Catalogue - fresh off the press!

We are delighted to announce Linda Williams' wonderful text - New Perspectives in environmental Art: Us and Them – Umwelten, will feature in the Exhibition catalogue.

Here is a snippit from the text.... 
 

The concept of umwelten, is a term derived from the work of the early 20th Century biologist and ethologist Jakob von Uexküll. In the German umwelt means ‘surrounding world’, or ‘self-centred world’ and for von Uexküll, umwelten conveyed the idea of the vast range of creatures occupying worlds whose meaning could be understood from their specific point of perspective. Within myriad umwelten then, diverse creatures experience their umwelt differently, yet von Uexküll’s findings led him to conclude that communication, or semiosis, was a process of interaction common to the umwelten of all organisms: whether human or non-human. The study of these processes of communication formed the basis of biosemiotics, of which perhaps one of the best-known studies is the ‘information dance’ of bees......

to read more click here -  http://usandthem-umwelten.blogspot.com.au/p/about.html

Image- World Species Market, Debbie Symons

Linda Williams is Associate Professor in Art, Environment and Cultural Studies and Program Coordinator of the Honours Program in the School of Art. She leads the RMIT Global Ecologies Research Group. Along with her work as a widely published art critic, she has published in the field of the history of culture and science, philosophy and critical theory, and is an active member of the Globalization and Culture project in the Global Cities Research Institute at RMIT. She is also an international reader for the ARC.

for more on Linda and the Global Ecologies research cluster, click here - http://www.rmit.edu.au/art/artandenvironmentalsustainability