Living Systems Thinking
While those who experience art are typically referred to as spectators ('spec' = see a work) and audiences ('audi' = hear a work), art provides so much more than sensual stimulation. It also functions as thinking and affecting tools. The tool that is particular to eco art is often referred to as 'living systems thinking'. This means it seeks to accomplish a formidable task - instilling awareness of kinship among all living organisms.
Such art activates the human capacity to find commonalities across vast scales of time and space by imagining ‘systems’ and detecting ‘patterns’.
The search for unity that lies hidden in species diversity is essentially a search for the answer to the following question:
What do all living organisms have in common?
Living Systems Thinking
Each of the following principles functions as a strand that unites all forms of life on Earth. They identify forms of interconnections that artists activate through emotions, instincts, or cognitions. Many are derived from the writings of Janine Benyus who developed the theory of ‘biomimicry’.
All life forms are cooperative, resilient, self healing, multifunctional, and decentralized. They run on current sunlight; cConduct chemistry on water; and are locally adaptive. Each entity is unique. Each species constantly evolves; replicates life-perpetuating functions, and takes care of the place it inhabits.