Project 2: Place ("what place?")

My "place" video examines the juxtaposition between two places, the natural and the man-made.

As I make my way through a forrest trail, I reminisce about my experience traveling on foot in the city. The sights and sounds are different in each experience, but my perception of scale and movement are similar. The forrest trail is partially man-made and the city is almost entirely man-made. What's the difference? As I look up to the trees or look up to the high rise buildings, I feel small, insignificant and helpless.

The experiences blend together in a rhythmic comparison of the two very different places. I imagine that the two places are one, differing only in my perspective and understanding of the sights experienced along the way. I think about how they were both built, one by nature, the other by man. The time scale of the construction of both places is beyond my experience. I can see changes in each environment over time, but they both exist in perpetuity compared with my relatively short life span. Everything moves and changes around me, while I only exist within each as a small element of the environment in which I am only a tiny insignificant part.

In both cases I am a mere observer, unable to influence, change, or affect the environment in any significant way. Even so, the city represents the ways that people can completely alter the world around us, given enough time, commitment, cooperation, and determination. The forrest represents the ways that nature does the same, though on a much grander scale.

While people can shape the environment around us to fulfill our needs and desires, nature can ultimately take back, or reclaim the places we have borrowed. I am a part of this process in both cases- As a human I can build and influence the environment in small, cumulative ways, yet I am also a part of nature. In that sense, everything we see is the same place- a slice of the existence we all experience here on Earth.