{"id":1571,"date":"2018-02-10T20:06:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-10T20:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/katehollett.com\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2022-04-03T13:33:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-03T13:33:24","slug":"treedom-displaced-disconnected-environmentalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/?p=1571","title":{"rendered":"Treedom &#8211; Displaced, Disconnected, Environmentalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-1571\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-1571-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-1571-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-1571-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_media_video panel-first-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><h3 class=\"widget-title\">&#8216;Sunset&#8217; My Pet Tree<\/h3><div style=\"width:100%;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-1571-1\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/youtube\" src=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FiueRVdo4mU?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FiueRVdo4mU\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/FiueRVdo4mU<\/a><\/video><\/div><\/div><div id=\"panel-1571-0-0-1\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-last-child\" data-index=\"1\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<p>ART on the MOOC: Merging Public Art and Experimental Education,<br \/>\nFor Duke University<\/p>\n<p>Intent:<\/p>\n<p>The intent of the project was to displace an object so that it\u2019s likely placement would provoke thoughts and responses about environmentalism, social media and disconnection.<\/p>\n<p>Taken to the extreme, we may see a day when a tree could become a pet. On the other side, environmentalism is often seen as a form of religion with us as the gods.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor some individuals and societies, the role of religion seems increasingly to be filled by environmentalism. It has become \u201cthe religion of choice for urban atheists,\u201d according to Michael Crichton, the late science fiction writer (and climate change sceptic).<\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>The video is also a critique on social media and 21st century relationships based on human projections onto animals. Social media has made pets famous. Youtube hosts an annual LOLCAT video contest. We make videos of pets and memes of animals are human projections. We are more and more connected to our pets than we are committed in love relationships.<\/p>\n<p>And it is financially successful. In one of many examples, investor Ben Huh, bought the site icanhascheezbuger, a site based on pet meme photos. The site now boasts 1.6 million views per day.  <\/p>\n<p>In an article entitled \u201cWhy Do We love Our Pets\u201d, in Psychology Today, Gwen Cooper answers it this way: <\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026the truth is that it's so easy to make an animal happy-so much easier than it seems to be to make other people happy.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The project uses humour to entice the passersby into engaging. The video was created to mimic an amateur pet story by using basic photography shot on a cell phone and edited it with personal comments. <\/p>\n<p>The music is an old fashioned music box playing \u201cYou Are My Sunshine\u201d  from 1939. The music box plays out the child-like innocence of one\u2019s first pet. <\/p>\n<p>By personalizing the experience and taking it to the extreme, I am asking the public to consider the possibility of trees as pets. At the same time, anyone with a pet may relate to the childlike fun that comes from connecting to \u2018someone\u2019 you love.<\/p>\n<p>Results:<\/p>\n<p>There were several reactions to the project. Generally the tree was seen as fun, amusing. There were a few people that seemed annoyed at the act. And there were others that seemed to react out of fear, as if I was perhaps reliving a Twin Peaks moment.<\/p>\n<p>From a personal experience, it was surprisingly easy to project emotions into the tree.  It was not hard to imagine this as a next step in the 21st century environmental religion.<\/p>\n<p>As an artist, the experience was process based. Each step along the way fed into the direction the project took. Initially the tree would be a tourist, new to the big city and taken around to all the sights.  After arranging to be included in a city tour, I realized that it had to be more personal to make the point.  One can empathize with the story, relate to the emotion, the desire to love and connect.<\/p>\n<p>The project has potential to be expanded into a series of \u2018adventures \u2018and pet tree memes with a website for additional tree pet lovers.I<\/p>\n<p>If anyone is interested in participating in further work with this project, contact http:\/\/katehollett.com\/?page_id=666<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ART on the MOOC: Merging Public Art and Experimental Education, For Duke University Intent: The intent of the project was to displace an object so that it\u2019s likely placement would provoke thoughts and responses about environmentalism, social media and disconnection. Taken to the extreme, we may see a day when a tree could become a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allsorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1575,"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions\/1575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katehollett.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}