Body, nature and multispecies: a deep ecology perspective on sensory experience in injured natural landscapes

Abstract

This article explores how direct experience in natural landscapes reconfigures self-perception and activates a deep reconnection with the living world. It seeks to analyze how these lived connections enable us to disrupt insensitivity in the face of the ecological crisis and foster an embodied ecological consciousness. To this end, we adopt a qualitative, theoretical-phenomenological methodology, combining a literature review with lived field narratives in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais – a territory affected by an ecocide. In light of deep ecology, the phenomenology of the body, and multispecies assemblages, we examine how direct contact with these environments fosters identification, somatic learning, and interspecies responsibility. The results indicate that a sensitive perception of the environment inspires ethical-political actions in defence of the planet. In conclusion, an ecosophical education grounded in bodily experience and art constitutes a key transformative path for rebuilding our relationship with nature through an active and committed sensitivity.