Visualizing seascapes as a method for engaging stakeholders in discussions about resilience

Coastal communities have complex bodies of knowledge around environmental change, resilience, and sustainability, which extractive forms of research are not well suited to understand. This paper outlines an arts-based action research pilot project to understand social-ecological resilience in the Western Indian Ocean. Our project used visual, artistic, and participatory approaches to foster co-learning and action research on: (1) the arts-based methods themselves and (2) resilience building in coastal communities and ecosystems. This paper focuses on the former elements. We present our inherently phenomenological approach as a research assemblage that can be used to bring together different communities and stakeholders, disciplines, epistemologies, and perspectives to understand our shared environment. Importantly, we propose that a multi-sensory, playful, and pragmatic concertina approach that draws on more than one arts-based method can create a crescendo effect that is more than the sum of its parts, creating an engaging environment for enduring and sustainable exploration of resilience among all members of the community.