AALERT 4 DM - Art and Artists in Landscape and Environment Research Today for Decision Making

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Arts and the Artist in Landscape and Environmental Research Today for Decision Making (AALERT 4 DM) project aims to explore and enhance the impact arts research, can make in decision-making related to landscape, land-use and land assets. It builds on the legacy of the AALERT workshop (NEC05173), held in 2018, and considerable contributions of artist practice & research in existing research projects (e.g. projects funded by the Valuing Nature Programme). A key focus is to understand how perspectives from the arts and humanities can be used to navigate the complex territory of cultural values in landscape and decision making. Landscapes are dynamic entities resulting from long and multifaceted interactions between natural forces and human actions that reflect wider socio-economic circumstances and values. Informed decisions about land should appreciate simultaneously environmental, social, economic, cultural, and wellbeing values. This requires multidimensional approaches to decision-making and interdisciplinary collaborations between a broad range of different researchers, stakeholders and decision-making groups with interests in landscape management. It is in this context that perspectives from the arts and humanities can make distinctive contributions. While there is already much activity from the arts and humanities practitioners that involves artists, communities and landscape decision making there is scope to align these more centrally with the work of planners, economists and other stakeholders involved in landscape. There is a need for a broad cross-section of decision makers to understand how critical reflections and creativity can enhance landscape decisions. It widely accepted that artists can articulate emotions and moral judgements and contribute to our understanding of values. However, understanding the ability of artists to create new knowledge, is not a trivial undertaking. It needs to be incorporated into models of decision making that accommodate other specialists such as economists and ecologists and requires engagement with underlying philosophical, ethical and political discourses across diverse subject areas. The AALERT 4 DM programme will provide an opportunity for constructive dialogues to take place by cutting across disciplinary perspectives and professional practices. It will engage a range of actors from different traditions who share an interest in landscape and land assets management including artists, arts organisations, geographers, anthropologists, historians, sociologists, philosophers, ecologists, social scientists, designers, policy-makers and landscape managers, planners and regulators as well as land owners. It will bring artists into dialogue with wider academics and stakeholders through a programme of events consisting of five workshops (a Scoping workshop, three Regional Case Studies workshops, and one Synthesis workshop) and aligned with wider pathways to impact activities (e.g. writing retreats to produce outputs and actively promote findings in social media). In a period of twenty four months the network will critically reflect on emerging interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary examples from this country and abroad to create a shared understanding of the different aspects within landscape and land use management and will develop a clear articulation of the various roles (conceptual, practical, communicative) that arts and artist researchers can play in support of a new holistic land decision-making framework. In sum, this programme will consolidate existing initiatives, break new ground, and be relevant to diverse academic audiences as well as policy development and practical landscape management in the long term.