Humans vs. Nature? Breaking the Dichotomy

Anna Marineko's nature sound waves

This exhibit examines the interaction of human and natural sounds in the naturescape, endeavoring to demonstrate that, in the modern world, it is nearly impossible to separate the two. Despite humanity’s best efforts to remove ourselves from “uncivilized” nature, we are nevertheless ourselves part of the natural environment, for better or worse. Humanity is inextricably linked to nature- we  are just as much a part of the naturescape as a deer bounding through in a forest or lily pads floating on a green lake. Our challenge is to make ourselves a home in nature, becoming conscientious of the daily impacts which we cannot help but leave on our world, and learning to treat our fellow inhabitants and our home with respect and responsibility. The goal of this exhibit is to examine how the ecoacoustic soundscape is indicative of both melodiousness and dissonance in the relationship between humans and nature, which can never be fully divided, in the natural world.

Credits: 
Dr. Michele Speitz
Furman University
English 242 - Literature and the Environment: On Ecocriticism & Contemporary Ecological Thought
 
This course provides a broad overview of ecocriticism as theoretical lens, or more broadly, as avenue of analytical thinking, reading, and writing. Students are introduced to ecocriticism as a school of thought first growing out of Anglophone (English speaking) literary studies and then becoming the much more globally relevant and interdisciplinary enterprise that it is today. 
 
As a rule, this course throws into question common notions of humanity, environment, and ethics. Ecocriticism’s primary objects of study are written accounts of built and natural worlds, humankind, and humanity’s interrelationships with various ecologies (internal and external). Thus our work entails critically investigating the implied logic and assumptions lurking within all sorts of representations of earthly ecology—ranging from literature’s pastoral imaginings and ideas of wilderness to scientific renderings of Darwin’s evolutionary theory or even nonhuman musicality.

Humans vs. Nature was produced by: Jamie Badeau, Breland Bennett, Sammy Bernacki, Allie Braun, Courtney Brown, Tyler Marshall Carlson, Maddie De Pree, Beth Fraser, Mitchell Freyermuth, Michael Garner, Kyle Gartman, Annamarie Guest, Miles Hauser, Anna Lackey, Taylor Petty, Bailey Pierson, Claire Pullan, Caroline Scudder, Hannah Shafer, Berkley Sjolund, Marie Smith, Vanessa Torres-Santana, and Nate Vogt.