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We think of it not necessarily as just a lecture but as kind of an exhibit or a presentation
or a show. I like this project because I think we're
trying to change the way that people educate others publically. We're involving music and
video and you know massive compositions of - much more of a filmmaking kid of aspect
to it - with sound and spoken word, and with those original lecture kind of ideas.
I think that the message is one of yourself and your relation to the world - you know
obviously the natural world, but also you know the social world, the cultural world
around us, and how we need to kind of re-envision or envision in a new way or old way the way
that we relate to people and places and animals and other life and non-life that we interact
with. What we hope is that it is a felt experience,
that it's not just a passive lecture experience but that there is a - that we kind of give
rise to some of the, kind of natural emotional connection that humans have to the earth.
We hope that it both makes you think a little bit about your view of nature and hopefully
it also helps stir some of that, kind of, connection.
Martin Heidegger told this story of an oak tree's conversation with a path that ran close
to its roots. The oak itself spoke, that only in such growth is grounded what last bears
fruit. Growing means this: to open to the expanse of the sky and at the same time to
root in the darkness of the earth. All that is native will only thrive when man is at
the same time right by both, ready for the claim of highest heaven and kept safe in the
protection of the bearing earth When people come to see this, I like to think
that they step away from it and feel different, and I think that's because we're getting
- they're getting sensory overload, you know, like "Man I saw all these great pictures and
this great video, and Troy had really great things to say, and can you believe that in
his research he found this, and did you hear the crickets at one point, I think there were
crickets" you know, like, it's sensory overload, and I think we really want to try to be on
the cutting edge of presenting information and having it really hit home with them and
strike... And by separating humans from nature as a
source of religious and emotional connection and concentrating ethical value in human beings
alone, western philosophy paved the way to study Earth as an object of analysis, devoid
of any value. You know, I think that it's - it's something
that’s as much about each person that witnesses the show that becomes part of the collaboration
with this... it's much more about that than it is about prescriptive policy for - you
can tell people to drive a hybrid, or recycle, or treat the environment nice, but it really...
change will only happen when people change internally; the way that they think about
the world and the way they think about their place in the world.
The object of it is to kind of get people to recognize the human connection with the
natural world, to try to relate some of the experiences that we've had in wilderness areas
and national parks and other, kind of, back country areas in North America predominately,
try to relate those experiences and give people a sense for the connection that we feel, and
hopefully we can kind of translate that through some of the photography and video we've taken,
and music, and some of the dialogue that we bring to the show. At a really basic level
what we hope is to encourage people to just, I don’t know, take a hike, or take some
photos outside, appreciate nature, take a camping trip or go on a canoe trip or something
like that. Spend some time outdoors, and in particular, we enjoy spending time outdoors
at night, you know around the campfire, or watching the stars, that sort of thing.
If we went out and actively sought that out and brought it here, I think that's really
awesome, because, you know like they said, further the discussion at the university,
I hope... you know? Yeah, it was really eye-opening and I enjoyed
it thoroughly of course. I'd say the guy has spent a lot of time on this project, this
was definitely, very [unintelligible] effort... he almost read something for about an hour
and a half or so... it was really quite neat. It really made me think so... dark lights
and everything was kind of creepy at first, but you know, kind of cool.
Probably the most remarkable thing to me was watching it and getting to absorb the information
while seeing really beautiful pictures that really just kind of hammer in like - we're
talking about something that has an emotional connotation, and it's really easy to intellectualize
it and want just to talk about the talking points... so it was very beautiful.