Systemic Creativty in Environmental and Ecological Art

Abstract

In a moment when climate change, species depletion, generalized pollution, and other environmental problems are as critical as they are today, it is imperative to put our attention on creative perspectives around these issues. Creativity is the keyword of the present research, and it is seen here as a source and consequence of a society that is interested in positive change. Environmental and ecological artists are only one small part of the great community of people who are trying to overcome environmental issues, but they form an ideal group of people to be analyzed in relation to creativity. Using Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s systemic perspective on creativity, this research has used the information provided by 6 in-depth interviews with environmental and ecological artists to understand what are the forces influencing their creative potential. Among the results, it is clear that the field and its market perspective on the arts is one of the main causes of creativity limitation. Such results are relevant because they provide a very first step in the direction of mitigating such problems, while also generating a deeper understanding of how systemic creativity works.