Blog #11-Evansville, Indiana

This past weekend, some of the Psychology students, including myself, went to Evansville, Indiana for the MAUPRC (Mid-America Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference).  We went to present research on a topic of our interest.  It was a great experience!  The location was beautiful too.  We presented at USI, the University of Southern Indiana, and the campus was beautiful.  Where we stayed and presented was more of an urban area with lots of restaurants, shopping, and lodging.  However, the drive down and back was so beautiful.  It all just looked so natural and peaceful, like there were no interruptions.  There were beautiful, natural fields of bright yellow flowers that would stick out like a sore thumb.  I would just look out the window and think, wow this world is really a beautiful place and we need to better take care of it and appreciate it.  There is so much beauty this land has to offer and it's often, I believe, that we fail to appreciate it.  This class has really helped me better accept and understand what nature is and what is important to better understand it.  

The Barn

One of the most relaxing places that I enjoy being at is the barn where I ride. When I am there I am only concentrating on horses and my surroundings instead of all of the other stressors in my life. I love horses and this is probably why I find this so relaxing. I hope that one day I will have a horse farm and will have this relaxation available right in my back yard. This is me and my horse Max. Don't mind the goofy face, please and thank you.

Sounds

I started thinking about this when we were discussing music (or the absence of music) the other day in class, as well as when we went on our sound walk outside. One of the things that puts me in my most relaxed state of mind and relaxed place in general is music. There is some music that I could just listen to over and over, and could never get tired of. I have my iPod that I can basically take everyone with me which means that I know that anytime I need it I can listen to that to make me relaxed. I also think that music and sound is interesting in the idea that everyone can be different, what can be a pleasant sound or good music to me, can be terrible for the next person. I just think that it is interesting that everyone can have such different preferences when it comes to this topic.

MAUPRC (Evansville, IN)

As I type this, I am on my way home from Evansville Indiana. Some psychology students had to go to the MAUPRC conference to present research that we did. It took us about 4 hours to get there and about 4 hours to get back. During the car ride, I found myself looking out the window a lot, along the high way there were places that were just wooded areas. In other spots there were no woods, but instead big open fields, sometimes you could see the farms that went with those fields.

Listening to Nature

  The other day when we were sitting outside doing our little listening exercise, I came to a realization. We were supposed to be listening to the sounds of nature and anything else we could hear. As I sat there listening I realized that most of the noise I was hearing came from mostly man made objects such as the sound of the freeway and the sound of construciton. This erked me. When I think of aesthetically pleasing sounds of nature I don't think of freeways and construction sites...but should I? I began thinking and the more I thought the more disappointed I became.
  Humans are part of nature are they not? And as we've all learned nature evolves over time as did the human race. So if you think about it, aren't all man made structures part of nature? You look at a beaver for instance. Beavers make dams to live in. They make them out of materials that come from the earth and do this with their own two hands (or paws, whatever). If we were walking along a river or lake and happend to come across a beaver dam we would stop and stare in awe at how pretty and cool it was to see something so natural and what not. But we never seem to have that reaction when walking by your own house or driving down the highway. Humans are part of nature, and we built all our structures from materials that we pulled from the Earth making them structures of nature, right?
  These thoughts kind of disappointed me because in my own personal opinion, I enjoy the quiet, relaxed part of nature. The sounds of wind, trees, birds, and streams are what please me the most, not cars and bulldozers. But who am I to complain if these cars and bulldozers are just another aspect of this new evolved nature? I just hope it doesn't catch on more than it already has.

A Little Bird Told Me

I was just outside smoking on the concrete benches near where they are constructing "Madonna Meadow." Among hearing other smokers socializing and students hurrying to class, I looked out by the giant cage-like tree sculpture being built and noticed two birds. Ordinarily I don't think this would have struck a cord in me, so to speak. But knowing that I'm behind on my blogs, and all the chaos surrounding the closing of the semester, that I have Environmental Aesthetics class later,  I saw these little birds perched on one of the branches of the sculpture and for a second the stress tornado in my mind had ceased.

Nature no doubt does bring a sense of relaxation. And throughout the semester we've talked about a million reasons this could be, and a thousand theories that you can spin off of the effects of nature. A lot of what we've read about is critiquing the right way to view nature, and how humans effect the "goodness" of nature. But when I saw those little birds, just happy as can be sitting on the sculpture that we- humans- created from nature- trees, I couldn't help but think, "well they don't think its too bad do they."

We've listened to a lot of different opinions on how we humans effect nature. And I do agree that sometimes what we do to nature could be considered hostile or violating (I mean think about it, we transplant cow crap to construct our own perfect critiques of nature called "gardens", we move poop rather than let something happen naturally, how absurd!) however I don't think this is the case all the time. When I look at the cage-tree-enterance structure for Madonna Meadow, I don't feel like anything has been violated. I feel like it is paying homage to the beauty of nature. Not in a picturesque manner that you would have to frame, or in a poem that requires extensive comprehension of subject or concept, not even a critique.

A while ago there was a whole petition to get sculpture on Thomas More's campus. Some people didn't think it should be there at all, but others (a lot of the art geeks I'll admit) felt that it was vital to have sculpture, that it was aesthetically valuable to have in a college environment.

This all correlates, I promise.

After just this one piece of sculpture being constructed on our campus, I feel the decision was completely necessary. I can also gather after being in the presence of the sculpture, the beginning of what is to be a park, while in the midst of everyday social chaos that in the words of Samuel Jackson "I had what some alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity" I was experiencing nature, effected by humans, constructed in art, and I was appreciating nature, and like we've been reading in Bugbee, I didn't want to change it. I didn't want to understand the meaning of this sculpture by fitting into a previously created schema, I just sat, let it effect me, and listened. There was a moment when I was able to detach myself from my social agendas and buzzing surroundings and just rest, and appreciate those little birds.

We've discussed quite a plethora of ways to properly appreciate nature.
And damnit, I think I've just done it.

Chilling Environment

I wanted to take these last few blogs to take a look at some environments that we haven't discussed in class.  Whether one believes in ghosts, the paranormal, or the afterlife, it is hard to deny that some places just have a creepy feeling.  One particular place I have spent the night at (stupidly) was an old mansion called Prospect Place.  The property, located in Trinway, OH, allows the curious to spend one night ghost hunting with a private group, and my two friends and I couldn't resist.  The home belonged to an abolitionist named George Willison Adams who ran an underground railroad "station" with his brother.  The mansion and its adjoining barn are shrouded in mystery, which adds to the eerie, unsettling feeling one gets when the see the home, even when the sun is shining bright.  Once the mansion was abandoned, gangs and runaways stayed in the mansion and added to its dark environment.  The rooms smelled of mothballs and varnish, but the ballroom in the attic had a particularly musk with a hint of incense from the rituals that occurred during the mansion's darker, abandoned days.  The barn had by far the most unnerving feeling, especially since a bounty hunter was hung between the first and second floors once he was caught on the land while searching for runaway slaves (seen in the bottom photo).  A very interesting environment to be apart of, and one that we haven't delved deep into.