Politics of the sensitive and the economy of affects in the environmental crisis. Epistemological, aesthetic, and ethical issues

From an epistemological point of view, the role of sensitive experiences is crucial in facing the major challenges posed by the environmental crisis today, especially given the complexity and volume of scientific data and information. This article highlights that it is precisely through sensitive experiences that it becomes possible to create a collective dynamic that is unique from an ethical standpoint. We will argue that sensitive experience can construct attention to the common. In doing so, however, it is not prescriptive, but organized in a sensitive way. The identification of broader possibilities for action requires a combination of aesthetic experiences and scientific approaches, enabling new perceptual practices to emerge. With certain virtualization tools, based among other things on satellite images and digital simulations created on the basis of Earth observations, we can recover the sensitive part of our coexistence with the natural environment. Learning and developing them is crucial to improving our ability to act responsibly in our complex and globalized world. This is done in the knowledge that the depth of what is happening cannot be reduced to a form or a piece of data. It is up to us to engage with multiple and creative ways of understanding our world.

Eden Artech