Alan Marshall is a New Zealand author, scholar, and artist working within the discipline of environmental humanities. He is noted as a key scholar in environmental philosophy [1] and for his investigations into eco-friendly cities of the future. [2] For his research on these topics, the University of Wollongong awarded Marshall a doctorate and National Geographic assigned him as an explorer.
In 2006, Alan Marshall founded The Ecomimicry Project [3] which melds ecology with innovation and sustainable art.
Examples of designs that emerged from this project include:
These designs, illustrated by and large by Marshall, were compiled into the Wild Design book and then praised by the Australian art & design media. [4]
In January 2013, Marshall started the Ecotopia 2121 project which (as noted by CNN [5] and The Independent [6] ) explores graphic future scenarios of one-hundred super-ecofriendly cities across the world. Most of Marshall's original artworks from the project were part of a special exhibition at the Bauhaus Museum [7] whilst the "Future London" cityscape from the project was displayed by the Museum of London as part of its 2018 London Visions exhibition [8] and by the London Design Biennale as part of their 2021 exhibition at Somerset House. [9] In 2015, the master-class part of this project conducted at Mahidol University was awarded the 2015 Kenneth M. Roemer Innovative Course Design Award by the Society for Utopian Studies.
The book of the project, Ecotopia 2121, written and illustrated by Marshall, has attracted broad critical acclaim. [10] The Times Higher Education review of Ecotopia 2121 stated "very few academics ever produce anything as stunning and imaginative as this", [11] whilst National Geographic UK, [12] Al Jazeera, [13] ZMEScience, [14] Lithuanian Radio Television, Forbes, [15] and Publishers Weekly [16] variously declared it "curious and creative", "adventurous", "impressive", "visionary", and "monumental". Ecotopia 2121 was put on Resurgence and Ecologist magazine's Book of the Year list, [17] won a Silver Medal at the 2017 Nautilus Book Awards and placed 1st in the Future Forecasts category of the 2016 Green Book Festival. In turn, the book's "San Diego 2121" cityscape was highlighted on the LA7 TV show Piazza Pulita [18] during the pre-COP26 climate talks, whilst the "Tokyo 2121" cityscape adorned the frontispiece of the book Green Leviathan [19] by Belgian philosopher Mark Coeckelbergh, and the "Macau 2121" cityscape featured in the pages of the popular Arab women's magazine Sayidaty . [20]
In late 2015, Marshall began a new project in urban ecology called Frankencities [21] which details the worst-case scenarios of emerging environmental problems in a series of cities around the world whilst comparing them to the insights offered by the Frankenstein story. The Daily Express and VICE reported that Marshall's work on Frankenstein extended to critiquing the popular idea that Mary Shelley was inspired to write the original Frankenstein novel because she was affected by a volcanically-induced climate change event known as the Year Without a Summer. [22]
For the Frankencities project and for the Ecotopia 2121 project, Marshall developed a novel urban design methodology known as The Literary Method of Urban Design [23] which is not so much about design but more about inventing new social change strategies. [24] A film scripted by Marshall about this methodology was published by National Geographic Indonesia [25] and became an "official selection" at a number of film festivals across Asia [26] and Europe. [27] As well, a series of Marshall's artworks produced via the Literary Method of Urban Design are being displayed in the Tartu Ülikooli Kunstimuuseum as part of Tartu's 2024 celebrations as the European Capital of Culture. [28]
In 2020, Marshall began the Global Sheeplands project which investigates the way sheep have contributed to the making of the modern world. [29] As part of this project, Marshall authored a book titled Sheeplands and also made on-screen contributions to a two-hour Arte / NDR TV documentary about the history of sheep farming. [30]
Prior to his 21st century work in the eco-design field, Marshall was mainly involved in eco-philosophy and techno-criticism. In the 1990s, Marshall developed a postmodern version of the Human–Nature relationship, [31] one that throws into doubt the idea that Nature is a united orderly system. [32] Marshall's approach is heavily influenced by the science of ecology but has been criticised [33] as privileging one school of ecology, i.e., plant sociology, over others such as systems ecology and the ecology of Gaia -- both of which he critiques as shallow forms of environmentalism. [34] Indeed, his book The Unity of Nature is one of the fiercest critiques of Systems Theory in general, and Gaia Theory and Chaos Theory in particular.
Marshall is also referred to as a critic of the car industry, [35] of the nuclear industry [36] and of space exploration. [37] His writings on the latter subject have been cited as insightful but are usually regarded by scientists and engineers as being too radically "environmental" [38] especially his calls for the protection of the Martian landscape.
Alan Marshall is also an award-winning writer of fiction; a genre he was very active within from about 1998 to 2002. His works of fiction include an historical novel, Lancewood, about an iconic New Zealand plant, and a science fiction radio drama called This Pointless Thing Called Life [39] that was broadcast on NPR, KFAI, [40] KUNM, [41] and XM Satellite Radio in the USA. In 2001 This Pointless Thing Called Life received the "Silver Award" from the Mark Time Awards by a panel that included Grammy-award winner Phil Proctor [42] who said it was "definitely on a par with Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".
Along with Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, This Pointless Thing Called Life was nominated for a Vogel Award in the category "Best Long Form dramatic science fiction and fantasy production made in New Zealand in the year 2002". [43] [44] Like his scholarly writings, Marshall's fiction explores the relationships between "humans and technology" and between "humans and nature".
The sequel to This Pointless Thing Called Life was another award-winning full-length radio feature broadcast in four parts on XM Satellite and by some NPR stations in 2003. This sequel was titled This Miserable Thing Called Life. [45]
Green anarchism, also known as ecological anarchism or eco-anarchism, is an anarchist school of thought that focuses on ecology and environmental issues. It is an anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian form of radical environmentalism, which emphasises social organization, freedom and self-fulfillment.
In environmental philosophy, environmental ethics is an established field of practical philosophy "which reconstructs the essential types of argumentation that can be made for protecting natural entities and the sustainable use of natural resources." The main competing paradigms are anthropocentrism, physiocentrism, and theocentrism. Environmental ethics exerts influence on a large range of disciplines including environmental law, environmental sociology, ecotheology, ecological economics, ecology and environmental geography.
Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston is a utopian novel by Ernest Callenbach, published in 1975. The society described in the book is one of the first ecological utopias and was influential on the counterculture and the green movement in the 1970s and thereafter. The author himself claimed that the society he depicted in the book is not a true utopia, but, while guided by societal intentions and values, was imperfect and in-process.
Technogaianism is a bright green environmentalist stance of active support for the research, development and use of emerging and future technologies to help restore Earth's environment. Technogaianists argue that developing safe, clean, alternative technology should be an important goal of environmentalists.
Environmental psychology is a branch of psychology that explores the relationship between humans and the external world. It examines the way in which the natural environment and our built environments shape us as individuals. Environmental psychology emphasizes how humans change the environment and how the environment changes humans' experiences and behaviors. The field defines the term environment broadly, encompassing natural environments, social settings, built environments, learning environments, and informational environments. According to an article on APA Psychnet, environmental psychology is when a person thinks of a plan, travels to a certain place, and follows through with the plan throughout their behavior.
Ken Yeang is an architect, ecologist, planner and author from Malaysia, best known for his ecological architecture and ecomasterplans that have a distinctive green aesthetic. He pioneered an ecology-based architecture, working on the theory and practice of sustainable design. The Guardian newspaper (2008) named him "one of the 50 people who could save the planet". Yeang's headquarters is in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) as Hamzah & Yeang, with offices in London (UK) as Llewelyn Davies Ken Yeang Ltd. and Beijing (China) as North Hamzah Yeang Architectural and Engineering Company.
Ian L. McHarg was a Scottish landscape architect and writer on regional planning using natural systems. McHarg was one of the most influential persons in the environmental movement who brought environmental concerns into broad public awareness and ecological planning methods into the mainstream of landscape architecture, city planning and public policy. He was the founder of the department of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. His 1969 book Design with Nature pioneered the concept of ecological planning. It continues to be one of the most widely celebrated books on landscape architecture and land-use planning. In this book, he set forth the basic concepts that were to develop later in geographic information systems.
Ecocriticism is the study of literature and ecology from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. It was first originated by Joseph Meeker as an idea called "literary ecology" in his The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Literary Ecology (1972).
An eco-city or ecocity is "a human settlement modeled on the self-sustaining resilient structure and function of natural ecosystems", as defined by Ecocity Builders. Simply put, an eco-city is an ecologically healthy city. The World Bank defines eco-cities as "cities that enhance the well-being of citizens and society through integrated urban planning and management that harness the benefits of ecological systems and protect and nurture these assets for future generations". Although there is no universally accepted definition of an 'eco-city', among available definitions, there is some consensus on the basic features of an eco-city.
Environmental art is a range of artistic practices encompassing both historical approaches to nature in art and more recent ecological and politically motivated types of works. Environmental art has evolved away from formal concerns, for example monumental earthworks using earth as a sculptural material, towards a deeper relationship to systems, processes and phenomena in relationship to social concerns. Integrated social and ecological approaches developed as an ethical, restorative stance emerged in the 1990s. Over the past ten years environmental art has become a focal point of exhibitions around the world as the social and cultural aspects of climate change come to the forefront.
A sustainable city, eco-city, or green city is a city designed with consideration for social, economic, environmental impact, and resilient habitat for existing populations, without compromising the ability of future generations to experience the same. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 defines sustainable cities as those that are dedicated to achieving green sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability. They are committed to doing so by enabling opportunities for all through a design focused on inclusivity as well as maintaining a sustainable economic growth. The focus will also includes minimizing required inputs of energy, water, and food, and drastically reducing waste, output of heat, air pollution – CO2, methane, and water pollution. Richard Register, a visual artist, first coined the term ecocity in his 1987 book Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future, where he offers innovative city planning solutions that would work anywhere. Other leading figures who envisioned sustainable cities are architect Paul F Downton, who later founded the company Ecopolis Pty Ltd, as well as authors Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann, who have written extensively on the subject. The field of industrial ecology is sometimes used in planning these cities.
Landscape urbanism is a theory of urban design arguing that the city is constructed of interconnected and ecologically rich horizontal field conditions, rather than the arrangement of objects and buildings. Landscape Urbanism, like Infrastructural Urbanism and Ecological Urbanism, emphasizes performance over pure aesthetics and utilizes systems-based thinking and design strategies. The phrase 'landscape urbanism' first appeared in the mid 1990s. Since this time, the phrase 'landscape urbanism' has taken on many different uses, but is most often cited as a postmodernist or post-postmodernist response to the "failings" of New Urbanism and the shift away from the comprehensive visions, and demands, for modern architecture and urban planning.
Ecological design or ecodesign is an approach to designing products and services that gives special consideration to the environmental impacts of a product over its entire lifecycle. Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan define it as "any form of design that minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with living processes." Ecological design can also be defined as the process of integrating environmental considerations into design and development with the aim of reducing environmental impacts of products through their life cycle.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to sustainability:
Arran Emrys Gare is an Australian philosopher known mainly for his work in environmental philosophy, philosophy of science, philosophy of culture and the metaphysics of process philosophy. He currently holds the position of Associate Professor in the Faculty of Life and Social Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia.
The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, includes all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth.
Ecological art is an art genre and artistic practice that seeks to preserve, remediate and/or vitalize the life forms, resources and ecology of Earth. Ecological art practitioners do this by applying the principles of ecosystems to living species and their habitats throughout the lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere, including wilderness, rural, suburban and urban locations. Ecological art is a distinct genre from Environmental art in that it involves functional ecological systems-restoration, as well as socially engaged, activist, community-based interventions. Ecological art also addresses politics, culture, economics, ethics and aesthetics as they impact the conditions of ecosystems. Ecological art practitioners include artists, scientists, philosophers and activists who often collaborate on restoration, remediation and public awareness projects.
Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism and political ecology. Ecofeminist thinkers draw on the concept of gender to analyse the relationships between humans and the natural world. The term was coined by the French writer Françoise d'Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974). Ecofeminist theory asserts a feminist perspective of Green politics that calls for an egalitarian, collaborative society in which there is no one dominant group. Today, there are several branches of ecofeminism, with varying approaches and analyses, including liberal ecofeminism, spiritual/cultural ecofeminism, and social/socialist ecofeminism. Interpretations of ecofeminism and how it might be applied to social thought include ecofeminist art, social justice and political philosophy, religion, contemporary feminism, and poetry.
Ecomodernism is an environmental philosophy which argues that technological development can protect nature and improve human wellbeing through eco-economic decoupling, i.e., by separating economic growth from environmental impacts.
‘Net positive’, from Positive Development (PD) theory, is a paradigm in sustainable development and design. PD theory was first detailed in Positive Development (2008). A net positive system/structure would ‘give back to nature and society more than it takes’ over its life cycle. In contrast, sustainable development - in the real-world context of population growth, biodiversity loss, cumulative pollution, wealth disparities and social inequities - closes off future options. To reverse direction, development must, among other sustainability criteria, increase nature beyond pre-human conditions. PD develops the tools to enable net positive design and development.