It was really interesting to see that the author believes that citizens should also be held responsible for a companies actions. By holding the citizens responsible, they will take action and demand laws be made. Since companies are in the business to make money and are not “charities” then they will be less incline to do anything that is ethically correct. I would prefer to see both happen. Where as citizens should stand up for their rights and demand the law be changed toward companies, I believe that companies should start taking care of the environment because they see it as good business. It might be time that we start demanding business students and engineering students to take ethics and moral classes so that they too stop creating things that destroy the planet. Engineering students especially scare me because they have the ability to create things that could destroy the planet or make it better with in a matter of years. Also, what about the science schools with in University of Michigan? While art and design school students rally to dispute how animals are being tortured, science students with in the University are conducting cruel experiments on animals that are closed off from the viewing public. All these business, engineering, science and many other students could take a lesson on doing the right thing for the planet. Until then, the art and design students will just be the civilians rallying at the government for better policy. At the end of chapter one it was interesting to hear the different view points of the citizens of Montana. I hardly ever hear the view points of a pro-logger because so many people want to see a state filled with trees. The point of the pro-logging did make some interesting points but at the same time, I am filled with doubt about the interests of the pro-logger. Where as I can understand the need to log trees to keep a forest from burning too much, I can’t help but think that the logging company only has logging in mind and not environmental thinking. So I can understand the skepticism citizens have towards loggers. The chapter about the Easter Island was interesting at times. I did not know that the citizens where almost wiped out because of ecological changes and from cutting down all the trees. I wondered why the Easter Island inhabitants didn’t die off completely where as the Henderson Island did. Also, it was odd to see how those islands all resulted in cannibalism because the environment took a turn for the worse or because they used up all their resources.
Joel Sternfeld seems to be very prolific in his work just from looking at the links from the view websites that were posted above which, is why it surprises me that there is not that much information of works of art on Joel Sternfeld's website. His work seems to focus around resources and overall, how humanity interacts with the world. It shows now there is so much that the natural world supplies and needs to supply for humans and the way we take advantage of this for the most part. It is ashame that there seems to be an in-balance between what the world supplies for us and what we supply for the world but, at the same time there is not much that we can do about this really. The world gives us so much because we need to much and as we are evolving in our intelligence which, is increasing the technowledgy in the world our population is increasing and slowly more and more overpowering nature and we are using up more and more of our natural resources which, is why this is hard to help because its simply just a matter of the fact that our supply is increasing-therefore the demand is. It is amazing to me that we have gotten this far with the support of nature and now we seem to slowly be leaning away from respecting nature to more so now just taking advantage of it. There are so many efforts put worth to raise the awareness of this issue but, it still seems like there is not much change being done or much effect to this raising of awareness. Which, relates to the Jensen article we read a few weeks ago about how we have so much "hope" but, ultimately all the hoping is inefective overall.-brynn kurlan
The one line that struck me most in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond read, On the one hand, I have been a bird-watcher since I was seven years old. I trained professionally as a biologist, and I have been doing research on New Guinea rainforest birds for the past 40 years… For the past dozen years I’ve been a director of the U.S. affiliate of World Wildlife Fund, one of the largest international environmentalist organizations and the one with the most cosmopolitan interests. All of those things have earned my criticism from non-environmentalists, who use phrases such as “fearmonger,” “Diamond preaches gloom and doom,” “exaggerates risks,” and “favors endangered purple louseworts over the needs of people.” But while I do love New Guinea birds, I love much more my sons, my wife, my friends, New Guineans, and other people. I’m more interested in environmental issues because of what I see as their consequences for people than because of their consequences for birds. (15-16) Reading this was absolutely a breath of fresh air; it was so nice to see that there can be a happy medium between environmentalist and businessperson, and that passion and rationality are not mutually exclusive. He brings light to the notion that though often big businesses will cause a devastating amount of environmental damage, they are also capable of the opposite. As such large entities in our economy, politics, etc. it is also important to see the other side and give credit where credit is due. Large companies and corporations have the responsibility of quite a bit of influence, and many use it for good, especially when it comes to environmental policy and green practices. I really enjoy Diamond’s tone and sensibility in his book and believe that it is the most successful way to write something that could be seen as controversial. He simply states the facts that it is often human-inflicted damage to the environment that causes these collapses to happen and offers the suggested implications. He asks of the reader, “How could a society that was once so mighty end up collapsing?... Might such a fate eventually befall our own wealthy society?” (3) But though the truth in that is blindingly clear, Diamond remains non-preachy.
In this week’s reading response, I primarily focused on the text about Montana in the first chapter. I had never given it much thought to what becomes of the space where a mining facility once was in business. Somebody has to clean it up, but whose responsibility is that? I was also not aware that these mining companies actually find ways to leave their mess behind without really having to clean it up themselves. Today, according to the author, new mining companies looking to open up in the United States are required to have a mining bond. This bond is supposed to be used for cleaning up the mining facility in cases where the company loses business or goes bankrupt, etc. However, sometimes this bond isn’t enough. Or sometimes these companies even try to reduce how much money is spent on cleaning. I found this to be selfish; selfish not only to the environment, but also to other people in general. I mean, who else is going to clean up? After all, it was the mining company that made the mess in the first place. On the other hand, the public doesn’t seem to be doing all they can to help out either. We are all sharing this planet, and the public is using the materials being mined, so why shouldn’t the public be helping to pay for the cleaning as well? Of course, several people would be opposed to paying higher taxes, even if the money was going towards helping a mining company clean up. I am also sure that there is some other way, besides raising taxes that could get the public involved. As much as I feel it is the mining companies’ responsibility, I also feel that it is not their full responsibility.
I think that the fact that all of Joel Sternfeld's photos linked to at the top of the page share the same subject is interesting: abandoned railroad tracks… In some of the photos the tracks remain; in others the tracks are gone and only the right of way remains. Some seem to be urban lines. Others run along rivers or lakes. Some are abandoned sidings and bridges. All reflect an industrial America that is gone, a working and not a rust belt America where trains hauled raw materials to blast furnaces which turned out the iron and steel that in turn built the skyscrapers and infrastructure of a nation. Where others see weeds, I see and imagine a past where men moved goods and farm products across a nation. My great great grandfather spent his lifetime working on steam locomotives for the New York Central Railroad. He was very proud to have been a railroader in the age of steam. I grew up next to the tracks that run from Detroit through Ann Arbor and west to Chicago. Just north of my house in Chelsea is the abandoned interurban right of way for a late 19th century line that was never built and then next to that is the main line and a siding. Since I grew up loving trains, I thought it was neat to live next to the tracks. Nature has retaken that right of way and today it's the home to woodchucks, squirrels, chipmunks, and the occasional wandering deer. Along the tracks the trees and various foliage provide homes to various birds, ranging from blue jays, cardinals, and even owls. There are cherry trees with abundant fruit in late June and there are lots of rocks to look at and think about hauling home. All in all it's a marvelous place and it doesn't feel abandoned at all.
The artist whose work is attached to this blog reminds me of Cole and the other artists we examined in class dating back to the Hudson River School. These artists painted pictures depicting the Manifest Destiny that was an important idea and feeling in the American public at the time. These photographs by Joel Sternfeld seem to depict a similar expansionist dream and an appreciation for our agricultural roots, as seen with the NASA airplane and space shuttle. There is a hint of sarcasm it seems in some of his work, as depicted with the burning house and the hundreds of yards of coal, which depict the negative side of our growth and consumption as a nation. His work is very interesting, as I cannot tell if he is trying to show the American individual when he shows people staring at the camera without any emotion, or if he is trying to get at how these American dreams we have may not truly make us happy. The Hudson River School showed a love of nature, even depicting the lives of Native Americans. They never showed any towns in the expansionist west. I’m sure the government would not have accepted any depictions of poverty or ghost towns in the newly settled Western US, much in the same way they rejected Catlin’s work showing Native Americans as humans and individuals deserving their land.
Jared Diamond’s book contains an interesting perspective on the collapse of cities and civilizations. Looking back, it is difficult to conjecture what the main cause of their downfall was, and it seems like we are stabbing at the dark. Such a revelation would be important, as we could look to our own societies and make sure we do not follow the same path. Would we make changes if we could draw comparisons between past civilizations that have failed? I think people would chalk it up as more conspiracy even if they do believe it is true, just so it won’t inconvenience their current life, the same thing that people do when discussing climate change.
When looking at Joel Sternfeld pictures this week, I really enjoyed the ones that were posted on highline. There were a few in particular that really moved me. The pictures which incorporated train tracks as well as a mixture of city life and plants were really quite interesting. I love the contradiction of the two things together. The mixture of both nature and man-made buildings together really interest me. I think I even talked about it a little bit in my first plant paper. These pictures really seem to show nature taking over in a way that is quite intriguing. These pictures remind me a lot of some pictures I have seen of Detroit Central Station. When you get towards the top of the train station, there is a floor in which has been taken over by grass. I think the fact that nature seems to be able to take over man made places is amazing. It takes tons of up-keep to keep a building together, but all nature needs is a little moisture and it will flourish. Another building that I have heard of, but have never seen in person is the Detroit Book Depository. The building housed books for many of the public schools in Detroit. A few years ago there was a fire in the building. The Detroit fire department soaked the building and then left it to the owners to fix it back up. Since Detroit is so poor, they could afford to fix it back up. The building has been slowly rotting away over the past few years. When you go into the building now you can see where trees are coming up from inside the books. By adding a little moisture to the building, grass, and nature was able to flourish all over the inside of the building. Joel Sternfelds work on the train tracks really reminds me of quite a bit of work that I have seen come out of Detroit, especially during the last 20, 30 years while it has been rotting away.
In this week’s reading of Collapse, a passage I responded to because of my upbringing and the way I view nature was his friend’s account of the effectiveness of fly-fishing to reducing stress in his life. This was an interesting way to begin the chapter Under Montana’s Big Sky because it showed the need for having nature as a retreat in our modern world. This was a subtle way for introducing the reader to idea’s about practices in Montana that are destructive for the state’s ecology. By breaking the topic down into several very approachable parts his tone comes through as both concerned and caring about the subject. It is also easy for the audience to connect with the anecdotes he includes. Unlike Lasn he does not talk down or scold the reader and his approach to educating about ecology is also easier to relate to than the Sand County Almanac because it uses more contemporary examples. Although the quantity of writing was overwhelming, the examples he used in the introductory chapter were effective in illustrating what was to come in the following parts of the book. The collapses both past and present made the issues in terms of ecology more meaningful and also put the next chapters in context to his ideas. I also appreciated his quote from a New Guinea hunter, “If one day I succeed in shooting a big pigeon in one direction from our village, I wait a week before hunting pigeons again, and then I go out in the opposite direction from the village.” His use of a variety of sources and materials is extremely beneficial in supporting his argument.
I found today’s lecture quite interesting, knowing that artists play a large role in the government’s propaganda. To be honest I am not surprised that they do because growing up I knew a little about politics because my late grandfather used to support a democratic party back in Indonesia, and so my parents are aware of what each party is doing to make their candidates seem that much more special. For instance my parents had once told me of our previous president Soeharto who took hundreds of millions of dollars from the government bank that sent the country into a recession. The value of a dollar rose astronomically and businesses had to close because of bankruptcy and its inability to support themselves. Yet in the history books you see Soeharto only with pictures of helping the poor and shaking their hands. It was close to being disgusting to me. I am sure that we are not the only country who had to deal with such propaganda. Now that I think about it, if I am not mistaken, the Nazi used propaganda to brainwash young kids thinking that Jews are the devil and they are out there to kill them. As artists I feel like we have a lot of responsibility when it comes to propaganda, especially if it is something that we do not believe in. I was glad to know that good can also come from being talented as artists. For example, during our discussion during lecture about Thomas Martin who used his photography skills to ensure the safety of Yellowstone National Park. It’s good to see that art has a big influence on good and bad of propaganda.
Thinking about how an entire society can fail and collapse is really interesting. so many people are involved in a civilization, that it seems almost impossible for everyone within it to fall victim to the collapse. Also, the fact that Diamond brings up climate change as a factor of the collapse of past civilizations is a bit troubling, especially since the topic of climate change has been in the news for the past few years...
I was really intrigued by the fact that the author resided in Montana for some time. Ask any of my friends and they will tell you that I have been wanting to visit Montana for a long time. I have had this vision of Montana being a desolate expanse of nature, hardly touched by civilization, nature being in its purest form. I have wanted to drive out to Montana and just take in the scenery; the mountains and the wildlife. And so reading about the environmental problems plaguing Montana today really shocked me and saddened me. But as I think about it, it does make sense. I know that mining wreaks havoc on the environment, mostly through the production of acid mine drainage. Typically, I associate environmental problems with large cities with all the pollution from factories and cars.
Joel Sternfeld's photography is impressive in that it captures the beauty of nature in a setting that once trampled over nature in order to advance mankind through technology. The imagery of nature thriving on abandoned railroads reminded me of post apocalyptic films that depict the state of our cities once humans have met their downfall through whatever reason. This speaks of the power of nature and nicely accompanies the title of this semester's ADP- technology and the environment. What Sternfeld's photographs reveal to me is that nature is always at work, even when we are moving too hastily and narrow-mindedly to notice it.
On the other hand, we are also destructing the environment around us more quickly than we think we are. As Amy mentioned, Montana's environmental issues shocked me as well. There are certain stereotypes we associate with specific locations, and Diamond really brought back to focus the issue of overlooking environmental problems that we frequently miss precisely because of stereotypes and our lack of worry due to these stereotypes. Although nature is constantly repairing itself, the damage we cause to the environment takes place more quickly than nature's restoration process.
This week, Joel Sternfeld’s Gallery entitled, The High Line, particularly impressed me. Although the title suggests that the focus of the photos had to do with the railroad tracks that these pictures were taken of, I could see a much deeper meaning. Specifically, I found the summer photos of the railway locations be the most interesting. The photos show green trails where the railway leads and the surrounding city closing in on that area. The harsh contrast between the grassy railway and the industrial buildings surrounding it are more that enough to get the viewer to consider what Sternfeld is trying to suggest. In my opinion, I am seeing a message saying that we as a society are slowly devouring the natural green settings that exist. The railways’ tracks are currently encased by greenery but the surrounding city may continue to collapse on it and before we know it, even this minor path of nature may too be gone. I also enjoyed the use of perspective in these photos that give the railways the effect of dropping off. This effect also gives the viewer an idea of how we are losing a green and natural area to an industrialized world and how it seems to drop off as we approach an even more technology based and industrialized world. My question is whether or not people appreciate this green space in the middle of such harsh industry or if it just goes unnoticed. I believe that to take back our green space, we need to appreciate the spaces that we have, before they too are lost and take a stand. We all need a little nature in our lives.
The high line images remind me of how Detroit looks now. There's many places in Detroit especially on the east side of town, where you can go and experience nature right in the middle of Chaos. Of course Detroit has took a turn for the worst in the past few years, but that doesn't take away the modernized look that can serve as an image taken 50 years ago as well. Detroit has great scenery for those that are looking forward to capturing the play on a society in terms of how the scenery interacts with the viewers.
Also the shots are taken very well, with the inclusion of all three grounds. They have an intense vibe to them, that would cause you to stare at the pictures for a while. I think the photographer does a great job interacting nature and technology within the photos.
In regards to artists being great at displaying propaganda, and communicating the right ideas, it shows how much of an importance an artist really is. Artists have a natural ability to portray themselves as seeing and understanding things visually, so they are probably the best at conveying the messages of others as well.
It was really interesting to see that the author believes that citizens should also be held responsible for a companies actions. By holding the citizens responsible, they will take action and demand laws be made. Since companies are in the business to make money and are not “charities” then they will be less incline to do anything that is ethically correct. I would prefer to see both happen. Where as citizens should stand up for their rights and demand the law be changed toward companies, I believe that companies should start taking care of the environment because they see it as good business. It might be time that we start demanding business students and engineering students to take ethics and moral classes so that they too stop creating things that destroy the planet. Engineering students especially scare me because they have the ability to create things that could destroy the planet or make it better with in a matter of years. Also, what about the science schools with in University of Michigan? While art and design school students rally to dispute how animals are being tortured, science students with in the University are conducting cruel experiments on animals that are closed off from the viewing public. All these business, engineering, science and many other students could take a lesson on doing the right thing for the planet. Until then, the art and design students will just be the civilians rallying at the government for better policy.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of chapter one it was interesting to hear the different view points of the citizens of Montana. I hardly ever hear the view points of a pro-logger because so many people want to see a state filled with trees. The point of the pro-logging did make some interesting points but at the same time, I am filled with doubt about the interests of the pro-logger. Where as I can understand the need to log trees to keep a forest from burning too much, I can’t help but think that the logging company only has logging in mind and not environmental thinking. So I can understand the skepticism citizens have towards loggers.
The chapter about the Easter Island was interesting at times. I did not know that the citizens where almost wiped out because of ecological changes and from cutting down all the trees. I wondered why the Easter Island inhabitants didn’t die off completely where as the Henderson Island did. Also, it was odd to see how those islands all resulted in cannibalism because the environment took a turn for the worse or because they used up all their resources.
Joel Sternfeld seems to be very prolific in his work just from looking at the links from the view websites that were posted above which, is why it surprises me that there is not that much information of works of art on Joel Sternfeld's website. His work seems to focus around resources and overall, how humanity interacts with the world. It shows now there is so much that the natural world supplies and needs to supply for humans and the way we take advantage of this for the most part.
ReplyDeleteIt is ashame that there seems to be an in-balance between what the world supplies for us and what we supply for the world but, at the same time there is not much that we can do about this really.
The world gives us so much because we need to much and as we are evolving in our intelligence which, is increasing the technowledgy in the world our population is increasing and slowly more and more overpowering nature and we are using up more and more of our natural resources which, is why this is hard to help because its simply just a matter of the fact that our supply is increasing-therefore the demand is. It is amazing to me that we have gotten this far with the support of nature and now we seem to slowly be leaning away from respecting nature to more so now just taking advantage of it.
There are so many efforts put worth to raise the awareness of this issue but, it still seems like there is not much change being done or much effect to this raising of awareness. Which, relates to the Jensen article we read a few weeks ago about how we have so much "hope" but, ultimately all the hoping is inefective overall.-brynn kurlan
The one line that struck me most in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond read,
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, I have been a bird-watcher since I was seven years old. I trained professionally as a biologist, and I have been doing research on New Guinea rainforest birds for the past 40 years… For the past dozen years I’ve been a director of the U.S. affiliate of World Wildlife Fund, one of the largest international environmentalist organizations and the one with the most cosmopolitan interests. All of those things have earned my criticism from non-environmentalists, who use phrases such as “fearmonger,” “Diamond preaches gloom and doom,” “exaggerates risks,” and “favors endangered purple louseworts over the needs of people.” But while I do love New Guinea birds, I love much more my sons, my wife, my friends, New Guineans, and other people. I’m more interested in environmental issues because of what I see as their consequences for people than because of their consequences for birds. (15-16)
Reading this was absolutely a breath of fresh air; it was so nice to see that there can be a happy medium between environmentalist and businessperson, and that passion and rationality are not mutually exclusive. He brings light to the notion that though often big businesses will cause a devastating amount of environmental damage, they are also capable of the opposite. As such large entities in our economy, politics, etc. it is also important to see the other side and give credit where credit is due. Large companies and corporations have the responsibility of quite a bit of influence, and many use it for good, especially when it comes to environmental policy and green practices.
I really enjoy Diamond’s tone and sensibility in his book and believe that it is the most successful way to write something that could be seen as controversial. He simply states the facts that it is often human-inflicted damage to the environment that causes these collapses to happen and offers the suggested implications. He asks of the reader, “How could a society that was once so mighty end up collapsing?... Might such a fate eventually befall our own wealthy society?” (3) But though the truth in that is blindingly clear, Diamond remains non-preachy.
In this week’s reading response, I primarily focused on the text about Montana in the first chapter. I had never given it much thought to what becomes of the space where a mining facility once was in business. Somebody has to clean it up, but whose responsibility is that? I was also not aware that these mining companies actually find ways to leave their mess behind without really having to clean it up themselves. Today, according to the author, new mining companies looking to open up in the United States are required to have a mining bond. This bond is supposed to be used for cleaning up the mining facility in cases where the company loses business or goes bankrupt, etc. However, sometimes this bond isn’t enough. Or sometimes these companies even try to reduce how much money is spent on cleaning. I found this to be selfish; selfish not only to the environment, but also to other people in general. I mean, who else is going to clean up? After all, it was the mining company that made the mess in the first place.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the public doesn’t seem to be doing all they can to help out either. We are all sharing this planet, and the public is using the materials being mined, so why shouldn’t the public be helping to pay for the cleaning as well? Of course, several people would be opposed to paying higher taxes, even if the money was going towards helping a mining company clean up. I am also sure that there is some other way, besides raising taxes that could get the public involved. As much as I feel it is the mining companies’ responsibility, I also feel that it is not their full responsibility.
I think that the fact that all of Joel Sternfeld's photos linked to at the top of the page share the same subject is interesting: abandoned railroad tracks… In some of the photos the tracks remain; in others the tracks are gone and only the right of way remains. Some seem to be urban lines. Others run along rivers or lakes. Some are abandoned sidings and bridges. All reflect an industrial America that is gone, a working and not a rust belt America where trains hauled raw materials to blast furnaces which turned out the iron and steel that in turn built the skyscrapers and infrastructure of a nation. Where others see weeds, I see and imagine a past where men moved goods and farm products across a nation. My great great grandfather spent his lifetime working on steam locomotives for the New York Central Railroad. He was very proud to have been a railroader in the age of steam. I grew up next to the tracks that run from Detroit through Ann Arbor and west to Chicago. Just north of my house in Chelsea is the abandoned interurban right of way for a late 19th century line that was never built and then next to that is the main line and a siding.
ReplyDeleteSince I grew up loving trains, I thought it was neat to live next to the tracks. Nature has retaken that right of way and today it's the home to woodchucks, squirrels, chipmunks, and the occasional wandering deer. Along the tracks the trees and various foliage provide homes to various birds, ranging from blue jays, cardinals, and even owls. There are cherry trees with abundant fruit in late June and there are lots of rocks to look at and think about hauling home. All in all it's a marvelous place and it doesn't feel abandoned at all.
The artist whose work is attached to this blog reminds me of Cole and the other artists we examined in class dating back to the Hudson River School. These artists painted pictures depicting the Manifest Destiny that was an important idea and feeling in the American public at the time. These photographs by Joel Sternfeld seem to depict a similar expansionist dream and an appreciation for our agricultural roots, as seen with the NASA airplane and space shuttle. There is a hint of sarcasm it seems in some of his work, as depicted with the burning house and the hundreds of yards of coal, which depict the negative side of our growth and consumption as a nation. His work is very interesting, as I cannot tell if he is trying to show the American individual when he shows people staring at the camera without any emotion, or if he is trying to get at how these American dreams we have may not truly make us happy. The Hudson River School showed a love of nature, even depicting the lives of Native Americans. They never showed any towns in the expansionist west. I’m sure the government would not have accepted any depictions of poverty or ghost towns in the newly settled Western US, much in the same way they rejected Catlin’s work showing Native Americans as humans and individuals deserving their land.
ReplyDeleteJared Diamond’s book contains an interesting perspective on the collapse of cities and civilizations. Looking back, it is difficult to conjecture what the main cause of their downfall was, and it seems like we are stabbing at the dark. Such a revelation would be important, as we could look to our own societies and make sure we do not follow the same path. Would we make changes if we could draw comparisons between past civilizations that have failed? I think people would chalk it up as more conspiracy even if they do believe it is true, just so it won’t inconvenience their current life, the same thing that people do when discussing climate change.
ADP weekly statement
ReplyDeleteNovember 22, 2010
When looking at Joel Sternfeld pictures this week, I really enjoyed the ones that were posted on highline. There were a few in particular that really moved me. The pictures which incorporated train tracks as well as a mixture of city life and plants were really quite interesting. I love the contradiction of the two things together. The mixture of both nature and man-made buildings together really interest me. I think I even talked about it a little bit in my first plant paper.
These pictures really seem to show nature taking over in a way that is quite intriguing. These pictures remind me a lot of some pictures I have seen of Detroit Central Station. When you get towards the top of the train station, there is a floor in which has been taken over by grass. I think the fact that nature seems to be able to take over man made places is amazing. It takes tons of up-keep to keep a building together, but all nature needs is a little moisture and it will flourish.
Another building that I have heard of, but have never seen in person is the Detroit Book Depository. The building housed books for many of the public schools in Detroit. A few years ago there was a fire in the building. The Detroit fire department soaked the building and then left it to the owners to fix it back up. Since Detroit is so poor, they could afford to fix it back up. The building has been slowly rotting away over the past few years. When you go into the building now you can see where trees are coming up from inside the books. By adding a little moisture to the building, grass, and nature was able to flourish all over the inside of the building.
Joel Sternfelds work on the train tracks really reminds me of quite a bit of work that I have seen come out of Detroit, especially during the last 20, 30 years while it has been rotting away.
In this week’s reading of Collapse, a passage I responded to because of my upbringing and the way I view nature was his friend’s account of the effectiveness of fly-fishing to reducing stress in his life. This was an interesting way to begin the chapter Under Montana’s Big Sky because it showed the need for having nature as a retreat in our modern world. This was a subtle way for introducing the reader to idea’s about practices in Montana that are destructive for the state’s ecology. By breaking the topic down into several very approachable parts his tone comes through as both concerned and caring about the subject. It is also easy for the audience to connect with the anecdotes he includes. Unlike Lasn he does not talk down or scold the reader and his approach to educating about ecology is also easier to relate to than the Sand County Almanac because it uses more contemporary examples.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the quantity of writing was overwhelming, the examples he used in the introductory chapter were effective in illustrating what was to come in the following parts of the book. The collapses both past and present made the issues in terms of ecology more meaningful and also put the next chapters in context to his ideas. I also appreciated his quote from a New Guinea hunter, “If one day I succeed in shooting a big pigeon in one direction from our village, I wait a week before hunting pigeons again, and then I go out in the opposite direction from the village.” His use of a variety of sources and materials is extremely beneficial in supporting his argument.
I found today’s lecture quite interesting, knowing that artists play a large role in the government’s propaganda. To be honest I am not surprised that they do because growing up I knew a little about politics because my late grandfather used to support a democratic party back in Indonesia, and so my parents are aware of what each party is doing to make their candidates seem that much more special. For instance my parents had once told me of our previous president Soeharto who took hundreds of millions of dollars from the government bank that sent the country into a recession. The value of a dollar rose astronomically and businesses had to close because of bankruptcy and its inability to support themselves. Yet in the history books you see Soeharto only with pictures of helping the poor and shaking their hands. It was close to being disgusting to me.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that we are not the only country who had to deal with such propaganda. Now that I think about it, if I am not mistaken, the Nazi used propaganda to brainwash young kids thinking that Jews are the devil and they are out there to kill them. As artists I feel like we have a lot of responsibility when it comes to propaganda, especially if it is something that we do not believe in. I was glad to know that good can also come from being talented as artists. For example, during our discussion during lecture about Thomas Martin who used his photography skills to ensure the safety of Yellowstone National Park. It’s good to see that art has a big influence on good and bad of propaganda.
Thinking about how an entire society can fail and collapse is really interesting. so many people are involved in a civilization, that it seems almost impossible for everyone within it to fall victim to the collapse. Also, the fact that Diamond brings up climate change as a factor of the collapse of past civilizations is a bit troubling, especially since the topic of climate change has been in the news for the past few years...
ReplyDeleteI was really intrigued by the fact that the author resided in Montana for some time. Ask any of my friends and they will tell you that I have been wanting to visit Montana for a long time. I have had this vision of Montana being a desolate expanse of nature, hardly touched by civilization, nature being in its purest form. I have wanted to drive out to Montana and just take in the scenery; the mountains and the wildlife. And so reading about the environmental problems plaguing Montana today really shocked me and saddened me. But as I think about it, it does make sense. I know that mining wreaks havoc on the environment, mostly through the production of acid mine drainage. Typically, I associate environmental problems with large cities with all the pollution from factories and cars.
Joel Sternfeld's photography is impressive in that it captures the beauty of nature in a setting that once trampled over nature in order to advance mankind through technology. The imagery of nature thriving on abandoned railroads reminded me of post apocalyptic films that depict the state of our cities once humans have met their downfall through whatever reason. This speaks of the power of nature and nicely accompanies the title of this semester's ADP- technology and the environment. What Sternfeld's photographs reveal to me is that nature is always at work, even when we are moving too hastily and narrow-mindedly to notice it.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, we are also destructing the environment around us more quickly than we think we are. As Amy mentioned, Montana's environmental issues shocked me as well. There are certain stereotypes we associate with specific locations, and Diamond really brought back to focus the issue of overlooking environmental problems that we frequently miss precisely because of stereotypes and our lack of worry due to these stereotypes. Although nature is constantly repairing itself, the damage we cause to the environment takes place more quickly than nature's restoration process.
This week, Joel Sternfeld’s Gallery entitled, The High Line, particularly impressed me. Although the title suggests that the focus of the photos had to do with the railroad tracks that these pictures were taken of, I could see a much deeper meaning. Specifically, I found the summer photos of the railway locations be the most interesting. The photos show green trails where the railway leads and the surrounding city closing in on that area. The harsh contrast between the grassy railway and the industrial buildings surrounding it are more that enough to get the viewer to consider what Sternfeld is trying to suggest. In my opinion, I am seeing a message saying that we as a society are slowly devouring the natural green settings that exist. The railways’ tracks are currently encased by greenery but the surrounding city may continue to collapse on it and before we know it, even this minor path of nature may too be gone. I also enjoyed the use of perspective in these photos that give the railways the effect of dropping off. This effect also gives the viewer an idea of how we are losing a green and natural area to an industrialized world and how it seems to drop off as we approach an even more technology based and industrialized world. My question is whether or not people appreciate this green space in the middle of such harsh industry or if it just goes unnoticed. I believe that to take back our green space, we need to appreciate the spaces that we have, before they too are lost and take a stand. We all need a little nature in our lives.
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ReplyDeleteThe high line images remind me of how Detroit looks now. There's many places in Detroit especially on the east side of town, where you can go and experience nature right in the middle of Chaos. Of course Detroit has took a turn for the worst in the past few years, but that doesn't take away the modernized look that can serve as an image taken 50 years ago as well. Detroit has great scenery for those that are looking forward to capturing the play on a society in terms of how the scenery interacts with the viewers.
ReplyDeleteAlso the shots are taken very well, with the inclusion of all three grounds. They have an intense vibe to them, that would cause you to stare at the pictures for a while. I think the photographer does a great job interacting nature and technology within the photos.
In regards to artists being great at displaying propaganda, and communicating the right ideas, it shows how much of an importance an artist really is. Artists have a natural ability to portray themselves as seeing and understanding things visually, so they are probably the best at conveying the messages of others as well.