Eco-Visionaries surveys contemporary positions in art and architecture addressing environmental problems beyond mainstream notions of sustainability. This comprehensive volume is a companion to the collaborative 2018 exhibition staged by four participating European museums. Each show maintains a different focus and curatorial approach, and for each, artists investigate more sustainable approaches toward humankind's place on earth, through video and sound works, paintings and installations. While the series of exhibitions presents the works of artists and architects who offer critical reflections on pressing contemporary issues, the book unites research, essays and the artworks. Besides the historical antecedents of current ecological thinking in art and design, this catalog also promotes alternative visions for future uses of energy, resources and the environment.

A series of conversation with architects, artists and designers whose practices confront the current ecological emergency and propose alternative futures for our planet.

The idea for Eco-Pioneers came to Steve Lerner while he was attending the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Although he was moved by the vision of sustainable development evoked by citizens and officials at the summit, as a reporter he felt a need to put a human face on the rhetoric and find out what sustainable development actually looks like in the United States. He spent the next four years searching out what he came to call "eco-pioneers"—the modern pathfinders who are working in the American pragmatic tradition to reduce the pace of environmental degradation. These practical visionaries are people who are willing to push the limits of whatever tools they can find for dealing with ecological problems. Lerner provides case studies of eco-pioneers who are exploring sustainable ways to log forests, grow food, save plant species, run cattle, build houses, clean up cities, redesign rural communities, generate power, conserve water, protect rivers and wildlife, treat hazardous waste, reuse materials, and reduce both waste and consumption. Some of those profiled run businesses, some address environmental practices within their immediate community, and some combine their environmental concerns with social goals such as the creation of inner-city jobs. Together they are creating ways of living and working that many analysts believe to be essential to an ecologically sustainable future.

Curating in a Time of Ecological Crisis reaffirms the relevance and impactful role of art, revealing how contemporary art exhibitions can capture the zeitgeist and advance new and collaborative approaches to a more sustainable inhabitation of Earth. The book is largely focused on biennales, which it argues are the contemporary exhibition models with the greatest capacity to offer new perspectives and propose alternative ways of connecting with our social and natural environments. Felicity Fenner demonstrates this by showing how curators of these high-profile exhibitions are responding in creative and engaging ways to the issues that preoccupy artists and society more broadly, of which the ecological crisis is paramount. Drawing on case studies from different parts of the world, the author reveals how biennales can make a constructive contribution to debates and attitudes around climate change, and how the role of the curator has evolved to re-embrace a duty of care not just to art but to the natural world as well. Curating in a Time of Ecological Crisis investigates how large-scale exhibitions of contemporary international art can become agents of change. As such, the book will be essential reading for scholars, students, and practitioners with an interest in exhibitions, curating, contemporary art, and environmental sustainability.

Soul initiation is an essential spiritual adventure that most of the world has forgotten — or not yet discovered. Here, visionary ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin maps this journey, one that has not been previously illuminated in the contemporary Western world and yet is vital for the future of our species and our planet. Based on the experiences of thousands of people, this book provides phase-by-phase guidance for the descent to soul — the dissolution of current identity; the encounter with the mythopoetic mysteries of soul; and the metamorphosis of the ego into a cocreator of life-enhancing culture. Plotkin illustrates each phase of this riveting and sometimes hazardous odyssey with fascinating stories from many people, including those he has guided. Throughout he weaves an in-depth exploration of Carl Jung's Red Book — and an innovative framework for understanding it.

Jay Walljasper, Jon Spayde andThe Editors of Utne ReaderTable of Contents Acknowledgments Foreword by Eric Utne Introduction The Spirit Moving Us Introduction Thomas Berry Satish Kumar Stephen & Ondrea Levine Thich Nhat Hahn Zalman Schachter-Shalomi Starhawk The Sense of Community Introduction Ernesto Cortes Jr. Roberta Brandes Gratz Jane Jacobs Frances Moore Lappé Michael Lind David Morris Helena Norberg-Hodge John Papworth Andres Duany & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk Virginia Valentine Social Action Introduction Noam Chomsky Gary Delgado Riane Eisler Colin Greer Ted Halstead Jim Hightower bell hooks Andrew Kimbrel lWinona LaDuke Geoff Mulgan Muhammed Yunus Seeing Green Introduction Kenny Ausubel & Nina Simons Fritjof Capra Theo Colborn Edward Goldsmith Paul Hawken Hazel Henderson Jerry Mander William McDonough Bill McKibben Donella Meadows Theodore Roszak Charlene Spretnak Creativity & Culture Introduction Gloria Anzaldua Octavia Butler Eduardo Galeano George Gerbner Barbara Marx Hubbard Kalle Lasn Bobby McFerrin Bill Moyers Neil Postman Rachel Rosenthal John Ralston Saul William Strickland Body, Psyche & Senses Introduction Larry Dossey Chellis Glendenning Susan Griffin James Hillman Tom Hodgkinson Henry & Karen Kimsey-House Jane Maxwell Vicki Robin Gabrielle Roth Alice Waters

What if it were possible to combine energy and water in a way that would contribute to the reversal of global warming and the restoration of the planet? What if it were possible to have a better quality of life, without having to give anything up? What if that plan made such economic sense that governments and large corporations would buy into it? As it turns out, it is possible to create an energy source by using key technologies that are already available. Most cities have enough rain and sun to meet their water and energy needs, by using simple technology. Building on current mainstream trends in solar energy and wind power, Electric Water offers a clear vision of how the world's energy and water infrastructure could be transformed. The book provides: an outline of the major issues that need addressing, including global warming a fascinating explanation of key technologies in plain water a vision of business and job opportunities in restoration real-life examples, including the post-Katrina Louisiana Coastal Restoration program websites for further information. Unlike many other books on this subject, Electric Water uses accessible language to propose a workable plan for a revolutionary integration of technology and quality of life that will be of special interest to planners, engineers and architects.

Urban gardeners. Native seed-saving collectives. Ecovillage developments. What is the connection between these seemingly disparate groups? The ecological design system of permaculture is the common thread that weaves them into a powerful, potentially revolutionary—or reevolutionary—movement. Permaculture is a philosophy based on common ethics of sustainable cultures throughout history that have designed settlements according to nature's patterns and lived within its bounds. As a movement that has been building momentum for the past 40 years, it now is taking form as a growing network of sites developed with the intention of regenerating local ecologies and economies. Permaculture strategies can be used by individuals, groups, or nations to address basic human needs such as food, water, energy, and housing. As a species, humans are being called forth to evolve, using our collective intelligence to meet the challenges of the future. Yet if we are to survive our collective planetary crisis, we need to revisit history, integrating successful systems from sustainable cultures. To boldly confront our position on the brink of the earth's carrying capacity and make changes that incorporate the wisdom of the past is truly revolutionary. Sustainable Revolution features the work of a worldwide network of visionaries, including journalists, activists, indigenous leaders and permaculturists such as David Holmgren, Vandana Shiva, Charles Eisenstein, Starhawk, Erik Assadourian, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Albert Bates, and Geoff Lawton. This beautifully photographed collection of profiles, interviews, and essays features 60 innovative community-based projects in diverse climates across the planet. Edited by anthropologist Juliana Birnbaum Fox and award-winning activist filmmaker Louis Fox, it can be read as an informal ethnography of an international culture that is modeling solutions on the cutting edge of social and environmental change. The research presented in the book frames the permaculture movement as a significant ally to marginalized groups, such as the urban poor and native communities resisting the pressures of globalization. Sustainable Revolution uplifts and inspires with its amazing array of dynamic activists and thriving, vibrant communities.

This book challenges conventional notions of the Anthropocene and champions the Hydrocene: the Age of Water. It presents the Hydrocene as a disruptive, conceptual epoch and curatorial theory, emphasising water's pivotal role in the climate crisis and contemporary art. The Hydrocene is a wet ontological shift in eco-aesthetics which redefines our approach to water, transcending anthropocentric, neo-colonial and environmentally destructive ways of relating to water. As the most fundamental of elements, water has become increasingly politicised, threatened and challenged by the climate crisis. In response, The Hydrocene articulates and embodies the distinctive ways contemporary artists relate and engage with water, offering valuable lessons towards climate action. Through five compelling case studies across swamp, river, ocean, fog and ice, this book binds feminist environmental humanities theories with the practices of eco-visionary artists. Focusing on Nordic and Oceanic water-based artworks, it demonstrates how art can disrupt established human–water dynamics. By engaging hydrofeminist, care-based and planetary thinking, The Hydrocene learns from the knowledge and agency of water itself within the tide of art going into the blue. The Hydrocene urgently highlights the transformative power of eco-visionary artists in reshaping human–water relations. At the confluence of contemporary art, curatorial theory, climate concerns and environmental humanities, this book is essential reading for researchers, curators, artists, students and those seeking to reconsider their connection with water and advocate for climate justice amid the ongoing natural-cultural water crisis.

Designers, Visionaries and Other Stories unpacks the complex and crucial debates surrounding sustainable design to deliver a compelling manifesto for change, at a time of looming ecological crisis, mounting environmental legislation and limited progress. This is a book about sustainable design, by the leading sustainable design thinkers, for creative practitioners, professionals, students and academics. This challenging work provides the reader with a rich resource of future visions, critical propositions, creative ideas and design strategies for working towards a sustainable tomorrow, today.The authors boldly present alternative understandings of sustainable design, to curate a challenging, sometimes uncomfortable and always provocative, collection of essays by some of the worlds leading sustainable design thinkers. The result is an impacting and polemical anthology that reinvigorates the culture of critique that, in previous years, has empowered design with the qualities of social, environmental and economic revolution.