The Mine in Dialogue with the Environment through the Arts.

Dominika Glogowski 

We mostly think of the arts in the context of extractivism either as a source to raise awareness for social and environmental injustice or as an act of revitalization, once the mine is doomed for closure. Yet the arts encourage us to pause, to listen, to look, to indulge in experience, to leave secure realms of specialization, to comprehend and to adventure the connection and reciprocal interconnection of all beings. The arts hence prompt us to engage with the space, the people, nature and the complex fabrics out of which the environment is created.  

In extractive areas, notions of culture, nature, economy, wellbeing, but also toxicity and legacy are intertwined on a sensitive scale that has to be constantly balanced and negotiated. The mine is embedded into this glocal reality. It is interwoven with the intangible net, as it is physically with the landscape. Instead of an isolated industrial entity, the mine is shaping those fabrics like an organism. The fluidity of exchange and interdependency should be embraced as a chance for an active role of the extractive sector within its local setting to generate common identities and prosperity. For this to happen, spaces of dialogue, interaction and participation are needed. Whether in large-scale, artisanal, switch on - switch off, or fly in - fly out mining approaches, the arts help to mitigate between “us” and “them” dichotomies. Bridging corporate headquarters with local populations, the arts can broaden the dialogue through embodied experience, activating a sense of place, belonging, community and coherent action.  

Consequently, I argue with my think tank artEC/Oindustry for a new understanding of the mining industry. Apart from closed-off, seemingly alienated corporate structures, I reconceptualize the mine’s (architectural) opening towards the environment. I thus challenge the incorporation of the arts into the early stages of a mine design as a creative tool for embracing wicked complexities between animate and inanimate stakeholders, inducing economic independency and foresight, empowerment and emotional wellbeing. Reflected beyond ongoing questions on transparency, empathy and meaning as new business pathways for industries, site-specific spaces for interconnectedness and participation could induce important steps towards dialogue, imagination and creation. In times of pandemics like Covid-19 such common, local and planetary future scenarios seem more than pressing. 

 
Of Earth For Earth (2020)

DOMINIKA GLOGOWSKI 

Dominika Glogowski has a professional background in arts management, art history, and visual arts. She is the founder of the think tank artEC/Oindustry on mining, nature and the arts. She bridges theoretical and applied practices and focuses on the arts’ inclusion in the industrial sector, STEM and life sciences. Tackling complexities and solutions of our modern way of living, Dominika initiates and designs interdisciplinary projects around the globe, as recently the art-science ClimArtLab with the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research in Austria and the art hub Deep Earth Synergies in Cornwall, UK, which she initiated and co-founded to explore and enable cross-sectorial interventions for a participatory socio-ecological futures in extractive areas.  

www.artecoindustry.com  office@artecoindustry.com  @artecoindustry 

www.deepearthsynergies.org art@deepearthsynergies.org @EarthSynergists