Encounters among Environmental Education and Eco-Art in the Anthropocene

Abstract

This study explores the potential of the interdisciplinary zone that is created when art meets environmental education in the Anthropocene. It shares the findings of an eco-art project that took place in the framework of an environmental education course, where the undergraduate students were encouraged to create eco-art pieces, to investigate environmental problems/issues through art and to communicate their findings with the class. The research reflects on students' artworks and reveals the environmental problems and issues that were important for them. Furthermore, it discusses four dimensions of students' ecological consciousness that emerged: a) criticism for the ecological crisis and overconsumption, b) human-nature relationship, c) empathy for nonhuman beings and d) vision of an ecological future. The paper highlights the need for an experiential and creative pedagogical path in the process of the empowerment of the ecological consciousness in the field of environmental education.