ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the farming practices of artists in Japan as a means of grappling with environmental and ecological issues. In the wake of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster of 11 March 2011, many people started to consider that ‘modern’, technologically advanced societies are incapable of managing breakdowns in complex technical systems. A case in point was the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown. Artists and creative practitioners thus started to imagine what life in the shadow of such disasters might look like and more importantly how one might find more sustainable ways of living that are not prone to such breakdowns. Specifically, this resulted in the artists transforming themselves into ‘natural’ and organic farmers. Based on ethnographic field research conducted since 2012, I describe this phenomenon as it unfolded in the countryside of the Niigata prefecture, driven by artists who took steps to live independent of energy systems by farming in a way that responds to collapsing ecosystems. I show that, in relation to both energy and ecosystems, their farming methods have a particular potential for exploring sustainable practices while also performing concrete reparative gestures.
