Entangled Ecologies: Artistic Practices and Pedagogies for Learning with the More-than Human

Abstract

Considering the increasingly entangled ecological, social, and political crises of our time, the following research questions explore the transformative potential of artistic and art-educational practices. They share a common concern with reimagining the role of art and education in fostering a cultural shift away from extractivist, anthropocentric, and neoliberal frameworks toward more relational, care-based, and multispecies ways of living. At the core lies the inquiry into how artistic learning can cultivate alternative modes of thinking, feeling, and acting - through slowing down, embodiment, affective relationality, and learning with, not merely about, more-than-human worlds. These questions collectively aim to identify strategies, perspectives, and practices that enable critical unlearning, ecological belonging, and shared responsibility - especially through feminist, posthumanist, and decolonial approaches within art education. This dissertation is conducted as a cumulative dissertation comprising three interconnected articles. Article 1 establishes the conceptual groundwork of the dissertation by analysing contemporary societal and ecological crises and by outlining theoretical perspectives - particularly feminist, posthumanist, and decolonial approaches - that provide critical frameworks for developing a Pedagogy of Entangled Ecologies. Article 2 explores the theoretical and methodological development of a Pedagogy of Entangled Ecologies from collective artistic practices, conceived as an art-educational approach fostering interdependence and ecological responsibility. Article 3 translates these insights into art-educational practice, foregrounding embodied, caring, and more-than-human encounters.

Short biography

Nicola Jakob-Feiks is an art educator, researcher, and artist. She studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, focusing on film, video installation, and performance, and later continued her studies in art education. After five years as a high school art and design teacher, she began lecturing at the Academy, where she continues to teach. She currently works at the University College of Teacher Education in Vienna and is pursuing a PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under the supervision of Elke Krasny. Her research explores art and sustainability from queer-feminist, decolonial and posthuman perspectives. Jakob-Feiks focuses on collaborative artistic practices and their transformative potential in art education and mediation and is a member of the Ecology of Care collective.