By Tina Heger and Oliver Szasz

Exploring entanglements with the non-human. Photo Credit: Lisa Heger 2021 CC BY 4.0

This Plain Language Summary is published in advance of the paper discussed. Please check back soon for a link to the full paper.

Imagine a future in which everyone is quite aware of our multiple and complex dependencies on other people, on other living things, and on our non-living environments; a future in which humans behave in a humble way, and care for nature as much as nature nurtures us. In our article, we pick up the suggestion that this envisioned future age could be called the Symbiocene, and we suggest that for getting there, it is essential to not only stimulate people’s brains, but very importantly also touch their emotions by feeding all senses.  

Looking at recent developments in the humanities and other fields, it becomes obvious that many scholars are already working on theories and new language that actually match the core idea of the Symbiocene quite well. For example, it has been pointed out repeatedly that it is very hard to disentangle humans and nature anyways. Every human body carries myriads of non-human living things; and every bit of ‘nature’ on this globe is somehow impacted by human-induced changes, like climate change or the global spread of microplastics. Nature and humans thus clearly are closely entangled; and the next step now is to turn this important insight into action.

So the question is: How could the positive, big vision of a Symbiocene be used to induce steps that lead away from destructive behaviour? Coming from the perspectives of an ecologist, and a designer and philosopher, we suggest that the answer may be: By experiencing arts and nature. The reason why we believe this could work is that experiences that engage the entire body, including all of our senses, can reach deep layers of our understanding and self-reflection. If combined with the grand idea of the Symbiocene, sensory-triggered experiences therefore have the potential to change individuals, who will then change their behaviour and affect others; which will eventually lead to changes in thinking and acting that will spread through societies like ripples on the water. This way, the inspirative idea of the Symbiocene as the age with renewed and enriched human-nature relationships has the potential to change life on earth, for good. We hope that our article can motivate people to develop new stories telling about this positive vision, and to explore its meaning with all senses.