EcoLit 313

                Today inside the tree, there are spiders everywhere. I mean it. Crawling and hanging from branches, the spiders have taken over the tree. At first, I thought this was excellent. There are so many different species of little creatures scuttling and skipping around on quick legs, coexisting and interacting with each other, that our human idea of “diversity” looks boring by comparison. Imagine if humans could create intricate cities out of material produced from our own bodies with the help of other humanoid creatures that are twice or half our size. Spiders are great. Maybe we’re not as advanced as we think we are, in some ways. We can’t even handle difference within our own species, so we would probably handle coexisting with another species like us very poorly.

What is happening in the tree? Is it spidering? Is it crawling, weaving, or living? These creatures do too much in their complicated lives to be simplified to a word like this. It isn’t fair to them. No writing is fair to them. Only a spider can really constitute a spider. A word about a spider doesn’t really mean much.

"i can't trust him anymore" she takes a step to the side, three-fourths angle, quarter turn,
"if you say you're going" another three-fourths angled stepping, quarter-turned,
"you have to carry through," pots and pans ring over and through her speech she turns on the one she speaks

she is speaking but in her speech is her dance; and her movement is dance is speech, i can't focus on exact words or subject but can only watch her sway hin-und-hinter, arms swiging emotion outward, each turn punctuating point, a symbolic universe of referential comings-and-goings, at once meant as performance of self, for no-one's eyes, yet a performance for the speaker on the other end of the line; her feet shuffle, wandering yet placed

i feel overwhelming voyerism and turn away in shame, a watcher knowing one is being watched in turn: i turn my eyes to the sky as the hair pricks on the back of my neck-- gaze or cool breeze? no creatures are winging, or watching. it seems as though i am the only one looking from this level.

cold gusts behind me, rushing from the west. i look east, toward the new upcroppings of Hilton Suites. i wonder, if such status and priveledge is afforded to those who have a view,

why do we not place greater importance on the bird's eye-view
as it moves from cold northern mountains to southern oceanside
(not the warm plateau)

I am going to tell my walking story in the manner of a Keres tale. A dictionary can be found here (Queres = Keres).

FIRST TELLING

Where weathered rock and flowing water meet

When hot, moist air retreats at summer’s end;

Above, the vivid boughs do speak of fall

While underfoot the earth prepares for sleep.

The sparrow hops upon the iron rail

While under trees cicadas speak their death.

KERES TELLING

Not so long ago. In Kuwami from Tidyami the ts'itsi arrived. Here came Shuum'ə Daaw'aatra from Uw'aititaan Daaw'aatra, from Tidyami. K'uisrka went and k'uuchini came to the trees. Many animals go at kasraiti's end. 

As I made my observations today I found myself wondering about the scientific classifications of the plants I was seeing. I decided that it would be interesting to be a little more informed about the flowers I was looking at.

Using this site as a reference (http://www.mywildflowers.com/) This is what I came up with:

Flower 1: Great Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata)

Other common names: Blanket Flower, Common Gaillardia

Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower)

Height: 2 to 4 ft.

Blooms: July to September

Leaf Type: smooth

Bloom Size:  2 in. (typical)

Flower Description: Individual flowers, Regular blooms, 8 parts

Notes: stems and leaves hairy; petals have 3 tips

Flower 2: Thin-Leaved Sunflower (Helianthus decapetalus)

Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower)

Height: 2 to 5 ft.

Blooms: August to September

Leaf Type: toothed

Bloom Size:  2 in. (typical)

Flower Description: Individual flowers, Regular blooms, 10 or more parts

                In reexamining one of the class’ visual representations, I chose to reexamine the visualization I had previously looked at, the one that was a shot of the Haverford Nature Trail. As I am looking at the image once again while keeping in mind the keywords we were using in class, I managed to come up with some new ways to visualize my picture. When I first began to reexamine the photo, I was under the impression that the definitions of the words would clearly fit in with the visualization of the Nature Trail or they wouldn’t. In my view, permaculture did not fit well with the photo’s image, as the Nature Trail was not designed for agricultural purposes and gives off no sign of being a self-sustaining natural system. On the other hand though, I was harder time examining the photos and trying to figure out whether anthropocentric and garden fit into the visualization of the image. It could be argued by some that the Nature Trail as displayed in the photo, is not an example of an anthropocentric environment as the Nature Trail’s purpose is to highlight the natural qualities of the Haverford arboretum rather centralizing the focus on the artificial and man-made aspects of the campus. At the same time though, the Nature Trail was created with the intent of increasing human enjoyment of the campus and the arboretum.

After I posted this image, Anne directed me to the “Women in walled communities” 360. I’ve been thinking more about the school as an institution (which, for me, has negative connotations), keeping us walled in. Is there an invisible wall in my 'Sound of Music' image? The mountains as a geographical/physical/visible obstacle, the convent as ideological/mental/invisible obstacle?

Am I resilient to these walls? By selecting an image that shows some sort of twisted freedom, I think that, perhaps, I am actively resisting that invisible structure.

On another note, I would categorize my image as anthropocentric – I chose an image centered on my human experience of Bryn Mawr; that is, one of emotional constraints and freedoms, imposed by other humans and the physical structures that house this campus/institution. Even though I chose to foreground and background different aspects, the campus is still designed (tweaked and treated with specific regard to human life and convenience) around people, so why shouldn’t I map it in this way?