Journal | Lagoonscapes
Journal issue | 4 | 1 | 2024
Research Article | Somatic Arts and Liveable Futures

Somatic Arts and Liveable Futures

Embodying Ecological Connections

Abstract

Based on the author’s practice-based ecosomatic research, the article explores the role of the somatic arts in challenging the culture of separateness between humans and nature typical of Anthropocentrism. The aim is to enhance the debate on how to grow liveable futures in the face of ecological disaster. The author reflects on the possibility to re-activate our eco-consciousness through embodied practices of interconnectedness with nonhuman living beings and systems. Then he discusses the cultural conditions shaping the growing field of ecosomatic practices and evaluate their political implications as acts of caring, collaboration, and cultural resistance. The importance of awakening the memory of the body and grieving for anthropogenic ecological losses is foregrounded as a key passage towards regeneration. The concept of ‘Planthroposcene’ proposed by Natasha Myers is mobilised as an inspiration for envisioning the emergence of embodied alliances with other forms of life. Throughout the article, the reader is invited to engage with a series of somatic interactive processes offered as a pathway for challenging the widespread apocalyptic perception of ecological crises.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: May 28, 2024 | Accepted: June 22, 2024 | Published July 24, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords Crisis of perceptionCritical embodied practicesAnthropogenic ecological lossesPlanthroposceneEcosomaticsApocalyptic thinkingMore-than-human ecologies


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