Project Planning

To be quite honest, after reading the Cronon essay, I don't know what to think anymore... about anything. I'm totally at a loss and I don't know what to say... Regardless, here's some suggestions for the final project.

Here are some technical skills that I can bring to the table:
- I can do video editing fairly well, assuming all the effects needed are in Windows movie maker
- I can draw both traditionally (pen and paper), or digitally (with a drawing tablet)
- Obviously all of us can write

1) There is no way that we can film an actual movie in the time constraints (even with good planning).
- The alternative is a series of short videos illustrating the same ideas. (Of course, this may be out of reach as well, but it's still an option).

2) I am relatively opposed to a formal essay, because I think that creative mediums can be more expressive since they combine various methods of expression along side text.
- We can look into the story book idea that Roy had though we need illustrations? Which I can do, but that does take a considerable amount of time, which I'm not sure I have especially with Science Research Seminar presentations coming up.

3) Some sort of physical visual representation (Collage, Statue, Poster etc)

I simplified our themes further to narrow down our options:
Flaws: Takers, Greed, Ignorance (The Cave), Determenism
Solutions: Prophet, Sun, Knowledge, None, Escapism (but not)

So after a painful "I have no idea what we should do" moment, I decided to write a metaphorical story (honestly just out of sheer frustration). It's going to be simplistic like a children's book (text wise).



Once upon a time, there was a little rabbit,
This rabbit lived on a little green plant, in a little colorful solar system,
The rabbit had the little green planet all to itself,
It nibbled on the plentiful grass, and lapped up its abundant water,
And it was happy.
One day the rabbit noticed a dry patch of grass,
This had happened before when there was less rain on the planet,
but the rabbit never worried about it, since the planet remained plentiful in grass,
Except for some reason this time was different,
The rabbit happened to be hungry when it came across the patch of dry grass,
And while there was fresh grass all around,
this small dry patch sparked doubt in the rabbit.
It began to wonder about the supply of grass, then it began to worry about the water,
Never before had the rabbit needed to think about such things,
and it caused the rabbit great distress.
However, the patch soon grew back with the rain, and the rabbit forgot its concerns.
One day, an egg shaped capsule fell from the stars onto the little planet.
Astounded, the little rabbit watched the round object until it cracked open,
From within the object crawled snake, and slithered towards the rabbit.
Alarmed the rabbit began to flee, when the snake spoke.
"Fear not rabbit-friend, for I am, in fact, a vegetarian!"
The rabbit relieved but suspicious turned towards the snake.
It sniffed the snake, and smelling no ill intent decided to trust the snake.
"What an lovely planet" the snake said "And such an abundance of fresh grass!"
"Would you be willing to share your planet with me" it asked "I won't be any trouble, I promise"
The rabbit silently looked at the snake, then resumed grazing,
the snake, taking the silence as approval, turned and slithered on its merry way.
The two continued to coexist in such a manner
until the day came when the rabbit came across another patch of dried grass.
While the two had lived together on the same little planet,
the rabbit had never come to fully trust the snake and it began to suspect the snake,
it worried once again about the grass and water, and hastily began to plan for the worst.
The rabbit immediately began to build a fence around all the fresh patches of grass and little ponds,
it locked itself in the confines of it's self determined territory and continued to graze on its grass.
"Rabbit-friend!" said the snake "Why had you built this wall?All the grass out here is dry!"
The rabbit said nothing
"Rabbit-friend!" said the snake with slight distress "There is little water here for me to drink! I fear I may dehydrate!"
Still the rabbit said nothing
"Rabbit-friend!" the snake continued to call
But the rabbit remained silent, grazing on it's fresh grass and drinking it's pools of water,
until the snake ceased it's pleas.
However the rabbit eventually discovered that it's little fortress could not stand forever.
The grass began to became stale and the water tainted from confined and controlled environment,
Even so, the rabbit refused to break down the walls, and it continued to eat and drink.
Eventually the rabbit became sick from the enclosure,
But it had been prisoner to it's own creation for so long, that it forgot what lay beyond the wall.
The rabbit was too sick to do anything, so it lay in the rot of it's confines unsure of what lay ahead.
It began to dream of the outside, it dreamed of luscious green and clear blue,
but it wasn't sure what those colors were, it only knew that it wanted it, whatever it was,
The rabbit awoke from it's vibrant dream to the stale brown surroundings,
With the last of it's energy it limped towards the wall it had built so long ago, and began to tear it down.
Slowly the wall collapsed, until the rabbit could see over it.
But by the time the rabbit looked up to see beyond the wall,
it's eyes had become too clouded from it's tainted land, and was unable see clearly.
It was blurs of green and blue just like in it's dream, and it crawled over the walls remains
it felt the softness of the pulpy grass and the coolness of the fresh water on it's fur,
but it could no longer see them in the same way.
The snake was no where to be found.
Saddened by the disaster the rabbit had caused, it lay down in the grass,
and vouched,
never again.

Ok, so now it's nearly 12:00 and I'm exhausted, and unfortunately this story failed to spark any "genius ideas" about projects. Regardless, I tried to tie in themes to experiment with a story like project.
This was more for my own sake, but it ended up being a lot longer that I meant it to be. Erm, I'll try and think about it some more... That's all for now though.

On the Gardens of Arcadia

The the play, during the earlier section of the two time frames, a few of the characters discuss the changes that they were planning to implement into the garden. Mr. Noakes the garden architect of the household makes plans on changing the garden from an Arcadia-esque landscape to a gothic styled one (which was popular at the time). Mrs. Croom on the other hand prefers the current style over the ideas of picturesque developing the styles of art began to change to romanticism which favors the image of untamed nature and ruins of humanity over the neatly cut and organized style of before.
The change in the garden symbolizes the change in artistic style during the period.

*I tried to find pictures but none really represented what I thought was an arcadia or gothic style
Regardless, I found it really interesting how the change in gardening can be influenced by art and 2D media. I also feel like our manipulation of gardens regardless of natural or not-natural imagery in the garden really shows human relations with nature. We cut and prune things to serve our needs, desires, and tastes. We even work hard to try and make it look "untamed" which ironically just makes it even more human controlled.

Barriers, Bridges, and Being

Upon hearing about this project, I was excited but also concerned about making an adequate Video. I had never used the app before this, so I was unfamiliar with the media. A few seconds of video is a hard restriction to work with, especially when I was trying to make sure my videos had meaning while also being interesting. I found that just going and doing it was the best way to come up with each.
When planning my triptych, I wanted to make sure that my three videos were tied together in some way. As we had explored humans relations with nature for a long time in class, and I wanted to make a more personal reflection on my own relations with nature. However when I tried to come up with one theme in my relation with nature, I realized that there in no black and white distinguishing factor in my relation. I wasn't one or the other, rather, my relations with nature varied from disconnect to desire and enthusiasm relative to my feelings. Each video reflected a different feeling I had about nature at different times (each video idea was developed on different days). When I finally filmed them I saw an interesting relation which was my theme of "Barriers, Bridges and Being".
First Barriers refers to our disconnection from nature. Our priorities lie in our technology and culture rather than the outside world and nature. We become blocked from it regardless if we want to or not.
Bridges refers to our connection to nature. While we may be distant from nature, our resources allow us to view and experience nature in other ways. Even if we couldn't visit a certain site, we can view and learn about it, and hence be more connected to it that before.
Being acknowledges the fact that we are born out of nature. Despite all our separation, we still live in the existence we call nature. Our home, the earth, is nature. The universe, our captors, are nature. Hence, we must also be nature.
While these ideas may be paradoxical, depending on feeling and perspective, all three relations can exist at the same time. I don't completely understand why, but that is my truth and my relation with nature.


U Sometimes we have priorities right? And I guess nature isn't one of them!?

As close to a beach as I'll ever be... But at least I can experience it in some way!
"If the universe is nature, then civilized or not, we are just a small part of that nature."
In the large scope of things, our earth is pretty small in the end.

What is Chris McCandless? Brave? Stupid? Or does it really matter?

After reading Into the Wild I noticed that while I thought that the books story had been compelling and read-worthy, I discovered myself becoming less and less sympathetic to the Supertramp himself as the book went on. In fact, I had to remind myself multiple times throughout the reading that this was a true story and not just some imagined plot to make a book interesting. While perhaps fault can be attributed to the book for not making it more documentary like and for telling to story like a "story", I think my perception of McCandless' journey being like a fantasy lies in the fact that I think Chris was trying to live out a fantasy to begin with. (I actually really loved the book itself and I really enjoyed it).

Overall I had hard time relating to Chris, thoughat the same time I did understand his disposition. As a teenager (given Chris is a bit older than a teenager) I have also spent countless hours contemplating what the world is, what it should be, and my own place in it. I have often dreamed that an answer does exist out there and that my role merely lies in finding it. McCandless was clearly looking a "certain something" in life when he decided to go out into the wild, and while I can understand this, his complete rejection of society baffles me. I too disagree with many aspect of humanity, yet you cannot make the world better if you just run off by yourself into the woods. Chris seems really selfish when you look at it from this perspective. He didn't like his world and life so he merely ran away so he could enjoy himself. While he did donate his money to a good cause, he made no efforts to try and improve the faults he saw in the world. As for his journey, I honestly hold no opinion. He made his choice and while I would not have done the same as him, I believe that people are allowed to make their own choices about what they do (given that they make these decisions with a clear head).

There are many variations of response to the story of Chris McCandless both positive and negative. In a video by abc news they interview his family and Krakauer, review his life, and discuss. The video aired in 1997 only a few years after the whole story. Overall I felt as if the reporters were passing off McCandless' journey as some unfortunate accident done by some foolish young kid. And while I agree that he was being foolish, at the same time they write him off without trying to discuss or understand his journey. While most of this is just a documentary, the briefness of their talk revolving around the story really illustrates how this just exists as an "exciting" news opportunity.

I also came across a vlog of a man talking about his experience reading the book, since he found himself relating to McCandless' journey and desire for travel and the wild. He clearly states that Chris is in no way a hero or someone to look up to, even while he understands the longing for nature. I think that this kind of illustrates just how not-unique Chris' story actually is. Even Krakauer the author of Into the Wild had his own journey into nature. Chris just happened to be the one who received the most "buzz" about such journeys.

The third video I found and watched was a video on Chris' when he was younger. While the book does talk about his childhood, it emphasizes how Chris was a solitary but sociable person who impressed many people he met. This video on the other hand, portrays Chris as a person afraid of socializing with others and immature. His roommate in Emory describes him with much less enthusiasm and overall changed my views of McCandless as a person. While McCandless does often appear as a young and intelligent soul going out into the wild the challenge himself, the new more negative perspective of him really lessens the hype of his adventure.

There is a variety of opinions revolving around the actions that Chris took, yet for me, I continue to find myself neutral. People have the right to do what they wish even if we don't agree with them, but I suppose that my only qualm would be with his negative outlook on society and how he looked down on those who cling to our society. As a "privileged" human he has the opportunity to look at the faults that his lifestyle holds yet there are so many others striving to attain what he rejects. He hurts his family and those around them while still arrogantly believing that he is in the right, and he ultimately fails in his journey. (Assuming he was going to return and rejoin civilization). As I said before, I think he was looking for something. Whether he found that something or not, we won't know, but whats done is done and the world must go on.

Ishmael and the Bigger Picture

After finishing my reading of Ishmael by Daniel Quinn I felt a sort of quiet, still, disappointment at what I had received from the book. I, like many others probably, picked up the book, hoping to gain something out of it, yet left it uncompleted and lacking any real solid conclusion. I define myself as a pessimistic realist, someone who doesn't try to expect too much out of anything, but as I read this book, a small spark of "maybe something" flickered in me, and I had hoped to gain some insight into the ideas shared within the stories.

I'm sad to say that I came out of this book as apathetic as ever. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it, quite the contrary, I actually really liked reading it as well as discussing it with others! I just feel like I didn't get as much out of it as I had hoped and expected.

One theme/ idea present in the book that fascinates me is the concept that we are slaves to our culture. We define humanity as having free will and not being chained down like other species to the limitations of the world. Instead, we humans have the ability to bypass evolution and shape the world to our liking, but is this really true? Does the free will we so proudly claim to have truly exist? What does freewill really mean?
Sure we have the capability to make minor decisions on a daily basis (and I suppose we can make choices that will affect our future) but does humanity really have the will to redirect its future course? Or you could argue that regardless of changing what our future course, the resulting direction was inevitably what route we as people were going to take in the first place.

I once watched a video narrated by Morgan Freeman about freewill that tackled these ideas (unfortunatly I cannot find a free version of it to reflect upon it), this video really opened my eyes to my questioning of our free will, and I was reminded of it during our discussion in class.
I think Ishmael has a positive view on humanities ability to change it's course. While Ishmael doesn't actually give a solid solution to the problem, he at the very least hints at its possibility. I personally am not quite convinced yet and would have to see the change put into motion first, but I think that regardless we'll never truly know, since again, perhaps that was the route that would have been taken in the end either way.

I also find issue in the concept of Takers and Leavers. I don't really believe that human Leavers really exist. Regardless of a "humbler" life style, humans are humans regardless, and that nature still exists within us.
Humans are humans not only because of the life we lead, but also what's inside us. We differ from animals because of our intellect and self awareness. Sure at one point in our evolutionary cycles we were like other animals, but our evolution changed us. This is not to say that we are "better" or more "civilized" than other species, we just came up the those terms and decided to call ourselves that.
But I suppose at the same time, our cultures and societies develop us as humans (mentally), and perhaps that has an impact on our views of the world. I cannot speak for anyone besides myself, but... the way I see the world goes along somewhat like this:
We exist in the world. We are humans. We live to survive and improve our condition by any means possible.
Other animals do the same.
Of course this has been simplified to the extreme and I am obviously missing so much of what the world contains, but this leads to my next point.

Ishmael frustrates me in the sense that it tries to define the world and explain it, when (at least I think) there is not real answer or perfect explanation. Just as it's ridiculous for me to define the world with a few simple phrases, how can just a book explain how the world is? Anything can be explained with a twist of a few pretty words and some logic, but the truth is far from the explanation. In fact, the truth doesn't really exist.
It's all relative to perception and I'm sure that another fantastic writer could explain things completely differently and it too would be perceived as "truth", just like the two compared books The Dust Bowl and Dust Bowl in Cronon's A Place for Stories.

But in the end, I still really enjoyed reading Ishmael regardless of my disagreements with its ideas.
I think that for me, Ishmael's true strength lies not in the ideas it portrays, but rather the inspiration to think that is gives to the reader. Whether through discussion or just thinking by ones self, I believe that trying to further understand the world, humanity, and ourselves will help lead us to a future hopefully brighter than the one we seem to be heading to.

Tools of our Technology?

Yes, I may have desires to play games, or use technology in ways that would be considered time wasting and purposeless, and yes, I may actually waste time look at cat pictures on the internet.

But at the same time, I can control my urges  (or addictions), with rationality and reasoning.

I think that although humans do become addicted to technology, with awareness, we can overcome those traps and in fact use technology in ways to benefit us.

Humans are not the tools to technology, we merely become tools to our own desires.
As long as we can consciously determine how to use our technology, it becomes a power.