Wilderness Trouble (2011)

Wilderness Trouble” is one of ecoarttech’s inaugural works and constitutes a digital video response to William Cronon’s seminal article in environmental studies, “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” This text was integral to ecocriticism and environmental philosophy’s recent shift from wilderness-based environmental ethics to an awareness of nature/culture permeability and environmental justice issues. With “Wilderness Trouble,” ecoarttech’s goal was to present scenarios from our lives to raise questions for the viewer about the wisdom of environmentalism’s traditional, limited focus on “wild” spaces where humans don’t exist. The video contemplates how globalization permeates even the most locally based life, and the narrator tells stories about eating fair-trade South American chocolate in the Maine woods and building a rustic cabin on land inhabited centuries ago by Native American communities. Our central question with “Wilderness Trouble” was, how to imagine sustainability and environmental ethics that incorporates but does ...

Full Description

Wilderness Trouble” is one of ecoarttech’s inaugural works and constitutes a digital video response to William Cronon’s seminal article in environmental studies, “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” This text was integral to ecocriticism and environmental philosophy’s recent shift from wilderness-based environmental ethics to an awareness of nature/culture permeability and environmental justice issues. With “Wilderness Trouble,” ecoarttech’s goal was to present scenarios from our lives to raise questions for the viewer about the wisdom of environmentalism’s traditional, limited focus on “wild” spaces where humans don’t exist. The video contemplates how globalization permeates even the most locally based life, and the narrator tells stories about eating fair-trade South American chocolate in the Maine woods and building a rustic cabin on land inhabited centuries ago by Native American communities. Our central question with “Wilderness Trouble” was, how to imagine sustainability and environmental ethics that incorporates but does not rely on the need to “go local”? In addition, as digital artists, we sought to extend this meditation to digital technology, including cellphones and mobile computing devices in many frames, with the narrator asserting that even “the sky is an information highway.” This work has been exhibited in over twenty countries and translated into Polish, Spanish, French, and Japanense. over the world.

Work metadata

  • Year Created: 2011
  • Submitted to ArtBase: Wednesday Oct 19th, 2011
  • Original Url: http://vimeo.com/10334182
  • Work Credits:
    • Leila Nadir, co-creator
    • Cary Peppermint, co-creator
  • Collective: ecoarttech
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