Public 63 2021 Creative Ecologies

Editor: DENISE OLEKSIJCZUK This issue explores alternatives to apocalyptic thinking. The contributions of the artists, writers, and scholars within this 142-page issue investigate how art, philosophy, and decolonizing methodologies help us to connect more intimately—and imaginatively—to the disaster of the present. By cultivating listening through Indigenous and anthropological methods, the newest edition of PUBLIC, takes into consideration the Earth’s material witnessing and suggests new possibilities through an understanding of deep time. We live on a damaged planet—one whose lands, waters, species, and atmosphere, we continue to ruin despite dire warnings that we have passed the point of no return. We hear about planetary destruction daily, but fail to enact effective change. Taken together, this collection invites us to consider the ways we fail to listen, or to respond to, the urgency of our situation. Why are facts and data not enough to motivate us individually or collectively toward decisive action today, so that we might all live and breathe tomorrow. It is impossible to rely on any one system or culture of knowledge in order to remake the world. But by integrating ecological inquiry drawn from a number of disciplines and lifeways, PUBLIC 63: Creative Ecologies guides us to us explore the aspects of life that foster the art of noticing our interspecies entanglements, and suggests a collective sense of possibility, and action.