Age of the Anthropocene: A proposed geological epoch, named for humans’ significant impact on the Earth
Anthropogenic: The influence of human beings on nature
Country/Place: First Nations ancestral areas (including lands, waters, and sky) and all the values, places, resources, stories, and cultural obligations associated with that area and its features. More information on Acknowledgements of and Welcomes to Country can be found on the Reconciliation Australia website.
Curator: Someone who collects, exhibits, interprets, maintains, and protects artworks and objects of historical and aesthetic importance
Design: Innovative and creative planning for preferred futures taking into account impacts and effects on systems
Ecosystem: A biological community of interacting organisms and their environment
Elements of art: Conventions of visual arts composition and style, usually described as line, shape, colour, tone, texture, form, sound, light, and time
Environment: All living and non-living things in a particular place
Freezeframe: A still image created with bodies and facial expressions. Can be realistic or abstract.
Futures: Possibilities of what is to come and capacities for thinking and acting in ways to create equitable, sustainable, and inclusive possibilities. See also potential.
Futurist: Someone who studies the future and makes predictions based on current trends
Gallery: A space for storing and displaying art
Interpretive materials: Text and graphics intended to foster curiosity, provide guidance, and increase understanding. The Getty Centre offers guidelines for creating and organising interpretive materials.
Interspecies empathy: The capacity of one animal to experience the emotional feelings of another species
Museum: A space for storing and displaying objects of historical, scientific, artistic, and/or cultural interest
Passive architecture: Building design that carefully considers the natural conditions of the site and takes advantage of natural sources of heating and cooling through features like orientation, thermal mass, shading, ventilation, insulation, and glazing.
Pollution: The introduction of harmful materials into the environment
Potential: The likelihood of possible futures, often described as probable, plausible, possible, or preposterous.
Probable: Likely to happen based on current trends
Plausible: Less probable, but may still happen based on what we currently know
Possible: Not currently seen as probably or plausible, but with significant changes could still happen
Preposterous: Improbable, implausible, and/or currently impossible
Rewilding: Rebuilding natural ecosystems after major human disturbances, with a focus on replacing human interventions with natural processes.
Socio-environmental: Interactions and relationships between humans, society, and the environment in which we live
Sustainability concepts: Organising ideas that help us to learn about, engage with, and act towards sustainable futures. The four sustainability concepts described in the Australian Curriculum are systems, world views, design, and futures
Sustainable practices: Actions that support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality
Systems: Interdependent and dynamic networks of beings, places, and things that support all life on Earth and our collective wellbeing
World views: Individual and community ideas about how the world works and our role therein