ECOMIND: ASPECTS OF ECOLOGY IN NEW MEDIA ART OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

The interdisciplinary project EcoMind covers the fields of research into contemporary art, communication of ecosystemic knowledge in new media art, and a technological capacity building in A-Frame. The particular focus is on European new media artworks classified under the theoretical umbrella of social ecology, media ecology, and eco-aesthetics. Born from biology, referring to the interrelationship of organisms and their environments, the term has acquired a range of applied meanings in other contexts. In his work The Three Ecologies (1989), Félix Guattari expanded the concept of ecology, introducing the concepts of social, environmental, and mental ecology. It led to a new dimension of understanding the simultaneous crises confronting the environment, society, and the human psyche.

The VR environment EcoMind (2025-2028) is being designed as a contemporary art gallery cooperatively by three research institutions (RISEBA, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences in Latvia, and École Supérieure d’Art et de Design d’Orléans in France). It aims to revise societal values regarding ecology, as well as demonstrate new media arts’ reflections on our experience of beauty and the sublime.