Rather than immediately produce a set of images for this exercise, what I am going to do for now is simply outline and describe some ideas, suggesting what they might contain and depict. Predictably, given the ideological views I expressed in the last post on the first part of this exercise, I am going to have another go at the fossil fuel industry, about which I am feeling all the more strongly as time goes on.
What I have in mind is a satire on an imagined brochure for an ecological theme park, another bit of greenwashing by a “green” non-renewable energy company. Not subtle, I am afraid, and very much aimed at highlighting the mythical company’s hypocrisy. In each case, for now, I am just going to identify the theme of a given part of the park and suggest a paradoxical photograph to accompany it:
The Arboretum – clear-felled tropical rain forest and fire ravaged woodland, as in Australia of late.
The Aquarium – a lake choked with algae and dead fish.
The Aviary – at best, glass cases filled with stuffed birds, otherwise oil-slicked seabirds, birds killed by pesticides and other chemicals in arable farm fields.
The Moorland – heather burning, grouse shooting, poisoned birds of prey.
The Wild Uplands – mountains of rubbish, piles of junked cars.
The Eco-Farm – batteries of chickens, penned pigs, piles of dead cows being burned for foot and mouth, BSE, Bovine TB, and any other avoidable animal diseases you can imagine.
Wild Nature – culled badgers, foxes and mountain hares hunted to death.
The Cafeteria – Mc Donalds.
Everywhere – “Keep Out” signs!
I could go on with more examples but frankly it would just get too depressing. More than just a but polemical I accept but this reflects some of how I feel at the moment. Certainly, as the brief for the exercise requires, I have taken an ideological standpoint.
Mark Robinson's OCA Landscape, Place & Environment Blog 