Episode 1 with Glenn Albrecht: Welcome to the Symbiocene
We are very excited to present to you the first episode of the Symbiotopics podcast!
In this episode, Lena and Bonnie introduce you to the concept of the Symbiocene, together with the Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, who coined this term. Glenn is an honorary fellow in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney and he was Professor of Sustainability at Murdoch University. He is a pioneer in the research domain of psychoterratic or earth related mental health conditions caused by the experience of negative environmental change. He focuses in particular on the effects of climate change on the mental health of people and has introduced several concepts that have to do with changing situations around the climate and the human condition, one of which is the Symbiocene. In this podcast, Lena and Bonnie find out what exactly the Symbiocene entails. They call Glenn from the BioArt Laboratories studio in Eindhoven to his hometown in Australia.
Glenn describes the Symbiocene as “a period in the history of humanity on this Earth, [which] will be characterized by human intelligence and praxis that replicate the symbiotic and mutually reinforcing life-reproducing forms and processes found in living systems. This period of human existence will be a positive affirmation of life, and it offers the possibility of the complete re-integration of the human body, psyche and culture with the rest of life. The path to avoiding yet more solastalgia, and other negative psychoterratic Earth emotions that damage the psyche, must take us into the Symbiocene.”
Lena and Bonnie discuss the role of younger generations in the Symbiocene, trying to figure out what they can do to live more in harmony with our environment. This led to an interesting discussion of a worldview based on a secular spirituality, as Glenn has written about this in his book Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World, and we were curious about Glenn’s thoughts on this. Glenn is not a spiritual person in the religious sense, but as he explains “as I wander Wallaby Farm and other locations where I can get lost, I feel an affinity with the Earth and its own emotional gravity.” But perhaps the most urgent question that we had was, what can we ourselves, or listeners of this podcast, do to move towards the Symbiocene? Glenn explained that it has not been a simple, linear progression, for the path from negative to positive Earth emotions is puzzling and difficult. The main reason for this is the embeddedness of the Anthropocene, which has infiltrated every aspect of life in the early twenty-first century. Entering the Symbiocene is, amongst others, a challenge for human creativity. Of course we from BioArt laboratories support the role of art in the human-nature relation, so we asked Glenn his vision on what way art plays a role in the transition to a Symbiocene.
Listen to the Symbiotoptics podcast here! https://open.spotify.com/episode/2oHjy9ni3mItekzf8Jli8o
If you want to get a look at Glenn’s philosophical ideas, he runs a blog where he shares them, take a look at: https://glennaalbrecht.wordpress.com/
Photographer: Bob Beale