Co-Creation Beyond Humans: The Arts of Multispecies Placemaking

Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-7635

Article | Open Access

Co-Creation Beyond Humans: The Arts of Multispecies Placemaking


  • Cecilie Sachs Olsen Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway


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Abstract:  Placemaking, as a form of urban development often focusing on arts- and community-based approaches, is becoming a key site for responding to pressing social and environmental concerns around the development of sustainable urban futures. This article explores the potential of arts-based methods to develop a “multispecies placemaking” in which “the community” is expanded to also include non-human species. Drawing on a performative event aiming to put the idea of multispecies placemaking into practice, the article brings together theories and practices of the evolving field of multispecies art with the more established field of socially engaged art to discuss challenges of co-creation and participation from a multispecies perspective. It concludes with a reflection on the possibilities of arts-based methods to foster not only methodological innovation within the field of placemaking but also to suggest a re-thinking of what placemaking is and could be.

Keywords:  arts-based methods; co-creation; multispecies art; participation; placemaking; socially engaged art

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v7i3.5288


© Cecilie Sachs Olsen. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.