Seeing is questioning: prompting sustainability discourses through an evocative visual agenda

Ecology and Society: a journal of integrative science for resilience and sustainability

Thomsen, Dana¹ 

关键词: art;    Australia;    autoethnography;    environmental change;    interdisciplinary;    learning for sustainability;    photography;    social-ecological change;    visual communication;   

DOI  :  10.5751/ES-07925-200409

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Resilience Alliance Publications

【 摘 要 】

I explore the potential utility of visual imagery to engage viewers in connecting ways with dynamic social-ecological contexts. Constructing photographs in response to the mass stranding of birds (shearwaters) on the east coast of Australia in 2013, I demonstrate the potential of wildlife and landscape photography to represent the impacts of environmental change at personal, relational, spatial, and temporal scales simultaneously.In so doing, I suggest that the production and interpretation of photographs can lead to responses that: (1) foster attentive forms of vision in familiar contexts; (2) provoke reflexive self-examination and critiques of broader, complex systems; (3) develop emotional connections with those impacted by social-ecological change; and (4) provide a foundation for precautionary behavioral change in uncertain contexts. Consequently, ‘seeing’ is reconceptualized as questioning, not believing, and as a valuable contribution to learning for sustainability and resilience.

【 授权许可】

Others