The etymology of 'ecology' derives from the Greek oikos,
or house, and logia, a systematic treatment, which in turn
comes from logos -- word, reason, discourse. Ecology is
about interrelationship, about flows of energy and resources among
component entities which interact in a larger whole. In the late
20th century, the ongoing development of multinational capitalism
has achieved absolute hegemony: all resources and all people on
this earth are subjects of the system. All human experience is
mediated by the undeniable power of that center.
The etymology of 'culture' hails from the Latin, colere,
to attend to. Early uses refer to cultivation, the tending of
natural growth, and to the divine worship of spirits. The word's
association with natural development was gradually replaced with
human development. We use the word cultural to describe a human
response to the environment. How do people adapt to the conditions
of the 20th century? What outlets for expression can we imagine
that lie outside the forces of production? How are our relationships
with each other affected by the pull of the center?
The center wields both obvious and invisible
power. We find this invisibility in everything accepted as normal.
By hiding behind the mask of normalcy, the center never has to
explicitly define itself. What is normal is highlighted. Implicit
rules of exclusion draw borders between the center and the margins.
Difference is treated with contempt and disdain, exoticized and
trivialized. Oppression
is practiced and internalized.
A movement among people who identify themselves as marginal names and reclaims this status. Their resistance brings dignity to a denied perspective, a patchwork identity composed of tradition, assimilation, and subjugation. bell hooks writes,
| Our survival depended on an ongoing public awareness of the separation between margin and center … This sense of wholeness, impressed upon our consciousness by the structure of our daily lives, provided us an oppositional world view - a mode of seeing, unknown to most of our oppressors, that sustained us, aided us in our struggle to transcend poverty and despair, strengthened our sense of self and our solidarity…1 |
This perspective inspires us in forming a strategy for respectful participation
in intercultural work, which simultaneously engages the traditions
of others, and seeks to draw out and heal the schisms inside and
between ourselves.
After years of traversing boundaries between cultures and transgressing
boundaries between disciplines, we feel a need to identify the
generating principles of how we work to make culture. We combine
colere and oikos to form cultural ecology,
a world view of creative work. For us, art and technology are a single process.
Theory and practice are only interesting in their conjunction.
In all creative acts, the impetus of joy and the drive to solve
problems co-mingle. The realities of postmodern multinational
capitalism confront us daily, like a Sisyphusan grindstone. We
do not wish these factors to deny our growth as human beings,
or our development and self-determination as people. As artists,
activists, technologists, we face these realities head-on to reclaim
our personhood by identifying unity, and placing elements in interrelationship,
thus developing cultural ecology.
We are disposed towards logos, discourse, without embracing
-logia, systematic knowledge. Our discourse plays with
systematic knowledge, so as to subvert it as much as to establish
it. Our motivation as cultural ecologizers is to create interesting perturbances
in the normal goings-on which cause participants to think about
and feel our common alienation and interconnectedness.
Copyright 1996 by Creative Media Cauldron. All rights
reserved.