Stephen Galloway Whitehead
Everything we do is our culture and its becomes habit, it becomes who we are; it is so habituated that we
no longer see it as a choice to continue an environmentally non-sustainable culture, we get stuck.
Information alone does not give the agency to change behaviours, it gives awareness and can at best give
attitudinal change; socially engaged art is a cultural agent to make behavioural change possible. it creates
belief that you can effect change. This agency comes from participating in collective creative practice. Art
becomes a philosophical tool/ a field philosophy, where you become what you practise. You can be
supported, co-create and become more empathic ,which dissolves the separation between self and nature .
This guides my work as an artist and as I no longer separate my creative expression from collaboration
with activists, scientists, artists and communities, I work as the not for profit organisation- Countershade
community interest company.