User:Chen Junyu/Graduation Project Seminar/ project proposal/Proposal3

Nature is a broad word. Plants, animals, landscapes, insects, air, earth, rain, they can all be counted into nature, even our human beings. Nature also can be seen as the opposite word of "unnatural", to describe all of the phonomenon which are out of the normal rules. And the object nature, now is going away from us. It is still surrounding, functioning, growing and dying. But it now plays a weaker role in our daily life. Of course it is the result of the developing of human society, but somehow, it is also because our narcissism and overwhaming self－focus. I want to step from our original feeling to nature -- fear , to (洞穴画）。

Scale. How does scale function in our physical world and mental world? In physical world, scale is the thing to doing comparison, to measure things between each other, to describe how an object looks like. And sometimes scale is the element connects so closely to our feelings.

Phobia.Our fear to nature. fear: 1. happen in a moment 2. scale can trigger our feeling of fear 3.

The reason of feeling afraid of something is very complicated. In physiological terms, fear is a feeling which can be generated in a short moment. By experiments, scientists found that fear can be traced to our amygdala, and the reactions of the amygdala are so quick that they are for all intents automatic. From zoology aspect，scale is one of the elements which can trigger our fear. It is an original feeling to all the creatures which are much larger than us since the ancient world, since " large " represents "dangerous" . Also, our instinct to avoid all the possible harm make us keep away from things we don't know. "Unknown" means " dangerous". fear from unknown，from the normal things in our life but when it turns into something different , out of our consiciousness, it trigger our fear.

what i should do next :

• fear comes from the transition point between unknown and known.
• we are afraid of things larger than us it is the original feeling we have since the ancient time.
• nature. to change our angle to see nature.

道法自然

1。何为自然： 人类的想象，人类美的观念，人类的宗教，或许还有人类的哲学，都有一部自然史。 "驯化"暗示这些物种进入了文明，或者是在文明的屋顶下被带大。但是“驯化”的暗喻鼓励我们这样“理解：它们就如同我们，已经多少脱离了自然界，似乎自然界只是一种在外面发生的东西。 这又是一个想象的错误。自然界并不只在“”外边“被发现，它也，就在这里。

2。scale scale可能并不会在论文的部分出现太多，但是对于作品，scale无处不在。如何定义我们自己，如何定义自然，如何定义人和自然的关系。从神话和童话中，拟人的自然，或者，拟人的神话人物，代表着人类对自然的直观的感情。（小人是何时出现的，小人的出现是否代表着人类与自然的力量的反转）。（这里要注意时间的区隔。神话或许没有这个问题，但是对于童话，随着时间更迭，童话的写作目的也随之改变。）

3。恐惧 我们与自然的关系，是一部长大成人，渐渐没有了对其的恐惧的历史。这种恐惧的递减，可以在艺术作品中体现出来。 我想要达到的，就是把这一种恐惧带回来。展示一下，所剩无多的“the wild”。

自然一直都存在，文明是建立在自然这个大的背景之上的人类社会的属性。那么何为自然呢？引用《植物的欲望》中作者的解释： "驯化"暗示这些物种进入了文明，或者是在文明的屋顶下被带大。但是“驯化”的暗喻鼓励我们这样“理解：它们就如同我们，已经多少脱离了自然界，似乎自然界只是一种在外面发生的东西。 这又是一个想象的错误。自然界并不只在“”外边“被发现，它也，就在这里。我们隶属于自然，我们也通过文明，篡改自然。如果回到远古时代，自然的身躯如此庞大，人类只是屈服地蜷缩在它的身体上的小爬虫，仗仰它的鼻息和怜悯生存。现在，当我们谈论“自然”的时候，能想到的是户外，野生，原始之类的词汇。我们毫无恐惧，（除去那些经历了最严重的自然灾害的一部分人）我们毫无惶恐，我们生活在现代化和高科技的保护网之下。当我们在人类社会的圈子里，我们对包裹我们，渗透我们每一处皮肤和血液的自然毫无知觉。我们开始着手改变自然。开始给荒野的最后退避之处－－遗传的层面上－－ 印刻上我们的痕迹。所谓的文明的痕迹。

那么，这一切是如何开始的？又是如何进行到这样一个局面的？这是一个巨大的议题，我想用一种视觉化的方式去找到其中的脉络和因由。通过神话和童话中出现的种种人类和类人生物的痕迹，理解和感受人类对于自然的态度的变迁。

为何是神话和童话？

与人类，与Intel lecture 保持距离。贴近土地，源，

proporsal

引用自植物的欲望：人类的想象，人类美的观念，人类的宗教，或许还有人类的哲学，都有一部自然史。

当我们提到自然时，我们能想像到的，多是the wild，out of human area。此言差矣。我们从自然而来，接受文明的驯化，但是驯化的暗喻鼓励我们这样理解：它们就如同我们，已经多少脱离了自然界，似乎自然界只是一种在外面发生的东西。这是一个错误的想像。自然界并不只在“外边”被发现，它也，在这里。如果我们尝试去区隔它，那么我们印象中的自然——正确概念中的荒野，已经随着我们更改基因技术的出现，越来越难以维持了。荒野，现在也要依赖于文明才能留存了。

人类和自然的关系，在万年的进化历史中，不断地改变双方扮演的角色，这些可以从各式各样的艺术作品和文学作品中窥得端倪。最早的painting，后人推测它们出现的原因之一是表达原始人对自然的尊敬，而后我们所能见的西方画作中，户外风景画仅作为叙事发生的背景，而不单独呈现。一直到了十六世纪，风景画才成为独立的画种。在十七世纪的阿卡迪亚风景画，有几个确定的形式和特征——画面的纵深感，人物在画面表达中的重要程度，以及标志性的象征着神性的金色的光芒。而对于十九世纪的浪漫主义风景画家弗里德里希的画中，自然即使在他心中是神妙的，但也不再是不可战胜的了（雾海上的旅人）。（在有人物出现的绘画作品中，人物所占比例是否越来越大）另外一方面的可能性是，文学作品中，关于拟人化的自然的形体的出现，也代表了当时的大众，对于自然的概念。拟人化自然的行为，现在继续存在着，通常只针对于那些拥有着巨大的能量的，人类还无法抗拒的荒野的要素，比如台风。

自然的拟人化。如果我们尝试攫取艺术和文学作品中自然的拟人化代表，一定是一个无止尽的名单。自然是一个如此隽永的主题，我们却一直有这样的题材：和自然的斗争。斗争什么呢？为了什么而斗争呢？如果我们就是自然的一部分，而我们在将自然变为artificial的自然，这场战斗力，我们人类，不已经获胜了吗？或者说，我们胜利了，但是输掉了整个自然本身？

Project

The project would be an audiovisual installation. There is not specific decision of the image and sound. The sound could be recorded from inside of the plants (maybe) by contact phones, then amplify and synthesis to hearable sound. The image would base on the micro or and detailed construction of plants such as image taken by microscope, by using these images, creating 2d hand-drawing animation out of that. The work would be placed in a dark, half-closed room which provides enough silenced environment. The animation would be projected onto different spots with different scales, height and duration）in the room to build up the feeling of immersion. The path should be flexible for viewer going through, but there will also be a default path in the exhibition handbook.

Introduction

Quoted from <The Botany of Desire>: There is a natural history of the human imagination, of beauty, religion, and possibly philosophy too.

When we talk about "nature", a general feeling is "nature" is something outside. It is not ture. If we look into the explanation of nature in wikipedia, in the first paragraph, it says :" 'Nature' refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic." As a component of the earth, human being is also a part of "Nature". The air we breath everyday, the pollen floating in the air，the small potting which generates this pollen in our bedroom, they are also components of nature. Nature is not just something " out there", it is also something "in here". But, if we trace the etymology of "nature" --the latin word "natura", or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, literally meant "birth", something does changed. With the highly developing science and technology, we now have the ability to change the genes of creatures, and we already have done this. The "nature" in our impression, which is the " wild" in the proper context, now is more and more difficult to survive, or, can only survive by the power of civilization. And the concept of "Nature", also need to be changed with this inescapable artificial power.

File:Lascaux 04.jpg

Lascaux Caves

File:Claude Gellée - Paysage avec la fuite en Égypte.jpg

Claude Gellée - Paysage avec la fuite en Égypte

Quoted from the English scripts of Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art: Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: From early times, people struggling to understand powerful natural forces imagined them as human in order to mitigate their fear of the unknown. The tradition of personifying nature continues to this day, for example in the practice of giving personal names to hurricanes.

Through advanced technique, there is no doubt that we can obeserve the function of cells which constructs our physical body, monitor every singal moment of a chemical reaction and simulate the process of a black hole having its food. On one hand the scale for measuring the world is gaining its datas, on the other hand, it doesn't bring a big difference on our perception to the world. We still live in the same model of cities or towns designed and built hundred years ago, the scale of buildings or roads didn't experience big difference in the past years. We feel save living in the artificial world, and, we are escaping from or eating out the outside nature. Maybe only when we stand alone in a wild forest without any human life's evidence, we finally can feel the original fear or the awareness of our tininess as human being did thougsand years ago.

Relation to previous practice

When I started thinking the topic of the graduation project, I traced back to my old works before I came to PZI, most of them are illustrations. Then I realised in these drawings, little people or giants, the comparison of the scale between human and other species took a large part. Surely "scale" is an effective factor in different kinds of artwork, especially in drwaings and sculptures, I still wanted to dig out what is the point attracting me so much.

Relation to a larger context

Sound

• Jez Riley French

Audible SilenceA sound artist who has spent most of his live on listening to environments. He recorded a lot of sound from small creatures, such as bees and ants, also creatures in sea such as periwinkles eating sea grass. "natural composition"

• Bernie Krause--Soundscape

Bernie Krause--the voice of the natural world The Soundscape composed by : Geophny Biophony Anthrophony Through recording sound in landscape, Bernie Krause observes the influence to environment which is caused by urban expansion.

• Raoul Brand

Sound recording inside of a 80ft chestnut tree (contact microphone) sound inside a tree

Visual

Microwold's Photography by Daniel Stoupin http://www.microworldsphotography.com/ The oldest known paintings are the Grotte Chauvet in France, the paintings show horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalo, mammoth, abstract designs and what are possibly partial human figures. These paintings are thought as the respect for nature, or for the gain of prey

Practical steps

In order(All this practical steps are for experimenting the project sound of plants,now I am not sure if I should go further with):

• Working on prototypes for sound/visual, collect and analyse attractive installations，add--reduce.

Here are some prototypes I made.

http://vimeo.com/111947308

http://vimeo.com/112118186

References

Oliver Grau Virtual Art -- From Illusion To Immersion

Gyorgy Kepes The Nature and Art of Motion

Max Luthi The Fairytale as Art Form and Portrait of Man'

Dolf Rieser "Art and Science"

[English Scripts]Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art: Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Michael Pollan "The Botany of Desire"