Earth Day, regeneration and arts-Sci-tech

EVERY WAY WE TURN, we appear to be at a turning point.

The challenge of climate crisis and the promise of technological breakthroughs make this the pivotal moment of human history to accelerate our regenerative evolution and to do so in a way that makes us more human and more humane. How can we seize this moment? We can begin by galvanizing the power of arts-sci-tech to inspire and transform humankind into a regenerative species.

Fundamentally, regeneration is a process of resilience, adaptation and recovery. Humanitarian regeneration means becoming more genuine, generous and generative, aligned with our built and natural environments. It connotes renewal, restoration, re-creation, repair and reparation—just what our species, society and planet needs! This year, people across the globe celebrate the 50th annual Earth Day, the largest civic observance in the world, mobilizing more than a billion participants and 75,000 partners in over 190 countries. While 22 April marks Earth Day, the planet doesn't identify one particular calendar date to focus on its survival and well-being. As long as we inhabit this planet, and as long as we need and want it to support human life, every day is Earth Day. Leonardo has long recognized the compelling connection between ecologies of Earth and art. Over the last 15 years alone, Leonardo has published nearly 40 scholarly articles and artworks on eco-art, environmental art and the art and science of climate crisis.

Complex challenges and probing questions require complex strategies and nuanced answers. This is where Leonardo comes in. Leonardo embodies and emboldens the complexity of hybrid, transdisciplinary, collaborative and creative inquiry and practice. This is exactly the kind of work we need to help us navigate our world, our communities, and our own lives. Leonardo's boundary-crossing fusion of arts-sci-tech fuels a new way of knowing, being and seeing; this requires imagination and it inspires regenerative transformation.

Our community of thought leaders and practitioners ask the unasked questions, provoke and prompt new responses and illuminate insights through arts-sci-tech. Leonardo contributors invite and incite imagination to help us see the change we want to be. In this issue alone, Leonardo contributors reveal new ways to view diverse issues from nano-optical image-making (A. Kaminska), raw data transmediation (E. Pena, K. James) and bio-art (J. Shin, J. Yoon), to critical neuroart (D. Gruber), interactive and multisensory interfaces (P. Nikolic and A. Cheok) and urban media art (L. Park, M. Benayoun). Sheila Pinkel's memoir in the special section Pioneers and Pathbreakers sheds light on early phenomenological light works, while Julia Christensen presents experimental psychology and neuroscience perspectives on "war on the arts."

I'm inspired by this interconnectedness. It seems somehow essential to our regenerative evolution as a species, a society, a planet. I'm inspired by the sparks of genius and irrepressible curiosity flaring across the Leonardo/ISAST community, our collaborative colleagues and those quiet-but-increasingly-vocal corners where creative voices are just beginning to find channels of expression. We're listening. I'm inspired by the resiliency and majesty of nature, the urgency of living through pivotal times, and the power of arts-sci-tech to illuminate, create and excavate pathways to become more human and more humane.