#4 The Outside Outside
Wild West, James Turrell, Teddy Roosevelt and Techno-Hippies.
Through the pandemic, some have allowed their digital usage to reach unsustainable levels — others have taken the opportunity to reconnect with nature and find the benefits of the Outside. If you are a member of both groups, I’m sorry to kill your sense of self-importance, but we are statistical averages.
The same force driving us outside, pushing us to reevaluate our relationship with digital mediums, is responsible for our incapacity to absorb and engage with nature.
You know that sense of vastness and wilderness you feel when you are in a National Park? It is directly connected to our sense of withdrawal from natural environments. The potency of our emotion exposes our primal need to be part of that nature.
But, at this point, can we engage with nature without engaging with the influence of humanity? Is the influence of humanity part of the natural realm?
The Outside Outside.
The Wild West.
Amazon is bringing biophilic design to their next HQs — a Glass Poop Emoji covered in Trees. And, while that doesn’t sound appealing, it is - because the design elements follow the flows of nature. Contrasted with the dozens of squared buildings around it, it feels like an Oasis.
Perfect squares are extremely uncommon in nature. Yet, our frames of thought are commonly cubical. Or so says Kanye, talking about the influences and inspirations for his Yeezy Campus.
Kanye and James Turreell are working towards creating “platforms for freer thought”.
How can we enhance the patterns of nature? Can we manufacture experiences that are more raw and primal than nature itself?
Well, architecturally, we can manipulate environments — change how a space communicates light by isolating it. Now, the nature of light will not change, but our perception and attitude towards it might.
That’s how we tame nature, and reframe it to fit our expectations and paradigms. We have been doing it for a long time through different rites of passage, substances, et al. Now is the time for technology to do so.
Human interaction is an essential part of human nature. Does that exist without the influence of technology? Does the untamed Outside exist?
Nature Keeps the Score.
The new wave of digital well-being is democratizing Eastern spiritual practices in the West. Fasting, meditation, journaling were exclusive activities for Easterners and a few hippies — now they are multi-million dollar industries.
Is it a new staple in our drive for hyper efficiency?
——
Vaughn Hadenfeldt, outdoor guide for Bears Ears National Monument, told writer David Gessner a cautionary tale about modern eco-tourism. [1]
“I took a party up to one of my favorite sites recently,” he said “I’d brough lunch along and though we would stay there for a while. But as soon as we got there it was like they had checked it off their lists. One guy said ‘If we hurry we can bag another ruin’.”
Are we in the mindsets of “bagging“ experiences and does our state of mind rely on a Headspace counter?
FURTHER READS
Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness — Book by David Gessner. [1]
Hippie Inc: How the Counterculture Went Corporate — Article by The Economist.
Instagram's Most Fascinating Subculture? Women Hunters. — Article by Outside (~40 min audio).
Here’s a Counter Point.
Nature — so oft considered the epitome of "order" and "tranquility" in the human mind — is herein explored at its most aberrant, absurd, and nightmarish. Through eleven weird tales, Echoes of a Natural World raises questions about Nature's influence on the mind and the mind's unnatural influence on Nature.
This is the fourth of four disambiguations of digital spaces. This is the Outside Outside.
Feel free to save, print, forward, reply — actually, please do so!
Have a great Sunday!
With Love and Good Times,
Felix Ernesto