into furniture that was asked for by people in the neighboring marginalized communities. As with all WochenKlausur projects, the main objective of the intervention was to institutionalize a structure that would be able to sustain itself after the artists would be gone. An interesting example is the cultural group “Olodum” from Salvador de Bahia, Brazil (image 11). The group was founded in 1979 in the tradition of Brazilian percussion carnival bands that mainly play their music in the streets. Olodum soon developed into a movement to 36

Dieleman Hans (2006): Sustainability as inspiration for art, some theory and a gallery of examples. In: “Caderno Videobrasil” Publication of the Ássociçâo Cultural Videobrasil´ in Sao Paolo, Brazil, nov. 2006 37 http://www.artnet.com/artist/16937/mierle-laderman-ukeles.html


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empower the – mostly - black African Brazilian youngsters of Salvador, and to give them more self-esteem. The context was the existence of drug cartels that more or less dominated the city centre at that time, and tried to use the black youngsters as cheap middlemen. As the youngsters that did not have much chances of getting legal jobs elsewhere they were rather vulnerable and open for seduction. Olodum has been very successful in empowering the youngsters and has contributed to gaining back the city centre from the drugs cartels and saving young people from entering into the world of drugs. The success of Olodum enabled the group to record their music with both Michael Jackson as well as Paul Simon38.

Image 11: Image and logo of the Brazilian group “OLODUM”

In a concluding way the relevance of the hermeneutic reflexivity for sustainability is that it focuses on reflecting on day-today routines, conventions and ways of living. As such it helps in creating societal systemic dis-equilibrium and change. Yet changing routines and conventions is surrounded with emotions. Sometimes it creates fear and resistance to change and sometimes it creates exactly the opposite: the desire to change. As a result it can create conflicts and it is not always so clear for people how changes can be realized. Facilitating these change process means working in more-than-rational ways: asking questions, creating experiments, using the reflexive capital of creating space for associations, empowerment, detachment and enchantment. Artists, especially those involved in various social-artistic interventions, show that they are equipped with the appropriate competencies to work as change agents and facilitate these processes.

7.

Ontological reflexivity and autonomous art

Scott Lashes critique on cognitive reflexivity is founded on theoretical-sociological arguments. Yet the critique can be phrased in more fundamental terms, based on epistemological questions. One key question is what kind of knowledge technical rationality and cognitive reflexivity is giving us, and what kind of knowledge we really need on trealize the structuration process of sustainability. Is engaging in cognitive reflexivity, for instance in the roundtables of experts and intellectuals as Beck proposed, ‘part of the problem or part of the solution’? Will it be possible to solve the problem with the same thinking that created the problem? We all acknowledge that we need multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to develop solutions that have the same systemic and complex characteristics as the problems of un-sustainability. But is multi- or transdisciplinary thinking enough?

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http://www.narin.com/olodum/


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As mentioned before, Dennis Meadows, pioneer of systems thinking and sustainability, is convinced systems thinking is really a new language that only very few of us master today39. For Enrique Leff the environmental crisis is in essence a crisis of western thinking as this is dominated by scientific and technological rationality40. Leff contrasts the traditional knowledge with his concept of ‘environmental savoir’ (environmental knowing). Environmental savoir is about complexity and cultural diversity, and about an ethics of difference and otherness. It seeks to re-establish the links between being, thinking and knowing. In other words, Leff makes a plea to link intellectual knowledge with experimental knowledge, and to engage in forms of holistic knowledge that go beyond analysis. He proposes to abandon the scientific claim of universality and global application to invest more in new contextual and culturally specific concept of ‘knowing/being’. When the ecological crisis is a crisis of western thinking and of the missing links between thinking, knowing and being, an analytical and intellectual exploration of our current society is not necessarily going to contribute to that. The challenge is to interconnect the ways of thinking, knowing and being or to connect: knowing, knowing how to know, knowing how to be and knowing how to act. Leff is interested in the potential contribution of indigenous people and philosophers like Heidegger, in defining and developing a new ‘environmental savoir’. I share his interest and like to expand it to the world of the arts and artists. And the arts do have competencies to contribute to this epistemological challenge that sustainability is posing on us. As Althöfer points out, artists often transcend boundaries. They are not "stuck" in the systematic scientific methodology and their work leaves space for associations and imagination41. Artists often challenge traditional and scientific approaches in terms of conceptualising reality, using the capacities of lateral thinking and intuitive searching. This offers them very interesting opportunities to be change agents in sustainability. One interesting work of art that transcends boundaries and is capable of communicating on various levels of reality in one movement, is the work “¿LOS NIÑOS SON NUESTRO FUTURO?” (the children are our future?), created by Amelia Ramirez. The work was selected to represent Mexico in the 2005 Biennale of Quebec in Canada42. The work consists of a series of paintings, photographs and collages (the middle picture in image 13 shows the overview of them). The work is about our children as the future generations and as such it is all about sustainability. More in particular the work is about street children and the gap between the rich and the poor. The work is interesting as it shows so many dimensions of this reality in one overall image. In one way the work is about the big societal issues of poverty and social inequality. One photo (that I don’t give here) shows how much kilograms a child lost in just a few weeks. Yet the work shows other dimensions as well. The right photo (‘look like a celebrity’) represents what is inside the heads of many of the street children. In her conversations with the children 39

Dieleman Hans and Donald Huisingh (2006); The Potentials of Games in Learning and Teaching About Sustainable Development. Journal of Cleaner Production, Special Issue on Education for Sustainable Development, volume 14 numbers 9-11 40 Leff Enrique (2005); Nature, Culture, Sustainability: the Social Construction of an Environmental Rationality, Paper presented at the Conference: “Ecological Threats and New Promises of Sustainability for the 21 Century, Oxford, July 2005 41 Althöfer Heinz (2000); Kunst und Umwelt - Umwelt und Kunst. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 42 http://www.manifdart.org/manif3/artistes_releve.htm, and: http://www.ameliaramirez.cjb.net


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Amelia discovered that they share with many of us the traditional American Dream of becoming famous and rich. The powers of the media and advertisement are strong enough to even influence these children and provide them with the same ideas of happiness and personal success as so many others. Maybe we think that their chances are less than those of middle class boys and girls, but that is very relative. The American Dream is by nature realistic for only a few as not everybody can make it to the top. In an interesting way this makes the street kids more like the middle class kids.

Image 13: three photo’s of “¿LOS NIÑOS SON NUESTRO FUTURO?”, Amelia Ramirez, Mexico City, 2003

Another aspect of this reality is represented in the painting on the left that is called 'Cascarita’. Cascarita shows how we (the 'rich', especially those living in developing countries and cities like Mexico-City) can easily ignore the people in the streets, as their presence is too inconvenient for us. Using psychological defence mechanism we simply filter them away. Cascarita is confronting, as it is the opposite of what many want to see (in the painting you see the street children and the other people are vague). On yet another level, the work is a representation of the reality of developing countries like Mexico. As Amelia was selected to represent Mexico (selected by Canadians, not by Mexicans) she was supposed to meet the Mexican president Vicente Fox, after the Biennale. It is not surprising that one week before the meeting was supposed to take place, she received a cancellation from the side of the president. Her work does not give an image that politicians and presidents like to see of their country. The work is highly reflexive and transcends boundaries. It is a representation of Mexico, Latin America and other developing countries. It is a representation of the ‘big story’ of the mismatch between the rich and the poor, and at the same time it tells ‘little stories’ of the dreams and hopes of children. On yet another level it confronts us with our ability to completely ignore this reality and live our lives as if the children do not exist. The work links the micro and the macro, the personal and the global and the emotional and the irrational. A work that is very powerful in linking humans and nature is the CD “Music from Nature”, compiled by David Rothenberg43. The CD offers a range of tracks and songs in which nature sounds and human music, or to be more accurate, music from nature and music from humans is combined. Most tracks are various forms of experimental composition in which avant43

Music from Nature, David Rothenberg compiler, Terra Nova, Newark, USA, 1997


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garde jazz improvisations are combined with nature sounds such as whistling of birds or the rhythm of seals sharpening their teeth on the rocks. Very impressive is the recording of the Australian Pied Butcherbird. The bird really composes themes and makes various improvisations on one and the same theme. A first impression is that you are listening to a person whistling and improvising. Then you start to understand that you are listening to a bird. This experience is alienating, as it does not fit into our clearly established categories of how birds whistle and how humans whistle. The work creates a very imaginative space, clearly transcends boundaries and makes you reflect on your existing conceptions of the ‘human’ and of ‘nature’.

Image 14: David Rothenberg with the cover of one of his CD’s and one of his books.

In the past 10 years Rothenberg produced various cd’s and books. “Writing the world”, published in 2005, is a collection of essays, poems, stories that aims to look at globalization as a worldwide exchange of art and ideas. It focuses on the variety of cultural realities with the intention to learn from this variety. Rothenberg and Wandee Pryor see this knowledge as power: "When all of us learn enough about our differences to respect the diversity that exists, we will be unable to pretend we are the same". "It is time to listen to the many literate voices the world speaks," say Rothenberg and Pryor in the introduction of the book44. For them the global village is not a market place but a place of shared values and linked ‘wonder’. In a concluding way the relevance of ontological reflexivity for sustainability can be characterized as follows. Ontological reflexivity transcends boundaries and is able to escape the limitations of scientific and technical rationality. It facilitates seeing our complex reality in more holistic terms, combing and linking ways of seeing, knowing and being. The reflexive capital is a capital of creating spaces of experience and imagination. It uses competencies of lateral thinking and associations, and uses the language of forms and metaphors: images, music, theatre and the like. In this type of reflexivity artists are ‘par excellence’ the appropriate change agents.

44

Rothenberg David and Wandee J. Pryor [ed.] (2005); Writing the World On Globalization. Terra Nova Books, MIT Press


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Professional reflexivity, professionals and artful doing

The ultimate question that I will not really answer in this paper is, if aesthetic, hermeneutic and ontological reflexivity should be looked at as the domain of artists and designers. The short answer is: no. For sure they have good qualities to serve as change agents, but we should not reserve the ‘more-than-rational’ to only art and design. I prefer to paraphrase Joseph Beuys and take the position that we all should become more like artists. And according to Donald Schön, many of us are already much more artists than we realize. This is especially true for the most ‘rational and technical’ practitioners among us: the professionals and the experts45. The expert and the professional are assumed to work with technical rationality that is based on positivist knowledge. But in reality this technical and scientific rationality is much less ‘objectivistic’ and universal as we often think. Schön was able to identify that professionals use ćontextual rationality´. When they approach certain situations in which we have to act and to decide, they first look at their previous experiences. Then indeed they connect that information with their theoretical and formal knowledge. But in one movement they connect that information with their feelings and emotions. In this way they build an understanding of the situation that is unfolding before them. They do not simply follow established ideas and techniques or prefixed textbook schemes. A central element is Schön’s work is the notion of ´repertoire´. During our lives we build up a collection of images, ideas, examples and practices that we draw upon: ”When a practitioner makes sense of a situation he perceives to be unique, he sees it as something already present in his repertoire. To see this is not to subsume this as a familiar category or rule. It is, rather, to see the unfamiliar, unique situation as both similar to and different from the familiar one, without at first being able to say similar or different with respect to what. The familiar situation functions as a precedent, or a metaphor, or... an exemplar for the unfamiliar one”46. As every situation is unique we think things through, we reflect and build new understanding. When acting in particular situations we are influenced by and use our repertoire and our frame of reference. We bring fragments of memories into play and begin to build theories and responses that fit the new situation. In this way we engage with the new situation. We do not have a full understanding of things before we act, but, hopefully, we can avoid major problems while 'testing the water'. Donald Schön talks about the acts of the reflexive practitioner as “artful doing”. And indeed the description Schön gives comes very close to the way we often look at the behaviour of an artist. “The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understanding that have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment that serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation47. One of the important advantages of ‘artful doing’, compared to applying objective technical rationality and objective knowledge is that one can arrive at contextual knowledge and at culturally specific products and technologies. In the context of sustainability as cultural diversity this looks to be rather promising. An example of such culturally specific way of developing technologies and products is the Brazilian ‘gambiarra, also labelled as recycle art. Rosas gives a very clear overview of the phenomena48. 45

Schön Donald (1983); The reflective practitioner, New York: Basic Books Schön Donald, The reflective practitioner, page 138 47 Schön Donald, The reflective practitioner, page 68 48 Rosas Rícardo (2006); The Gambiarra, considerations on a recombinatory technology, In: “Caderno Videobrasil” Publication of the Ássociçâo Cultural Videobrasil´ in Sao Paolo, Brazil, nov. 2006 46


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In Brazil the word ‘gambiarra’ has several meanings, as it is really part of the culture. It is the clandestine tapping of electricity that is quit common in the slums and it also refers to ‘makeshift’ as a way of realizing quick–fix solution made with whatever happens to be at hand. The concept is close to the ‘bricolage’ of Claude Lévi–Strauss49. Like the ‘bricoleur’, the gambiarra worker works without a preconceived plan and without standard technical processes and norms, using what is available and what he stored because it “might come in handy.” The characteristic aspects of gambiarra are: unpredictability, improvisation, inventiveness, the dialogue with the surrounding or local reality, and the technological recombination in the reuse or new use of given technologies. As Rosas puts it poetically: Gambiarra is born from meanderings.

Image 16: Chelpa Ferro installation at the 2005 Biennale of Venice

Image 17:Chelpa Ferro Installation in the Cultural Centre “Branco do Brazil” in Rio de Janeiro, 2006

Rosas gives various examples in his article and shows that gambiarra can be applied to a wide range of practices, such as to the bicycles with loudspeakers used for advertising in the streets of Belém, or to the development of open–source software. Gambiarra as an artefact surrounded with a certain type of discourse is gaining momentum, especially in the artworld. In this context gambiarra refers to artefacts that are ‘pieced’ together and expelled from their original context and functional system. The work of Chelpa Ferro is a good example of gambiarra. Ferro and his group create sound machines that are pieced together with a variety of materials such as plastic bag, motor parts, branches of trees etc. Image 15 shows a the contribution to the 2005 Biennale of Venice and image 17 a rather typical gambiarra installation in the Cultural Centre “Branco do Brazil” in Rio de Janeiro in 2006. Quit different but with some similar characteristics is the work of the Dutch artist and engineer Theo Jansen. Theo has a degree of the Technical University of Delft, and is ‘creator of technologies/slash/species’. His way of engineering is rather specific. Since approximately 1995 Theo creates "beach creatures", huge wind-powered walking machines that are made of plastic pipes and glue. The creatures are like animals with skeletons that are able to walk using the energy of the wind. Theo’s main pre-occupation is to create a new species and a new society for these species. Eventually he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives. What is interesting, and very much within the 49

Lévi-Strauss, C. The savage mind, 1973, University of Chicago Press, Chicago


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concept of ‘professional reflexivity’ is the way Theo works. His approach is very different from what he learned during his engineering studies in Delft. It is intuitive, contextual and very much ‘learning by doing’. His idea developed around 1990 when he was reading about creating a new species in a newspaper column. He was intrigued by the idea, bought some plastic tubes and intended to spend some time working on the idea. But as it turned out to be he never abandoned it ever after.

figure 18: two of Theo Jansen’s Beach Animals In an interview in ‘GoodExperience.com’ he explains: ”It is a scientific project, though in a way other than how scientists usually work. I'm limited in material, and that forces me to search in a sort of jungle of ideas. Every day I work on it, just trying to make it work. Usually it doesn't function - nine out of ten times. But once in ten, it does function, and I build up enough optimism to continue. The path isn't straight, goes very slowly, but I'm moving forward a bit”50. Even though gambiarra is about quick-fix solutions and using whatever is available, and Theo Jansen’s work is slows and limited in its resources, the two share that their reflexivity combines technical knowledge with emotions and experiences, and contextualizes this knowledge in the framework of specific situations. The reflexive capital is a capital of being able to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion and of working with what is available in a certain context. This way of working is relevant for sustainability, especially in the sense of sustainability as practice that is embedded in specific natural and cultural contexts. Since professional reflexivity is really a hybrid form of reflexivity in between science and technology on the one hand and art on the other hand it makes sense to find various crossovers. Apparently the movement in Brazil is from practices in the slums to artworks. For sustainability is would be interesting to teach professional practitioners how to make a more explicit use of their emotions and experiences in ‘artful doing’. Artists could fulfil excellent roles as teachers and coaches and be change agents in showing professionals and practitioner how to develop this kind of reflexive capital.

50

http://www.goodexperience.com/blog/archives/000145.php


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Conclusion: artists and designers becoming key change agents in sustainability

The subtitle of this paper is: “why artists and designers may become key change agents in sustainability”. The paper presented the following logic to answer the ‘why’. Sustainability was portrayed as a process of structuration in the sense of the structuration theory of Giddens. When people interact they form structures and when a sufficient amount of people change their practices over a sufficient amount of time they change the structures. Reflexivity is seen as one of the important mechanisms through which change can be realized. The paper touched upon the notion of reflexive or second modernity in which people are freer from structures and are –in theory- more capable of designing their own lives. Yet, the paper also showed that this theoretical premise is not really found in reality. In terms of Scott Lash we should label approximately 2/3 of the world population as ‘reflexive loosers’. The paper took the position that one explanation can be found in the forms of reflexivity and reflexive capital used. The paper made a plea for reflexivity that is more-than-rational and more than cognitive. It is about transcending boundaries, touching upon emotions, and about combining emotions, feelings, experiences and rational knowledge. The paper continued to present 4 types of reflexivity that are ‘more-than rational’, looked at the reflexive capital that can be associated with each of those form, and explored how artists and designers potentially and actually play roles in the respective forms of reflexivity. The following conclusions can be drawn based on the explorations and presented illustrations. Aesthetic reflexivity is relevant for sustainability as it helps people to reflect and express themselves through ‘identity’, ‘personality’, ‘symbolic meaning’ and ‘signs’. The reflexive capital that can be associated with this form of reflexivity is the capital of creating symbolic meaning and adding identity and looks. Art and design and especially the cultural industries can play important roles here as change agents. Hermeneutic reflexivity is equally important for sustainability as it helps people to reflect on day-to-day routines, conventions and ways of living. The reflexive capital that can be associated with this form of reflexivity is the capital of asking questions, creating experiments, empowerment, detachment and enchantment. Artists, especially those involved in various social-artistic interventions, show that they can play important roles as change agents and have the capacities to facilitate change processes. Ontological reflexivity is relevant for sustainability as it helps people to see reality in different and more holistic ways. The reflexive capital for this form of reflexivity is the capital of escaping scientific and technical rationality, transcending existing boundaries and combining ways of seeing, knowing and being. Artists are ‘par excellence’ appropriate change agents to work with this kind of reflexivity. Finally, professional reflexivity is relevant for sustainability as it stimulates linking abstract and technical knowledge with emotions and experiences. It creates contextual knowledge and contextual technologies. The reflexive capital that can be associated with this form of reflexivity is the capital of being able to experience surprise, puzzlement or confusion, and of working with what is available in a certain context. Artists can be change agents and teach and coach professional practitioners in opening up their minds for this form of ‘artful doing’.


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Artists and designers are very well equipped to work all of the distinguished forms of reflexivity. Many are already working with question of sustainability with a wide variety of projects and activities. What is needed is a more serious recognition of the ‘more-thanrational’ nature of sustainability and the potentials of art and design. When this happens, the position of art and design will become more important and they may very well become the key change agents in sustainability.

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