Revisiting Lifeworld: Gaining Affective and Environmental Engagement through Socially Engaged Art between China and Australia

“Revisiting Lifeworld: Gaining Affective and Environmental Engagement through Socially Engaged Art” is a creative practice-led research project at the intersection of affect theory, environmental engagement, socially engaged art and Chinese xin philosophy. By analysing and reflecting on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in both China and Australia, the research explores how artistic process facilitate to interact with and perceive nature in everyday life, fostering enduring affective connections with the environment. Through participatory and collaborative artmaking processes, situated the creative projects creates opportunities for social encounters for people to rediscover their relationship to, participation in, and care for the environment. This thesis details the three creative projects at the heart of this research and a set of interviews with creative practitioners in both China and Australia that ask the question: What roles can affect and socially engaged art play in environmental engagement? Outcomes of the research include the articulation of a series of creative processes and outcomes and insights into affective engagement and social art practices in both Chinese and Australian contexts.