Uncanny Justness: objects, metaphors and stories to re-imagine learning, activism and justice through suitably strange creative practice
Dylan McGarry and Saskia Vermeylen
Introduction
I (Dylan) need something that is more than justice, something that is able to work proactively before rights are breached, before laws are broken, before harm is inflicted. We are now more than ever, witnessing horrific violations of human, environmental and animal rights. It is a time of deep pain, trauma, existentialism, grief and loss – yet in these very dark troubling times we are also witnessing an emergence of something new, something strange, yet kind, uncanny, yet warm, and somehow suitably so. To begin, and please bear with me, it’s best to conjure the suitably strange through a series of vignettes that aim to hold and embody what are thickly described (Ellingson, 2009) dense experiences of engaging transdisciplinary, transformative and transgressive creative practices that encourage ecological citizenship for environmental justice.
I (Dylan) need something that is more than justice, something that is able to work proactively before rights are breached, before laws are broken, before harm is inflicted. We are now more than ever, witnessing horrific violations of human, environmental and animal rights. It is a time of deep pain, trauma, existentialism, grief and loss – yet in these very dark troubling times we are also witnessing an emergence of something new, something strange, yet kind, uncanny, yet warm, and somehow suitably so. To begin, and please bear with me, it’s best to conjure the suitably strange through a series of vignettes that aim to hold and embody what are thickly described (Ellingson, 2009) dense experiences of engaging transdisciplinary, transformative and transgressive creative practices that encourage ecological citizenship for environmental justice.