Nature-Culture

As we spend an increasing amount of time indoors and in front of screens, there is a growing need to reconnect with nature. The division between nature and culture is not beneficial, neither for the environment nor for humans, and it raises the question of why we feel disconnected. Looking into Aristotle's ethics, nature-culture can be understood as a consequence of explaining ourselves as rational beings. Following the Western tradition of philosophy, we are self-conscious subjects with free will, rationality, and language. By following a dualistic tradition of thinking, this creates an Otherness, that is irrational, and objectified. With the rise of computer technology, we find ourselves in a strange position, being both alienated from nature and technology. Neither can we become one with an idealized image of nature, nor can we leave our sensual bodies behind and integrate with a machine network. The proposed way forward is to use technology not as a tool for further acceleration and alienation but as a means to produce new kinds of nature. We need to embrace the non-systematic, chaotic, random, ironic, and ambivalent part of the human condition. By looking into the phenomenon of "play" and how the player can experience agency within a game's system of rules, it seems like video games offer a promising way of engaging with technology. Through play, we can cultivate a new way of looking at and shaping the world and generate non-paranoid imaginations where ambiguity and diversity are at home.

2020 MA thesis project by Lena Frei. Follow for more on @lenas9thart

Master of Arts in Visual Communication and Iconic Research, Academy of Arts and Design HGK, University of Applied Sciences and Art Northwestern Switzerland FHNW