Arts-Based Approaches for Environmental Awareness in University Campuses

The role of aesthetics and arts-based research to address environmental problems has slowly been incorporated in the debates about sustainability. Its visibility is though still small, or, in some cases, holds a misguided conceptualization. Through practical examples, this papers aims to explore the potentials that aesthetics and arts-based approaches have to strengthen inter- and transdisciplinary dialogues in relation to environmental problems and to increase environmental awareness at the individual and collective levels. If university campuses are considered as 'living labs for connecting the nexus energy, climate and sustainable development', it is a necessary step to consider the dynamics of the people (living organisms) that circulate in these areas; how they interact with each other and the surrounding environment; as well as the inner/embodied aspects of sustainability which compose their perception of the environment. Furthermore, it is fundamental to find creative forms in which awareness and engagement towards the environment can be enhanced and improved. Aesthetics and arts-based research play a key role in instigating alternative, imaginative, and new possibilities not only to integrate sustainability in university campuses, but also to generate environmental awareness and enrich the debate for an ecological citizenship.