Can Civilization and Nature Coexist?

"Civilization isolates all of us, ideologically and physically, from the source of all life - nature"

The DJ Spooky article certainly drifts a good bit, as I said like free form jazz. It seems to be the guy's mindset. His emphasis on the importance of nature and being in tune with that music does make sense to a certain degree. He suggests we should use our technology to help us "reconnect" with nature, his example being the WTC sound project and his work converting the sound of nature into sampling. In a way we do constantly 'sample' from nature all the time, we've looked to it for inspiration in art all the time. He seems to insinuate that the internet is like the massive archive we can 'sample' for human creations and ideas. Once again this is a smart metaphor, nature and the internet have this in common (even though nature is archived only by it's process of natural selection.)


If his goal was to raise awareness of the importance of our connection to nature, (which is indeed critical as many massive environmental issues from oil to bees is intimately tied to our survival as a race) then yes his suggestions are relevant. However, he seems to just be proposing that we do what we have always done. Draw inspiration from nature! Honestly a big part of art is to shake us out of the disillusioning isolation that is everyday modern life, and art is an opportunity to remind of our natural roots. However architecture, city planning, and environmental progressives also play an important role. This quote demonizes civilization, when civilization is one of humanity's greatest accomplishments. Sure, it has lead to pollution, isolation, and a myriad of other issues. Humanity is about building and progressing, it is in our own nature! The world we have created isn't simply built on convenience and comfort(although some skeptics would argue to the contrary), we are creators. While artist are well known (from music to painting) to be the key creative creators to help preserve natural roots, that role is also the job of our planners, architects, and many other creative types. They also should work to help blend human society back with nature without compromising human needs. A fantastic example of this can be found in Corbusier's city planning or Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural genius. DJ Spooky is basically emphasizing a theme to remind us of nature, but to really bring it into daily life you have to physically change the landscape. We are a smart and ambitious civilization, and we can find a way to make this work if we can just break the somewhat distinctly American culture of inflexibility and NIMBY-ism (Not In My BackYard, usually found in Nuclear Power debates but that's a different issue.)


I think that civilization and nature aren't polar opposites as presented in the quote, if anything that is an example of the speaker's own human centric thinking. Our civilization is built with the tools and supplies we find in nature, so it is still in essence a part of it. It's really just important to insure we still see nature everyday as a reminder of where we are from, and learn to design and build around that fact