PRODS - What Is nature?

“Because the present is always a period of painful change, every generation views the world in the past’ 1.

The artist sees the present (future) everyone else lives in the past.

“The future’s already arrived, it’s just not evenly distributed yet” William Gibson –science fiction writer.

“What is happening at the present time is that changes are occurring so rapidly that the rear-view mirror does not work anymore – at jet speeds rear-view mirrors are not very useful.

One must have a way of anticipating the future. Humankind can no longer, through fear of the unknown expend so much energy translating anything new into something old but must do what the artist does ; develop the habit of approaching the present as a task, as an environment to be discussed, analysed, coped with, so that the future may be seen more clearly.” 1.

1.The Global Village – McLuhan & Powers 1989

"How did we fall asleep at the wheel.......?"

You can stand out or you can stand in.
Those who stand out run around shouting and making a fuss - wearing strange clothes and doing strange things that make a spectacle of themselves, things that enhance/swell their egos and become the butt of leftist jokes. A certain radical fringe might reward them by putting them on a pedestal. They renounce everything very verbally and point out peoples problems and militanty picket G8 summits http://www.adbusters.org/home/ . If really radical they might adopt the methods of terrorists and muck-up nature: blowing up others or themselves in public places for the sake of their cause.
Welcome to 2005.
Tom Peers : "And to pick up on a theme of Re-imagine: "We are not prepared!" Regardless of the might and advanced technology of Superpowers, the power of determined (fanatic!) individuals to disrupt nations and wreck havoc on individuals in vast numbers has never been higher. On the good side, that's the ability of consumers or irate citizens to band together in a flash on the Internet. On the bad side it's New York and Madrid and London."http://www.tompeters.com
They draw atention to the problem and themselves, but in my opinion in such a way that the media and the majority cannot relate to them and after beinfg suitably shocked or laughing quetly to each other, go back to flicking listlessly from channel to channel in search of another fix.

Who the bl**p do we think we are?

Irma Stern - Hear no evil, See............

What happens when ideologies predominate? Is it possible to preserve ones identity when the medium is so pervasive? I.e. can we switch off the TV, ignore the newspaper placard headlines on every pole, can we isolate ourselves from the ether/atmosphere that surrounds us like the fish in the water? Does one have an identity that is separate from the era or language one is born in? According to Marshal McLuhan “The mother tongue is propaganda.” We are immersed in the attitudes and conditioning associated with our verbal environment as this is the most powerful source of communication which the baby receives. “Languages are environments to which the child relates synesthetically” we all know how children are sponges at an early age and are soaking up not just what we think we mean, but all the hidden layers of meaning behind the word and feelings which the words embody. All of the mother’s joy in her life or her bitterness to her lot, her husband and her position in society is freely translated to the child. How many times do you not hear young adults and even older people say that “She is just like her mother – wouldn’t that horrify her?” My own sister and sister in law are both like that – they vehemently deny they are like their mother, while acting out the attitudes and symptoms of their ancestor’s world.

Biodiversity in the headlights

Does protecting biodiversity mean that we should become racists and not let one type of humanity breed with another? Does this mean that one culture should not mix with another?

Is it a call for isolationism in people’s culture and places which, to arrest the effects of globalisation, seek to isolate themselves. E.g. Japan in the 19^th century or China under Mao, radical Islam countries today?

What about all those who are the result of mixed marriages of the past 300 years the bastards, coloureds, displaced hybrid peoples of all countries that were colonised by the Europeans ,. How many of us who are so called White or Black or Yellow are actually pure breeds today. Every family of voortrekkers or frontiersmen or Ranchers or soldiers of the wars of the last century left behind themselves a legacy of half-breeds that were the result of clandestine relationships –even in Victorian towns. Where I grew up in a village on the outskirts of Cape Town in the 60’s it was common for the adolescent boy’s both of the liberal Rooineks ( English Speaking) and the Boers ( Afrikaans people) to sneak around to the out buildings at night and fuck with the coloured or black servants. The stories are the same around the world in the Deep South of the USA or in India and Java. The same story bears repeating of mating with slaves or farm workers or kitchen maids at all times and all places in the world.
So why should plants be any different , or iguanas mating with a Leguaan?
Are we now playing god, or are we now going to freeze and reverse the entire process? Or IS this the time where we take responsibilty for our actions and try to clean up the MESS?

Living with nature - What is it about?

I wish to obtain/reveal insights into the world of nature which surrounds us, contains us, is in us, is us! Not to describe or chronicle it, not to explain it, but to get inside it- understand- no! - KNOW how we fit in.
"The world of nature is both around the fish and the sea within it - it does not know the difference - it is all one."
Somehow the only difference between us and the animals is our ability to cognise our seperateness: - this very seperateness we have taken to be superiority - but deeper down we are the same animals with the same animal needs and desires - dependant on the plants for our life and they on the water for theirs - so how much are we actually seperate or independant from them?
This is the territory we explore and roam in - man in nature - nature in man.