Culture Change: Creative Approaches and the Rights of Nature

A Theatre for the Anthropocene

In Germany and German-speaking countries, the Theatre of the Anthropocene, together with the Berlin-based RambaZamba Theater under the direction of Frank Raddatz, creates spaces for people to experience and discuss non-anthropocentric worldviews and human-nature relations. In plays such as Anwälte der Natur (engl. „Lawyers of Nature“) and arts-science collaborations such as at the Berlin Congress of Futures 2023, RoN and the position of humans in the Anthropocene are discussed across disciplines.

Theatre has a special role to play in the context of changing legal systems, both historically and in the present. As Frank Raddatz states:

"In terms of content, the stage is interwoven with the law and its historicity. But also formally, through aesthetic means to negotiate the procedural nature of law and thus its political, i.e. negotiable, dimension in front of an audience. Just as court hearings lend visibility to law, scenic processes lend visibility to the narratives of myths and dramatic originals" (quoted from: Kramm 2023; translation IH).

A similar approach is being pursued by the International Rights of Nature Tribunals. The tribunals serve to bring urgent Rights of Nature cases on stage in fact-based – though non-binding – court proceedings, thus performatively creating 'precedents' for what could be real hearings considering the Rights of Nature in the future.

The Rights of Nature

Our relationship with nature is severely disrupted. To sustainably protect people and the environment, we need new approaches – such as granting rights to nature. 

This article is part of the Rights of Nature dossier, which explores how this approach can be practically implemented and what opportunities it offers. ▶ Explore the Rights of Nature dossier.

Sound art & audio features

Radio provides a different kind of experiences: from interviews to book reviews and audio features, the public radio station Deutschlandradio, amongst others, recently produced several features around the Rights of Nature, now gathered on a dedicated homepage.

A worldview in which nature is not seen as 'adverse' and to be defeated or as a pool of resources to be exploited is fundamental to the idea of Rights of Nature. Rather, nature is humans' 'more-than-human', living 'co-world' (Mitwelt):

"As soon as we stop thinking of non-human beings as objects, that is, as soon as we grant them access to the collective in the form of new, not yet clearly defined entities that make us hesitate, tremble, perplexed, we can also easily grant them the label of actors",

stated French sociologist and philosopher Bruno Latour. German radio author Barbara Eisenmann brings together Latour and other thinkers on the Rights of Nature in her audio feature Another Earth, another Globe, invoked by another People, setting philosophical backgrounds to vibrant sound.

Acoustic means can literally give this ‚co-world‘ a voice:

"What would the rivers of the world tell us if they could speak to us? And how do they communicate with each other?"

In the six-part radio play series "Die Konferenz der Flüsse" ("The Conference of Rivers"), authors Frank Raddatz and Denise Reimann allow the rivers of the world to speak and discuss cultural and environmental history and the question of Rights of Nature. Demanding river rights, they ultimately proclaim the "aquacultural revolution".

Embassy of the North Sea

Such a gathering of water bodies has already taken place in Europe indeed: Organised by the Embassy of the North Sea, TBA21-Academy and the activists of Mar Menor, the Confluence of European Water Bodies brought together the concerns of 12 European waters and their representatives in 2023 in the Spanish province of Murcia – in close proximity to the Spanish salt lagoon Mar Menor, the first natural legal subject of Europe. The Confluence started 18 September 2023 with, amongst others, a Proclamation of European Waters to the people of Europe in the European Parliament. In 2024, another edition of the Confluence of European Water bodies took place in Venice with over 20 water bodies and their representatives.

The Dutch initiative Embassy of the North Sea calls for the recognition of the North Sea and other natural ecosystems as legal subjects, with diverse means at the intersection of artistic approaches, diplomatic representation and journalism. Their road map to 2030: listening to the North Sea, speaking for it and negotiating on its behalf.