A discourse at the intersection of sustainability, art, and psychology
(2/3) How can art, fashion, and psychology work together to address climate change?
In the last episode of our mini-series, we introduced ourselves, our backgrounds, and the HOY.wearable project. We also started explaining the psychological mechanics behind why people aren’t doing anything about climate change starting with the psychology of motivation and the intention-behavior-gap. We finished by looking at how the secret language of HOY.wearable uses curiosity, discovery, and play, in order to help people overcome the first hurdles of getting started.
In this second episode, we want to dig deeper into the psychology of meaningfulness and how emotions play a role in this process. Why do we need to create and feel meaning and emotions to change our behavior? Again, we will show what this looks like in the real world by showing examples of HOY and shedding a light on up-cycling and the role of co-creation. Because HOY creates meaningfulness for and with the individual.
Q: Much is being said about creating engagement for sustainability and moving from theory to action. How is that related to meaningfulness?
Laura: Things need to be meaningful for us in order to be motivated to engage with them. Topics like climate change that are complex and hard to understand, mostly become reasons for actions, when we find a personal reason-why they matter to us. This reason can come from a realization, like a eureka moment, that puts things into perspective for us, or from personal experience.
This is because we learn through experience. The problem we have with climate change is that the future will look nothing like our experiences from the past - we are most likely making the wrong bets on the future, based on our past experience.
Q: How can climate art lead to individual engagement with the topic?
Research on environmental art shows that art pieces can help make people act, given that the artwork allows them to discover how the environmental problem will affect them personally, as well as their families and friends, in this order. In the same way that studies show that people who have experienced the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events and flooding of their neighborhoods, increase their willingness to do something about it.
If we do not want to let things get so far, so that not everyone has to experience such devastating effects themselves, art can work as a proxy for creating the necessary motivation for people to act.
So we need to find ways to learn faster. Like through simulated experiences where failure comes withvery small risks or no risks at all. Virtual reality holds the potential to make us experience different scenarios, without needing to go through them in reality. Also, art can be a playground for such scenarios.
Alexa, how do you work within HOY to create this meaningfulness?
Alexa:
Creating meaningfulness is one of the main values and essential parts of the brand DNA of HOY. The idea for wearable reminders is strongly connected to giving encouragement to pursue what is meaningful to one individually while at the same time creating sustainable alternatives for clothing.
Let me explain the 3 big ideas:
When thinking about how to make fashion production more sustainable, I focused on the question: Why does something need to be produced in the first place? I decided to work exclusively with up-cycling and reworking. This is how I can reduce environmental costs and design a unique product. It is about creating something of value and not producing a good per se. Emotional value is less measurable but can be more impactful.
I love working with what is there, to give something “old“ a totally new meaning. It is that magical moment when you see something with new eyes, making old things blossom, giving them new purpose and value. The secret HOY alphabet is a way to manifest new meanings into words.
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2. Experiences
Aren't we reading books and articles about how to stop climate change, be a better boss or become a better cook? Valuable input, no doubt, but what about actually EXPERIENCING how it FEELS to learn, to do something different or to live our values? Interacting with my pieces should be a multi-sense experience that let’s people reflect and raise new questions.
3. Co:creation is another principle of how HOY creates meaningfulness on an individual basis. All encrypted messages are a result of interacting with people. I lovetalking to others, learning about their reality and background. I am genuinely curious to know what occupies and drives the other person, what fuels their emotions and what makes them unique. Together we often come up with totally new messages that I design on their piece of choice. This process goes a step further than just experiencing but also finding a form to express yourself to the outer world.
Q: What is the potential of such a personal process?
Developing something FOR but also WITH someone is not the easiest, most scalable process. And sometimes it is a pain. It requires openness to the unknown, and trust between the people involved in the process. But the interaction is the most valuable ingredient to creating something that in the end carries a new meaning for the person who owns it. Changing our mindset and attitude is to me what “sustainable” really means - it is more profound and lasts longer than any short-term action.
Making each piece individually creates space for playing and randomness. Isn't this where innovation and joy is born?
Has it happened that people got emotional during the creation process?
Alexa: Oh yes! I have observed emotions both due to the uncommon process and the final product. And by that I mean the full range of emotions: joy, humor, sadness, anger, enlightenment, inspiration etc.
Unlike in many other shopping transactions, the final product is not always clear from the beginning. This uncertainty brings a spark and excitement but also requires openness and letting go of expectations. Once I paint on the clothing it will not come off. I can’t simply take a new piece that is exactly the same. Let me illustrate two examples:
Recently I was commissioned to design an outfit for a film director for her to wear at the premiere of her newest documentary. She wanted to feel powerful. But at that time, we did not know that this outfit would actually carry what she sees as a manifestation of “abundance”, which is a feeling that let’s her step into her power. We created a poem together, that was a direct analogy to what her documentary was about (Her film Co:creation is an experiment between 5 artists who jointly interpret “The garden of earthly delights” by Hieronymus Bosch). The result: all the struggle, deadlines, frustration and excitement she experienced during the film production were transformed into the outfit.
Apart from co-creation, emotions are also created once we resonate with an art piece, associate and find our own meaning.
One of the jackets says - “f*ck off” in HOY secret language of course (watch it here). At one of the exhibitions, I was approached by a lady who had just decoded the message and with sparkling eyes she said: “It might sound aggressive in the first place but this is just the encouragement I needed to not take things less personally at work and set my boundaries.”
Laura:
Alexa touches on a very important point here, when it comes to creating meaning: Our feelings and emotions are invaluable. So far, I have only spoken about the thoughts that let us make decisions. But thoughts are not the only fuel for motivation - emotions are too. Even if we want to think of ourselves as rational people that make decisions based on facts, often enough, we act based on our emotions and justify our behavior to ourselves afterwards.
When we feel strongly about something, good or bad, this adds meaning and shows us whether and how we should act. From that perspective, fashion and art play an important role, when it comes to sustainability, because they can make us feel emotions in a more nuanced way, as we just heard from Alexa’s examples. Fear and anxiety make us go into shock. Other emotions, such as guilt, frustration, but also pride and a dash of ‘f*ck off’, can feel invigorating and help us take action.
Alexa mentioned that we tend to blame ourselves, for not acting sustainably and carrying out our intentions. It does not help anyone or the environment to feel like that. What does help, is when we get the chance to do the right thing - if buying clothes makes us happy - I can assure you, buying the “right” piece of sustainable clothing, that has meaning for you, will make you feel good in the long term. Mostly, because this piece of clothing lets you experience the right choice, over and over again.
🧠 What was your best, sustainable experience or purchase that gave you a sense of meaningfulness?
Next article: Feb 16, 2023
In our next episode of Wearing Change we will discuss how community can help to connect the dots in sustainability & behavior and look at the role of offering solutions.
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