Manitou (Briseno)

As a “Flaneur,” one is often described as both an observer as well as an element of the text. While walking in Manitou and listing to details about the city and art I actively participated as a member of the story as I captured via photography the things that caught my eye. The city Manitou Springs combines small tourist town with elements of surrounding beauty.

Wandering down the avenue with classmates and taking pictures, mimics the activities of a typical tourist. Although no stranger to the area, after receiving the guided tour of the notable art in Manitou by the Mr. Kuckel, my understanding increased with the context of and insight into the motivation for the city’s proliferation of art.   

The main street of Manitou Avenue is lined with small shops and restaurants. Throughout the town art is everywhere. The sidewalks are sprinkled with sculptures, graffiti, mosaics, and fountains. A majority of the art utilizes recycled materials. Nature is continuously incorporated as the most notable relationship between nature and civilization are the city’s famous spring water fountains. The trees and mountainous backdrop provide scenic vistas. Finally, both the tourists and locals add to nature’s rhythm.

Manitou draws people in with a laid back culture comparable to that of relaxed hippies. The emphasis placed on the enjoyment of consumerism is foiled with the natural framing of the mountains and continuity of spring water. Simultaneously, the city defies the canon of corporate free enterprise. Absent is the typical mall, strip-mall, or mega-mart. In place their place are small gift shops and restaurants. Overall, the city exudes the feeling of a symbiotic relationship between civilization and nature.

ABRAM

In the book: The spell of the sensuous by Abram, i enjoy the overall tone of nature and understanding it closer.  It's obvious that the world, the earth, recycles itself.  It gives what we need, and takes what it needs.  It's a beautiful relationship set up by God in my opinion.  However, sometimes it seems that the earth gives more and receives less; hence, we don't do our part to give back to mother earth like we should.  We are so busy, it takes a class like this for us to even realize that we are among those people who don't pay attention.  What wonderful things there are for un to enjoy, learn and express about the earth in which provides for us.  I believe that one of Abram's arguments is that we all just need to try to tie our own self, each and everyone of us, to the fact that the world is colorful. A place in which nature can teach us as much about itself, as it can teach us about our own uniqueness.

Indigenous people lived in a different time.  These people took what they needed to take care of themselves and to feed their families.  Do we, as humans today, not do the same thing?  Is it a curse that we put on nature, or the earth itself, because we have moved on from the bow and arrow?  We have evolved into what we are now.  Humans are what we do.  How, could we now, or ever, even think about receding instead of moving forward?  It's in our nature to grow stronger and smarter.  However, this doesn't mean that the planet will continue to recycle itself without our help.  The earth has the potential to be a place that provides for mankind for ever.  Unfortunately, this is not going to happen without the help of man.  There appears to be a detachment from the natural world.  True, but westerners specifically?  What about the infested, plagued, traffic jammed, polluted places in the East?  Are they really grasping Abrams' concept better than we are?  I'm not so sure.  We experience through language and perception.  This is a call to a knew way of thinking.

I appreciated everything about this class and how it opened up my eyes with the brief trips and tours around our little city.  It was engaging and creative.  I've lived here for thirty four years and can't say i would ever be in any hurry to live anywhere else.  I really enjoyed playing the role of " extreme novice, amateur, wish i knew what i was doing," camera/video guy.  This is something i know 10 yr. olds are doing these days.  However, like the indigenous people of old; as we passed them up with technology through time, so does the the 10 yr. old pass up some of us less technically advanced college students.  -IM

Abram

            What is Abram’s argument according to my interpretation? Simply stated that humanity is becoming to one or two dimensional in our daily lives. As individuals, communities and societies we must learn to fully interpret all the different dynamics that help form our daily lives. We must learn to see what truly makes a scene become so dynamic no matter how mundane the scene can be at the start or at the end. Individuals in our society are becoming less dimensional on a consistent basis, instead we look at the world as Black or White, True or False, Right and Wrong. We do not go into what creates the scene, what factors are exerting its influence upon the situation.

            For myself I learned to look deeper into the situation, to see what is creating this scene before my eyes. Will I be able to grasp it right from the beginning or will I have to look closely and try to gather my thoughts. Was that the intention of the scene, or piece of art, or anything in life at all? Before I would just take a picture, more importantly I would take photography of sporting events. Now I have learned that the camera can bring out more provoking thought then a simple phrase said by any individual. The phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, now comes with more meaning when thought of by itself. Each picture now seen helps show that all elements must be accounted for and thought about as individual elements and how it works to create the larger picture before oneself.

            Finally I believe that the larger pictures that form help create an even larger portrait. No longer is the world just one huge element, instead it is made up of millions, and trillions, probably beyond comprehension how many elements are being utilized. Maybe that is why Abrams is writing, he wants us to realize that no matter how we view the world, there is a larger and a smaller picture that is being contributed towards.

Abram

Brian Gramoll

Hum Media

1 August 2013

Lost in Translation 

The year is 2013 the people of the planet are in a technological state of fever. Everyday millions of email and texts are sent across the globe. Just set and near a busy road like Garden of the Gods and watch the drivers pass by not looking at the road but looking at their cell phone. The book The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram is a wake up call for those that are lost in the technological world that we all live in. “And today you read these printed words as tribal hunters once read the tracks of deer, moose, and bear printed in the soil of the forest floor.” This quote from Abram tells as that the world in slowly losing site of the natural existence. In the past people depend on nature for their survival, and now nature is something the government must intervene to protect from the people that once depended on to live. The hunter that tracks his food for days to feed his family. Learning the natural trail so that he may hunt again to support his own. All anyone needs to learn now is to navigate to the nearest super market there all the supplies are at own finger tips. Furthermore, Abram has a chapter call The Forgetting and Remember of the Air. Yet again he is trying to remind us to remember where we came from. He speaks to us about the a Hebrew word ruach which is translated as both wind and spirit. The wind was the beginning of life and now we take it for-granted. Due to the fact that we are wrapped up with our technological lives. Lets that the class for example all the of our assignments are post to a computer which reaches out across the internet. Yet we visited many natural sites through out the city trying to get back to the natural world. God started with wind and now we do not appreciate that which was given to us. We think we can continue using our natural resources to our own advance without repercussion we had better think again. This book is a warning to world to not forget where we came from.

Abram

      In David Abram's book, The Spell of the Sensuous, he gives many arguments regarding the way that human beings relate, or do not relate to nature as we should be doing. He mentions that everything nature does- birds flying, tracks of animals, even territory markers- is a part of the language of the world (95). We take what nature gives us and interpret it into what we as humans think it should be. The species of nature communicate one to another simply by existing and doing the natural acts that they do. Upon talking to someone about this topic, I was informed that the extinction of the Dodo bird led to the extinction of a certain tree (I am unable to recall the type of tree). I forgot the details, but this is because the Dodo bird was doing something to the seeds of the tree that enabled the trees to continue growing throughout. When I heard that story, I was surprised at how I had not thought of the effects that one species can have on another.
      Before starting this class, I did not really like the idea of trying to understand nature. I did not enjoy trying to make myself go for a walk and just enjoy walking, or seeing what the world is made of. In fact, I still do not enjoy that. However, one thing that has changed throughout the course of this class, is that I now appreciate people who do make efforts to be one with nature, or people who like the to be pensive of nature. I respect that, and props to you if you are one of those people. Personally, I enjoy nature for what it is, and I have a better appreciation for the way that it works than I did before. I am still probably not going to be in love with nature, but at least now I better understand why people would be.