Undisciplinary Institute of Art and Ecology
Undisciplinary Institute of Art and Ecology sets out to imagine and institute into being a speculative, emergent support structure for longterm artistic engagements with socio-ecological urgencies. This initiative by CAA develops curatorial collaborative approaches situated in between existing institutional and disciplinary frameworks. It is committed to nurturing both practices rooted in singular specificities of places and planetary perspectives by fostering collegial conversations and kinships. Its aim is to strengthen the role of art in inter/transdisciplinary work towards environmental and social justice.
The necessity to draw together diverse forms and practices of knowledge is increasingly acknowledged in the arts and sciences when addressing the complex codependencies of societal and ecological crises. However, the obstacles are deep-rooted and diverse. In the face of the multitude of spectres of unsustainability that haunt the structures, methodologies, systems of value, and professional identities in the fields of art and science, the very foundations of the fields and their disciplinary formations come into question. What could it mean, in practice, to undiscipline our practices and institutions? How to undiscipline ourselves from within, while exposing the institutional formations to challenge from without?
The undisciplinary potential of art in its freedom to experiment is not to be confused with the modernist myth of autonomy, which veils the borders and orders reinforced by this historically and culturally specific idea of liberty. A decentring of the power to discipline has to acknowledge the unequally shared possibilities and responsibilities. Unruliness has been the privilege of the few, whose position in the hegemonic order is only solidified by the disorder orchestrated by them. Undisciplinarity calls for a collective effort built on solidarities, woven out of the human and more-than-human attachments that make the work of art and science alike, and a multitude of lives, possible.
CAA launches the Undisciplinary Institute of Art and Ecology during spring 2025 with a number of public events. The first phase of this ongoing work focuses on site-sensitive fieldwork as practices that not only labour out in the field of study, but simultaneously rework their own field. The island of Seili has taught CAA that fieldwork demands reciprocity, whereby our own presumptions, methods, formats, and timelines have to open for critical re-evaluation and even disordering as an essential part of the process. Fieldwork also carries particular potential for bridging disciplinary boundaries, sharing partial perspectives, and bringing diverse knowledge practices together.
Seminar Towards Site-Sensitivity on 27 February 2025 in London explored how site-sensitive practices might guide us towards undisciplinarity, to critically reflect on how the hierarchical structures of knowledge discipline our practices and encounters. The seminar was organised by the Centre for Art and Ecology at Goldsmiths University of London in partnership with CAA.
Symposium presented by the Undisciplinary Institute of Art and Ecology will take place at Jokistudio on 5-6 May 2025 in Turku.
The Undiscplinary Institute of Art and Ecology is supported by Niilo Helander Foundation and the Finnish Cultural Foundation.