{"id":3308,"date":"2020-12-03T15:00:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/?page_id=3308"},"modified":"2020-12-07T19:15:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:15:16","slug":"jonah-amron","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/jonah-amron\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonah Amron"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-larger-font-size\"><strong><em>Great Separation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cGreat Separation\u201d is an exploratory piece aimed at questioning the idea that humans are separate from the natural world. The film looks at how using a noun based language like English actually influences this separation by changing how we perceive things that are different from us. I hope by capturing moments of interconnected life that a new perspective can be fostered in the viewer, provoking new ideas about our contemporary existence.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DocFinal\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/486599036?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1505\" height=\"847\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I began this journey trying to answer the question \u201chow do humans determine the value of life\u201d? It took me some time to realize that this is a loaded question and was too difficult to answer in a short doc. This documentary was created during the pursuit of that question\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the past 200 years our relationship with the natural world has drastically changed. More humans than ever before live in urban environments. These environments change how humans interact and understand the world around us. Urban nature is controlled. It is surrounded by fences and walls kept in check with blades, chemicals and concrete.&nbsp;Urban nature is separate. In the USA, our culture has influenced this divide. Professor Robin Wall Kimmer, an Environmental Forest Biologist at SUNY College of New York explains that even our language influences our view of the natural world. \u201cEnglish is a noun based language, almost 70 percent of the words are nouns, this is somehow appropriate for a culture so obsessed with things.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;The language we speak, the science we use, the religions we practice, all these social constructs, subtly influence how we perceive the natural world.&nbsp;I wanted to capture the story of the resilience of life without these influences, because although our society has made us feel separate, we are not, and cannot, be separate. For wherever there is water, nutrience, and light, there will be life and as long as we are alive we are a part of it. I set out to capture the connectedness of humans&#8217; relationship with the natural world even within our constructed environments.&nbsp;Images and videography seemed to be the perfect medium to do this. I ventured out to find a new perspective.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Western science, life is defined as all physical entities that have biological processes. I wanted to learn more about life, so I headed down to Albany to an urban farm called the Radix Ecological Sustainability Center and got a tour of their greenhouse. However, I still felt this wasn&#8217;t exactly what I was looking for, this space was too controlled by humans. Humans built this greenhouse, they sowed the seeds, they plowed the fields. I needed to search places humans once dwelled but now had new inhabitants. A place humans were not controlling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My friend mentioned an abandoned hospital in Bakersville, just a short drive from Saratoga, this would be a great place to begin my search. Unoccupied since the 1980s, the building was damaged extensively. However, new occupants had taken-up residency. Squirrels and chipmunks had found refuge in the basement, pigeons and ravens nested in the rafters and the rooms themselves were filled with trees, mold, and moss. Wherever there was water and light, life was found. Leaving the building I felt excited and hopeful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continuing my search, I heard about an abandoned factory outside of Albany called the First Prize Center, a meat packaging plant that closed in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The building was much larger than I imagined. There was a ton of debris on the ground, and because there was no outside staircase, I had to navigate the inside in the pitch black. Thankfully, I found the stairs. Ascending was a little treacherous, but entirely worth it. As my eyes readjusted to the sunlight, I was greeted by a long-time resident; an adolescent box elder tree. I was so happy to meet them. I looked across the roof, and was aw-struck. An entire forest was thriving there. Although abandoned, the factory was more alive than ever before. As its roof caved in, water, light, and nutrients followed to other parts of the factory. Seeds brought by the wind, or carried by birds, found their homes within the rubble. As the trees grew, their roots journeyed throughout the building. Where wires once hung, roots and mycelium fungi took their place.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While walking through the building, I couldn\u2019t help but smile at the irony of a meat slaughtering and packaging factory now being a habitat for so much life. Professor Wall Kimmerer once said, \u201cEnglish does not give us many tools for incorporating respect for animacy. In English you either are a human or a thing.\u201d In my language, the tree is a separate thing from the factory itself, which is entirely separate from what I am. With my language, it is hard to explain the interconnectedness of this factory; that the tree that has rooted on its roof is part of a larger process that I am only viewing for a brief moment. Capturing these moments was the perfect way to convey my message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Potawatomi people, an indigenous group from the American Great Plains, used a verb-based language. One word, Wiikegama, is \u201ca verb that means to be a bay. To be a bay, releases the water from bondage&#8230;understanding that for this moment, the living water has decided to shelter itself between these shores.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wanted a word for \u201cto be a tree,\u201d \u201cto be a building,\u201d so I could truly explain this tree as being here momentarily. So I could truly describe the connectedness and resilience of its life. Black Elk said, \u201cWe know that we are related and are one with all things of the heaven and earth and we know that all things that move are people as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although we put up walls, create languages, and describe life in different ways, at its core, all life comes from the same origins. We all require the same things, no matter how separate we feel. Because I don\u2019t have the correct words, capturing these moments of connectedness is integral to understanding there is no separation between humans and nature, just the walls we create.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Works Cited<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DeMaille, Raymond J., and Douglas R. Parks.&nbsp;<em>Sioux Indian Religion Tradition and Innovation&nbsp;<\/em>. University of Oklahoma Press, 1987. Print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kimmer, Robin.&nbsp;<em>Braiding Sweetgrass<\/em>. Canada: Milkweed, 2013. Print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Randy Wood.&nbsp;<em>How the Stars Shine for You.&nbsp;<\/em>, 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:29.7%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--1\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link no-border-radius\" href=\"http:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/projects\/\">Return to Projects<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Great Separation The \u201cGreat Separation\u201d is an exploratory piece aimed at questioning the idea that humans are separate from the natural world. The film looks at how using a noun based language like English actually influences this separation by changing how we perceive things that are different from us. I &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3308","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3308"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3509,"href":"https:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3308\/revisions\/3509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdocs.skidmore.edu\/mediumrare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}