Within this era of technological innovation, opportunities for people to engage in detailed, discursive interactions with nature are becoming infrequent, perhaps difficult. The digital world dominates, immersing humankind into a technological virtuality and a plethora of information

generation.

 

“Technology evolves a life indoors. We have become increasingly cut off from nature. Technol-

ogy achieves what the playwright Max Frisch called ‘the knack of rearranging the world so that

it no longer need to be experienced”1

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In this Anthropocene, where human activity is rapidly altering the earth’s environment, the question of familiarity with our other surroundings takes place. Can we, in our often anthropo-

centric, technological lives, include and acknowledge other things and beings that exist physically around us? What will become of the earth once we have forgotten its importance in our

lives?

 

Utilising a pre-set kaleidoscopic-filter over videos taken of natural elements, such as plants and flowers found near my house, the film explores a quality of being drawn-in, or compelled

by nature and technology: the dual holds they may have on us. Leaving the rhythm entirely to the filter to regulate, the image and soundscape synchronise solely of their own accord. The original footage becomes nearly unrecognisable through the filter’s abstraction, having served

only as a basis. Colourful, psychedelic features of the video could recall the ‘Flower Power’ hippie movement of the 1960s. Its countercultural moment was significant for ideologies around ‘getting back to

nature’.2 Although this had strong cultural influences, the eventual termination of the movement3 reflects similar affects now of a destruction due to humanity’s incapability for collectively

sustaining it.

 

This work seeks to question our relationships with nature and technology. There are questions around forming a balanced synthesis between these ‘dualities,’ re-connecting to neglected

realms, that may still be essential to humankind’s survival.

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1Christopher Potter, “On Tools And Human Evolution”, in How to Make a Human Being. (Great Britain, Fourth Estate, 2014) 174.
2The Hippie Movement, The Hippie Movement 1960-1970’s. (https://blogs.stockton.edu/hippiemove- ment/)

3 All That's Interesting , A Brief History Of The Hippies, The 1960s Movement That Changed America. Published April 4, 2013. (https://allthatsinteresting.com/a-brief-history-of-hippies/2).