Toward a Cognitive-Affective-Systemic Framework for Art and Sustainability

Abstract: This paper proposes a ognitive-Affective-Systemic (CAS) framework that integrates cognition, emotion, and systemic understanding to cultivate sustainability awareness through art. Drawing from eco-aesthetics, affect theory, complexity science, and posthuman ethics, the framework defines artistic practice as both epistemic and performative--a way of knowing through making and feeling. Central to this is logomotion, an aesthetic mode where comprehension and emotion move together as a unified experience. Two artworks, SPill, visualizing antimicrobial resistance through avalanche dynamics, and Echoes of the Land, modeling anthropogenic seismicity, demonstrate how systemic modeling and sensory immersion transform complex science into embodied ecological understanding. The framework offers a methodological foundation for artists, theorists, and activists to translate awareness into engagement, advancing collective creativity toward sustainable futures.