NATURE AND PERSONHOOD
02-2020
In 2020, a research project called Countryside, the future led by Rem Koolhaas and AMO, was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Now, under the same title and
supervision of AMO members, the project is continued at DAE, where we were asked to challenge the notions of ‘nature’ and ‘countryside’.
I was inspired by environmental personhood, a concept that explores the effects of granting human rights to non-human beings. From there, many questions arose: is it necessary to humanize non-human beings to develop a sense of responsibility? Is our understanding of nature fostered by human traits assigned to the environment? Are we only able to relate to nature by assigning it human traits?
Navigating through this discourse, I became particularly interested in the role of religion as a factor that helped shape Anthropocene and is now being opposed through recent approaches to conservation.
Now, under the same title and
supervision of AMO members, the project is continued at DAE, where we were asked to challenge the notions of ‘nature’ and ‘countryside’.
I was inspired by environmental personhood, a concept that explores the effects of granting human rights to non-human beings. From there, many questions arose: is it necessary to humanize non-human beings to develop a sense of responsibility? Is our understanding of nature fostered by human traits assigned to the environment? Are we only able to relate to nature by assigning it human traits?
Navigating through this discourse, I became particularly interested in the role of religion as a factor that helped shape Anthropocene and is now being opposed through recent approaches to conservation.
