Interview with John Tracey

Head Teacher at Kingussie School

Materialism was the biggest ecological problem identified by John Tracey. He talked about experiences of having student exchanges between Malawi and Scotland and that the people in Malawi had much less material goods but seemed to have more joy. Material possessions do not bring happiness. The pursuit of possessions leads to long hours of work in order to earn enough money to support a rich lifestyle. This in turn leads to less quality time with friends and family or engaged in leisure activities. In purchasing new items we are also contributing to the depletion of natural resources.

The solution suggested by the head teacher at Kingussie School was education. Experiences like exchanges with people from other countries can bring perspective on what really matters.

The image of materialism that John Tracey talked about was of a family shopping on the weekend each with bags full of new items.

The positive image was of a card in which people from all over the Earth are holding hands in peace.

Re-imagining Ecological Perception, a practice led enquiry through art into the relationship between self-identity and global ecological instability

Scientists warn that desertification, natural disasters, migration, loss of natural diversity and sea level rise will change our planet. Yet we live as if it is business as usual within the momentum of our industrial world. This inquiry is seeking the essence of the collision between the macro and the micro. Can artistic endeavour focus on this fulcrum of denial, disconnection, dissociation with the natural world and the hope of mitigation and the struggle of adaptation? How does art perform distinctively from other modes of address in the public sphere?

My intention is not to describe or solve environmental problems, but instead to capture and portray the emotional and intellectual complexity of how we actually experience their meaning. Through art research I aim to make vivid and lay bare the paradoxes of human responses and experiences. Science mandates an objective position, which is itself part of the problem because it tends towards detachment and disconnection from nature. Public policy aggregates experience and mediates common sense with political rhetoric. I am interested in critically exploring the possibilities and limitations of art practice including my own, to locate understanding of this issue in experience. How might an artistic approach re-imagine the connections between self, other selves, place and planet? How might artistic imagination represent and redress rupture and its consequences in practices of everyday life?

During my MFA I have developed the 'self-portrait' in a distinctive way. Instead of portraying myself, I provided the inspiration, space, equipment for others to reflect by taking their own photographic or video self-portraits and through interviews, to give voice to their reasons for choices. I asked two opposing questions - where and when do you feel your best and most in touch with who you are? And Where and when do you feel most disconnected? The person creating the portrait takes responsibility for the inspiration, setting, action and expression; hence the truth of the moment is not externally driven but instead comes from within.
Photography and video are mediums of everyday communication. How does this approach compare as a mode of address to forms of communication that surround climate change, such as the COP 15 website http://en.cop15.dk? What metaphors are commonly used and what is their intention? The COP 15 website deploys the same materials of communication as the self-portraits. What aesthetics are operating within their images of a 'Paradise Lost', of 'action against' and 'of 'combat', of 'painful reductions', 'blinkered debate' and 'irreversible tipping points'? What qualities of human relations and processes are evoked in the rhetoric of language and intention?

There is a sensory and aesthetic dimension to 'handling' change and 'shifting' ground. This research will analyse methods and their aesthetic implications in public (selected websites, pamphlets, policy docs and scientific papers) and in private (through conversation and portrayal with selected individuals across age groups, nationalities and lifestyles, adhering closely to RGU's ethics code). It will scrutinise and harness metaphor, tone of voice, mood and emotion in conceptualising and communicating attitudes and feelings (Years 1-3). It will analyze methods for 'flipping' metaphor to open up new perspectives - the poetics of critical rhetoric in the practices of relevant ecological artists (Hans Haacke, the Harrisons, Tim Collins and Reiko Goto, David Haley and Suzanne Lacy (Year 1). The research will be further informed by the philosophy of Deep Ecology and its connection to ecological perception, looking at the work of Arne Naess and Joanna Macy and explore the anatomy of rhetoric, including metaphor (Schon, Lakoff and Johnson)(Year 1).

This research will result in insights into how our imaginations, values and actions are shaped through different qualities of communication within everyday practice in relation to climate change, juxtaposing and evaluating received public modes of address with the criticality of artistic modes designed to disrupt, question, reconnect. The research will be articulated through a written thesis and related body of experimental artwork tested and disseminated through art and ecology networks (greenmuseum.org, RSA, RANE).