It is scientifically proven that there are direct links to how classical music affects our brain function, cognition. Melodies and sonatas that act to stimulate our brain’s reasoning. We may not have evolved with orchestras playing in the background. But, cavemen had similar symphonies to listen to. Nature’s playlist, her symphony; the rushing stream, fresh and clean. Strong winds and water carving and moving rocks. We were immersed into the wonders of our living world early on. We were left to wonder about it. Remain fascinated by it.
Which is why we wanted to understand it. Enhance our reasoning to prove the laws of the universe. Physics, science, Newton, changed and shaped the world a man looked at and walked in. We understood that the earth wasn’t flat. We wouldn’t fall off the edge. The ways in which we wondered about our planet, they embraced each other, running hand in hand, developing our brain’s capacity to think. To imagine what grew on the other side. What language do they speak?
The evolutionary development of our senses allowed us to experience nature’s glory. Building an intimate bond with powerful forces we cannot see.
Colour, light, and sound, filter and give shape to our world. We dig our feet into the moist, damp grass. Swat away the mosquitoes, wipe our sweat. A little girl runs her fingers through the cold running stream. An elderly woman breathes in flower laden oxygen. The evolutionary development of our senses allowed us to experience nature’s glory. Building an intimate bond with powerful forces we cannot see.
It is a biological affair, painted in psychological affects. The frequencies of nature living things respond to are around us and within us. Sometimes, it’s as if you can almost feel it. Pulsing deep down. Plants listen to music, they like it. We listen to music, we like it. Aren’t we all organisms, reacting to and responding to the signals our environments send us? Our world is growing, pulsing, breathing. A reminder that the world around us is very much alive. Like us.
Our planet is ever more present, broken and paining, but living.
The Unending Attraction of Nature (1970/1971) by Max Peintner. | (jamiereid.org n.d.)
Animals feel and hear, although these are intrinsically instinctive senses, and can foretell natural disasters. Reacting and showing signs of distress and movement which then alerts us, less-intuitive-to-earth humans. The listening-in and around part, we lost somewhere along the way. I had the chance of coming across an image Jamie Reid had featured in one of his Suburban Press publications. It’s called The Unending Attraction of Nature (1970/1971) by Max Peintner. It’s an image that’s stayed with me, and I think always will. The above image , adapted and renamed as Nature still draws a crowd by Reid is a coloured giclée print of Peintner’s work. Peintner centres the intimacy of the forest in the middle of a stadium. Setting the forest within a dystopia.
Klaus Littmann FOR FOREST - The Unending Attraction of Nature, (2019), Wörthersee Stadium, Klagenfurt, Austria, Photo: UNIMO. | (Wank 2019)
FOR FOREST by Klaus Littmann – All photos by Gerhard Maurer unless indicated otherwise: ©For Forest. | (archipanic 2019)
In September 2019, for about two months, Klaus Littmann brought the native Central European forest Peintner had envisioned to the Wörthersee Stadium, Austria. Bringing Peinter’s pencil drawing from the 1970s to life, 300 mature, growing, living trees were planted. Though temporary, For Forest addresses our changing times. Quoting the words of Littmann, anyone can interpret a single tree or all the trees together as “a philosophical symbol of life.”[1] We’re placed into an unorthodox and uncomfortable position, as a forest, living, growing life is put on spectacle. It’s a direct embodiment of the Anthropocene. It is also a reminder that our world is surviving, growing, pushing, breathing. Like us.
The Unending Attraction of Nature by Max Peintner (1970/1971). | (For Forest n.d.)
The Unending Attraction of Nature by Klaus Littmann (2019). | (The Earth Issue 2019)
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Reference
[1] Block, India. 2019. Laus Littmann plants forest in Austrian football stadium. September 10. https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/10for-foest-klaus-littmann-trees-stadium-installation-austria-design/amp.
Image Source
archipanic. 2019. ‘FOR FOREST’: BRINGING AN ALPINE FOREST INTO AN AUSTRIAN STADIUM, TO MAKE STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE. September 26. https://www.archipanic.com/for-forest/.
For Forest. n.d. MAX PEINTNER AND “THE UNENDING ATTRACTION OF NATURE”. https://forforest.net/en/news/max-peintner-and-the-unending-attraction-of-nature/.
jamiereid.org. n.d. Nature Still Draws A Crowd. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/435652963942851643/.
The Earth Issue. 2019. FOR FOREST – The Unending Attraction of Nature. October 20. https://www.theearthissue.com/news/for-forest.
Wank, Luise. 2019. A Curator Has Moved a Forest to a Soccer Stadium as a Warning About Climate Change. Here Is a First Look at the Epic Artwork. September 5. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/klaus-littmann-installation-2019-1641940.
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