Creative Interspecies Conversations:
Art and Ecological Thinking
表現工学科 James JACK(ジャック・ジェームズ)
What can we learn from more than human species? Art
provides a method for understanding other species. I have
seen Chinu fish communicate feelings with each other and
Uguisu singing to talk to other species who are listening.
Earthworms tell stories to each other as they dig, eat
and reproduce inside of the soil. Some conversations can
be observed with our senses keenly attuned to other
species, and others require imaginative leaps based on our
own lived experiences. Artists including myself open
spaces for creative interspecies communication such as
a guide to loving water, to learn from living materials.
For example, observe a plant in your immediate
surroundings now. A round leafed Crassula ovata (kane no
naru ki) plant sits near me while writing this article with
bright pink buds preparing to blossom even in the
coldest days of winter. Recently each of my students
brought a plant and a story to class where we all learned
of intimate kinships with these living things as friends.
In kinship with the more than human world, ethnobotanist
Gary Paul Nabhantouches a plant each day to get away
from the computer. When we connect with plants away
fromour devices, we return refreshed in our digital
communications linked with other species. These
conversations can be inserted into the screens we are
on right now and shared through fresh waves of wifi.
Conversations with other species take colorful forms in
artworks. For example, “Shhhh! Plants Talking” artwork
displayed as part of lumbung: documenta fifteen
encourages us to shift our dailiy communications to
include botanic friends. This bright yellow artwork
displayed at facing a public street with frequent
pedestrians reminds humans to pay attention to plants
in our daily conversations. It existed within the ecosystem
of an upcycled shopping center repurposed to become
ruruHaus, the central hub of activity in this quinquennial
exhibit. The free admission public art spaces of ruruHaus
are alive with conversations over coffee beans, fishing
nets and brewed hops including activations by the
Composting Network my art collective is a part of.
The sea is also full of other than human species for us to
learn from. For example, in Setouchi (Kagawa Prefecture)
the Teshima Art Museum is an open teardrop shape
enhances human sensitivity to self in connection with
other species. Sounds of the wind, uguisu birds and the
occasional falling leaf resonate off the softly bleached
walls and floors of the museum designed by architect
Ryue Nishizawa and artist Rei Naito. A space that is both
indoor and outdoor at the same time, micro water droplets
are transformed into gigantic geological shapes inside of
this expansive space. On the nearby island of Naoshima,
the artwork Slag Buddha 88 – Eighty-eight Buddha
Statues Created Using Slag from Industrial Waste at
Teshima transforms human waste into sculptures of
healing for the environment. Artist Ozawa Tsuyoshi is
deeply concerned with the positive impact humans can
have on each other, plants and animals including a
current fascination with behavior of goats for a new
artwork.
As an artist and researcher, I communicate with what
Van Horn calls “other than human species” and share
these transmissions with others in creative ways.
Deep listening to water, plants, seaweed, fish, birds and
more than human life nourishes ecological thinking.
Respectfully working with waves of wifi, I aim to spread
positive relations between species in exhibits, teaching
and publications. In symbiosis with other disciplines, art
opens opportunities to learn together in open ways
where sharing benefits diverse species and elements
involved in dialogue.