The Environment is a State of Mind

The environment is space, place and landscape combined. The landscape is an experience of place. We are part of the environment. We are attached to it. When we change place we also change ourselves. This provides the frame of reference – know your place. It is the reality associated with the social and gender-based environment.

We can try to rephrase the above in different terms. The environment is a state of mind, and a state of mind is an experience created by the subconscious of a moment spent in the environment. The environment is everything.

Everything depends on the point of view. How to place oneself in the world? Our sensory perception shapes our experiences of the environment. Together, sound, smell, light, colour, touch and emotion form a unique experience of space. The chill of a park in November can be experienced by going to the park. It can also be seen by looking out of a window or at a television screen. One can also hear a story about the chill of the park. When the perspective changes, the experience of the environment will also change.

Emphasizing perspective will underscore seeing. At best, seeing is insight about the environment. The teaching of environmental art must provide skills and ability to facilitate seeing and to expand perspectives.

The environment is a comprehensive sensory experience. Environmental art also entail the ethical issue of the justification of human action with regard to the environment. There are two kinds of environments – disturbed and untouched. The untouched, sacred environment (nature) is a background horizon against which all our actions are marked. The horizon defines the nature and scope of our actions. Environmental art is human action in the environment.

My emphasis in the teaching of environmental art lies in a comprehensive perception of the environment employing all the senses. A further distinct area of focus is the recognition of basic ethical values and realizing the idea of sustainable development in the works of students. I want to make the students address things such as the portrait of a road and issues related to roads as aesthetic entities by studying the relationship of the road with the environment, the landscape and various forms of moving from one place to another. With their works, the students can comment on faults and failings observed in the environment and propose solutions to them. They can also be a physical part of their works.

The environment, space, place, landscape and nature form a framework that achieves a specific shape in everyone’s mind depending on perspective. The environment is a mental image produced by the senses of a moment that is the best possible one for that particular existence.