Artificial/Natural

"Wild Boars" - 2004

"T-Rex" - 2004

I am writing this post about the video called Duck in the City in my previous post, somewhere down there. The photographs above are by Mandy Lee Jandrell.

As i see it there are 4 key elements in the video;

• Me: Holder of the camera, controller of where the focus lies.
• The environment/context: Regent's Canal and the Ecology Pavilion pond.
• The artificial duck
• The actual ducks/birds

This context isn't natural because it was manmade, but nature - the actual ducks/birds - still reside and thrive in it. As such, perhaps it is not that it isn't natural but that it isn't organic.

The artificial duck is also manmade, but we wouldn't call it natural or organic. That is unless one takes the view that humans are such a part of nature that even our technological creations can be deemed part of nature.

Obviously, the actual ducks/birds would be deemed part of nature, and organic. But perhaps given that the city is no longer a natural habitat for them (or is it that wherever nature resides is inherently a natural habitat?), and it has taken human intervention to provide an appropriate environment, they are part of the manmade chain whilst still being organic.

Therein lies the intertwining of nature and humanity.