Communing with Nature: The Collective Journey of Yatoo Artists and its Pedagogical Potentials

Abstract

Increasing concern over environmental sustainability and socioecological well‐being has motivated people to consider ways to reconnect humans with the natural world through lifestyle changes that integrate well with natural systems. Educators who share environmental concerns have explored diverse aspects of ecological art practices to envision an extended and socially relevant role of art. Accordingly, the present study aims to bring educators’ attention to a collective journey of artists who have immersed themselves in making an affective relationships with nature. Regarding the journey as an invaluable cultural resource that holds the potential to extend the horizon of how we may live with nature, it examines the collective journey of the artists in Yatoo, an artist association based in Gongju, a greenery city in the southwest region of South Korea. The guiding questions set for the contextual analysis are: ‘how do Yatoo artists become native to their place?’ and ‘what can be learned from their collective journey?’. First, the collective journey of the artists is examined based on four major factors: regionality, positioning, methodology and networking. This is followed by discussions focusing on the value of the collective identity shaped by bioregionally conscious art practices and the pedagogical potentials arising from the collective journey. This paper suggests that the collective journey of Yatoo's life‐sustaining practice, operating in an era of environmental crisis, contributes to the recently developing alternative pedagogical discussions by opening up dialogues that navigate ways to encourage more sustainable practices for the future.

Artist’s Creative Contributions in the Context of Interdisciplinary Research

“…Their artwork is usually a spontaneous response to their feelings at a certain place, and they create works with a minimum of action or manipulation, using their bodies or locally found objects. Concentrating on the particularity of their local environment, Yatoo artists develop an affective sense of belonging to that region (Paek, 2019). Yatoo's bioregional orientation is clear from its inaugural statement: "Yatoo is a group studying outdoor art through fresh contact with nature and, based on a deep love for nature, appreciating its seasons <…> its infinite breadth and depth and all life forces therein <…>" (cited in Lee, 2000, p. 25).…”

“…The first of these is regionality. Ko has been working in a less industrialized region; surrounded by mountains and a major river, and there is a strong sense of the local culture inherited from the time when the area was the capital of an ancient kingdom that flourished in the Korean Peninsula (Paek, 2019). The region's geographical and sociohistorical particularity seems to have influenced how Ko and his Yatoo colleagues became conscious of their environment and how they navigated a path to commune with nature.…”

“…In particular, the Yatoo artists have developed unique methodologies for their site-based art practice through a form of collective practice: the Four Season Nature Art Workshop (Jeon, 2016). As a regular four-season event since the community's inception, the workshop has served to maintain the value of direct contact with nature for the member artists (Paek, 2019). A third social dimension is Ko's position as a leading artist in Yatoo, which has enabled him to boost internal and external communications by organizing domestic and international events and programs.…”

“…SW opted for this ecological art practice because of its capacity to promote critical inquiry regarding environmental awareness and sustainability, communicating issues and challenging dominant paradigms (Aguilar, Waliczek, & Zajicek, 2008;Blandy, Congdon, & Krug, 1998;Hollis, 1997;Jacobson et al, 2016;Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002;Neperud, 1997). To that end, two artists affiliated with Yatoo -an artist community known for its unique vision, based on a long-term commitment to working with nature (Paek, 2019) -were invited to work with other researchers from diverse disciplines that include urban and environmental engineering, economics, and arts and humanities.…”

Aconcagua Fablab: Learning to Become with the World through Design and Digital Fabrication Technologies

“…A shift towards sustainability and environmental education has permeated not only school‐based initiatives (UNESCO 2019, 2020), but also specific fields such as arts and design education (Garoian 1998; Taieb et al . 2010; Boehm 2015; Paek 2019; Adams 2020). In this sense, for example, Adams (2020, 275) refers to the role of arts, and arts education, in bringing nature into people's minds, ‘reconfiguring our thinking about the world, and in particular our thinking about the environment’.…”