Relationships Between Biological Diversity and Art: Exploring the Intersection

Dear Colleagues,

The relationship between biological diversity and art is as old as humanity itself. From the moment early humans began painting animals on cave walls, the living world has served as an endless source of inspiration, imagination, and meaning. The multiplicity of life forms—plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms—offers artists a vast palette of shapes, colors, textures, and patterns. Across cultures and centuries, artistic traditions have celebrated this diversity. Ancient civilizations depicted flora and fauna as symbols of fertility, power, and spirituality. In East Asian art, for instance, plants and animals often conveyed philosophical ideas about harmony between humans and nature. Since the Renaissance, and particularly in the 18th century, European artists and scientists collaborated to document species with remarkable precision, producing botanical and zoological illustrations that were both scientifically accurate and esthetically refined.

The relationship between biodiversity and art, however, extends beyond the ways in which nature nourishes artistic creativity. Art does not merely reflect biodiversity but also helps address complex environmental and social issues. Artists today often engage directly with environmental issues, using their work to draw attention on phenomena such as species extinction, habitat loss, climate change, biological invasions, or the economic use of species. The rise in ecological or environmental art has expanded the role of the artist from observer to participant in nature’s processes. Artistic approaches also play a crucial role in communicating biological diversity to the general public. Unlike purely scientific or technical methods, art has the unique capacity to translate complex information into forms that are emotionally engaging, visually compelling, and intellectually accessible. Design plays a key role in communicating diversity through art, as ideas about biological diversity can be translated into accessible, engaging, and meaningful visual languages, capable of connecting scientific knowledge with the public’s emotional and cultural experience. Furthermore, biodiversity has played a crucial role in industrial and commercial design throughout history, helping to spread recognition of species through coins, postage stamps, furniture, trademarks, and so on. In some cases, such as legal tender, they have reflected the historical identification of peoples with plants and animals, as a deeply rooted part of their idiosyncrasy.

In recent decades, contemporary art has further broadened this dialog through participatory and process-based practices. Forms of co-creation, collective making, and situated artistic research invite communities to become active agents in the exploration and care of biodiversity. Practices such as drifts or dérives, and methods based on deep listening or field performance, emphasize relational and affective dimensions, blurring the boundaries between art, science, and social practice, and transforming art into a shared act of attention and care. In addition, contemporary forms such as bio-art, eco-feminist and land-based practices, immersive installations, sound art, digital and data-driven art, and participatory design explore interspecies collaboration, ecological interdependence, and the ethics of care. Today, artists increasingly co-create with scientists, local communities, and even with non-human species, generating hybrid forms of knowledge that intertwine emotion, and collective memory.

This Special Issue aims to explore and contribute to this intersection between art and biological diversity, highlighting how creative practices can illuminate and interpret action around the richness and fragility of life on Earth.

Dr. Jordi López-Pujol
Dr. Aixa Ofelia Rivero-Guerra
Dr. Estrella Alfaro Saiz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• artistic expressions
• biodiversity conservation
• design
• ecocriticism
• illustration
• motifs
• symbology
• contemporary art