Art-based perceptual ecology: A method to generate new questions and novel solutions for ecological research

In ecological research, there is a need to explore other ways of knowing as the language systems and tools we use mediate and define the experiences we attempt to describe. Art-Based Perceptual Ecology (ABPE) is one way of knowing landscapes at multiple scales through image making, intuition, emotional intelligence, and embodied knowledge. In the term, ABPE, all words are given equal weight. "Art-based" recognizes that the art-making process provides a context to one's experience in the environment. "Perception" recognizes it is the body that is the location of the connection between humans and nature. "Ecology" gives us a way to think about what our senses apprehend in this place. The image, created when practicing ABPE is a language, which communicates the active engagement of the researcher in the landscape through symbolism and metaphor. The image is not a representation of the experience, but carries the experience as a mother carries a child in her womb. Practicing ABPE provides a shift in awareness that opens the researcher to a new way of "seeing", moving her to another level of knowing and understanding landscapes. ABPE provides a breakthrough into a dimension of intelligibility that has previously been inaccessible, offering a new language that generates new questions and may provide new solutions for ecological research.