Environmental entanglements: cultivating sensory awareness through materials and the materiality of the physical body

The intention of this thesis is to illustrate experimental engagements with pedagogical, artistic practice developed through an emergent creative process that sought to enrich ways a sentient individual can perceive the environments in which they are immersed. This investigative research explores a robust yet adaptable multifaceted pedagogy that foregrounds the agency of the individual as a means to (re)embed them in a damaged planet. As evidenced in the twenty-first century, the cumulative effect of human activity in the world demonstrates a perceptual misalignment that consistently negates our inherent ecological entanglement. Whilst scientists across the globe evidence a substantial correlation between a severely depleted planet and detrimental human behaviour, this has not (so far) inspired a seismic shift in people’s sense of accountability.

The challenge of this research investigation has been to identify ways to evoke the sensory tools needed to help people resonate with the immediacy of a felt ecology and connect their actions to broader ecological consequences. In order to facilitate the variability of participants’ sensory attunement, four interdisciplinary workshop case studies were designed to explore arts-based and somatic learning processes. Insights drawn from articulating the participants’ embodied experiences highlight the transcorporeal nature of subjective sensory stories, whilst demonstrating meaningful ways to destabilise habitual behaviours and in turn disrupt conceptual territories that may be recognized as ingrained in the human mindset. Through this engagement with lived experience, the research makes an active contribution to practical applications of future environmental education.

This thesis also documents the design and illustration of a supplementary guidebook dedicated to self-directed environmental awareness. Conceived in response to the social isolation of Covid-19, 'This is a Guide to Noticing' uses surreal and instructive imagery to inform, challenge and invigorate practitioner sensorium. Invitations to sculpt, draw and collect litter explore the sensorial relationships between materials and the materiality of the physical body. I argue there is inherent learning potential in cross-pollinating creative and embodied thinking seeking to blur personal, local and global environmental boundaries and draw attention to an environment that meets and permeates the sensory borders of the individual.