ART, AESTHETICS & FUTURES
Queer Ecologies
Definition: A framework that merges queer theory with ecology, challenging binary ideas of nature and expanding kinship to include more-than-human beings.
Why it matters: Encourages inclusive and non-hierarchical ways of relating to the environment, which can reshape both environmental activism and cultural expression.
Useful Links
Key Website: Climate Culture: tinyurl.com/what-is-queer-ecology
Explainer Video: “Is nature Queer?” tinyurl.com/is-nature-queer
Book: Strange Natures: Futurity, Empathy, and the Queer Ecological Imagination by Nicole Seymour
Academic Text: Mortimer-Sandilands, C., & Erickson, B. (Eds.). (2010). Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire.
Indigenous Futurisms & Afrofuturisms
Definition: Creative movements that envision futures where Indigenous or African diaspora knowledge, sovereignty, and technology thrive.
Why it matters: Counters colonial narratives that erase these communities from the future, offering empowering and culturally grounded visions.
Useful Links
Explainer Video: “Afro-Futurism: A Brief Overview Centred on Black Canadians” tinyurl.com/afro-futurism
Explainer Video: “Indigenous Artists Imagine the Future – Fusing Art & Science” tinyurl.com/Indigenous-futures
Book: Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction edited by Grace L. Dillon
Book: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Book: The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories edited by André M. Carrington
Academic Text: Elwood, S. (2024). Thinking Geomedia Futures: Indigenous Futurisms, Afrofuturisms, and Counter-Mediations of Temporality, Spatiality, and Digitality.
Speculative Futures / Worldbuilding
Definition: The practice of imagining alternative futures to guide present-day decisions and inspire action.
Why it matters: Helps communities and movements envision the world they want to live in and to develop strategies to arrive there
Useful Links
Explainer Video: “How Sci-Fi Informs Our Climate Future – and What to Do Next” tinyurl.com/climate-future
Book: What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Book: Radical Botany: Plants and Speculative Fiction by Natania Meeker and Antónia Szabari
Academic Text: Kim, H. et al. (2023). Towards a better future for biodiversity and people: Modelling Nature Futures.
Participatory Art / Community-Engaged Art
Definition: Art that is co-created with communities, where the relationships formed are an essential part of the artwork.
Why it matters: Builds stronger connections between art, audience, and place, often leading to more meaningful and sustained impacts.
Useful Links
Video Explainer: “Claudia Salguero – Community-Engaged Artist” tinyurl.com/community-engaged-art
Video Explainer: “Participatory Arts: Nicole Marroquin” tinyurl.com/participatory-arts
Book: The Aesthetics of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal
Academic Text: Trafí-Prats, L., & Castro-Varela, A. (Eds). (2022). Visual Participatory Arts Based Research in the City: Ontology, Aesthetics and Ethics.
Academic Text: Bishop, C. (2012). Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship.
Embodied Knowledge
Definition: Understanding rooted in physical experience and movement, often transmitted through performance, ritual, or craft.
Why it matters: Validates artistic practices such as dance as legitimate forms of research and cultural transmission.
Useful Links
Book: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Academic Article: Barbour, K., & Hitchmough, A. (2013). Experiencing Affect Through Site-Specific Dance.
Eco-Futurisms
Definition: Eco-futurism is an emerging artistic and philosophical movement that envisions optimistic or transformative ecological futures grounded in regenerative relationships between humans, non-humans, and the Earth.
It challenges apocalyptic climate narratives by imagining viable, desirable, multispecies futures built through reciprocity, care, and ecological justice.
Why it matters: In the Terra Sapiens Collective, we are helping the development of this emerging movement through the integration of what we consider essential voices for a just and equal future such as environmental science, Indigenous knowledge, speculative fiction, circular design, and ecological ethics to create positive ecological imaginaries.
Useful Links
Artists and Influences: Kim Stanley Robinson (Ministry for the Future), Ursula K. Le Guin
Book: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Key Website: Good Anthropocenes: www.goodanthropocenes.com
Key Website: Nature Futures Framework: naturefuturesframework.org
Ecofeminism / Sacred Feminine
Definition: A perspective that links ecological health with feminist values of care, empathy, and community.
Why it matters: Offers an ethical and aesthetic framework for cultural work that addresses environmental and social healing together.
Useful Links
Explainer Video: “What is an Eco-Feminist?” tinyurl.com/eco-feminist
Explainer Video: “A Shift to the Feminine” tinyurl.com/shifting-feminine
Book: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for Climate Crisis edited by Ayana Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
Book: Women and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her by Susan Griffin
Academic Text: Shiva, V. et al. (2023). Ecofeminism.