Where in the food chain are we?

Nature is an ever changing, yet ever constant thing. It is always there, but never exactly the same as it was just then.

In class today we were taught by an artist called Vicky Smith who was showing us how to research for our After Effects based projects. In this lesson we had to do the dreaded group mini-exercises and try and develop/come up with some ideas. Now, if you've seen my previous posts regarding my research into artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, then you will know that my ideas have been mainly regarding natural change. As such, I told my group about this idea and just talking about it made me realise some things about myself:

1. I concern myself with the idea of nature being the true ruler of the planet.
2. I believe humans are arrogant beings.
3. I like the idea of making work that is related to something tangible.

Out of this discussion, my group made some suggestions of how I could show the desctruction of man made things through being reclaimed by nature. For example, showing small elements of a forest with perhaps footprints or carved letters in a tree, and then watch in a time lapse style across the three screens in which this piece will be displayed, how nature reclaims them. However, I feel this is too obvious. It's a nice idea but I think it's so easy for us to not care about nature and for us to be detached from it. So instead, I would like to develop this idea to be perhaps something more sinister for us as human beings. Something that we will be more inclined to relate to.

Also, as this is an After Effects based project, I will have to consider how I can incorporate digital effects into this, and as nature is so free flowing, how to perhaps simplify some elements so as not to create something too complex. I will have to do some more research on it.

I will leave you with something this topic reminded me of:

An Amaryllis is a flower which grows in the desert, it's very versatile and can live with little water. It also blooms all throughout the year, and can also bloom indoors. It's an amazing, and often overlooked beauty which highlights exactly what this post is about.

(img: "Nature Reclaiming"- http://www.flickr.com/photos/philandpam/ used under the Creative Commons License.)