Construction of Natures and Protests on Instagram: A Study of Virtual Environmental Activism in India During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in India restricted ‘real world’ protests, shifting dissent to digital spaces. In this article we explore virtual environmental activism on Instagram by looking at two case-studies that gained prominence during this period. The first was the death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala by consuming cracker-laden food meant to deter boars from crop-raiding. The second was an oil and gas leak in Baghjan, an ecologically sensitive region in Assam. Through content analysis of ‘Top’ posts, we thematically classified the representations of nature and non-humans constructed through Instagram visuals, identifying overlaps and contradictions in the two cases. Observing that the images of animals in pain generated massive response, we argue that Susan Sontag’s (2003) framework on the haunting power of images of human suffering can be expanded to include non-humans. These visuals highlight certain creatures, excluding other species and vilifying human communities belonging to the same landscapes. We show how unilinear models of economic development and progress, as well as hierarchical and casteist notions in Hinduism continue to shape environmental debates in India. The religious overtones discount the environmental discourse based on scientific knowledge, and disrupt nuances of community driven action. By tracing the online trajectories of the two protests, we also illustrate how virality limits Instagram activism by sidelining local voices and privileging short-lived consumer action over systemic change.

The Sea Was Ever a Sertão: Terra Incognita in Moby-Dick and Grande sertão: veredas

In this article, I read João Guimarães Rosa’s Grande sertão: veredas as an extended contemplation of the Brazilian backlands region known as the sertão, comparing it with Herman Melville’s timeless novel Moby-Dick; or, the Whale, which I read in a similar vein (but with regard to the sea). In this analysis, sea and sertão overlap and become largely interchangeable. In doing so, I also comment on the importance of the way in which we conceive of nature in general, and of the sea and the sertão specifically. The article employs Jedediah Purdy’s idea of the environmental imagination and Steven Vogel’s concept of humility before nature as they relate to perceptions of the environment (and the world) through a literary lens. In short, my focus is on exploring how literary representations of nature can condition readers’ attitudes and behaviors toward it. After detailing the similarities between both narrators’ perceptions and descriptions of sea/sertão as incomprehensible spaces that invite narrators (and readers) to self-discovery, I discuss the potential effects these narratives can have in shaping readers’ perceptions of the environment and their relation to the world in which they live.

Southern Green Cultural Criminology and Environmental Crime Prevention: Representations of Nature Within Four Colombian Indigenous Communities

This exploratory study develops a “southern green cultural criminology” approach to the prevention of environmental harms and crimes. The main aim is to understand differing cultural representations of nature, including wildlife, present within four Colombian Indigenous communities to evaluate whether they encourage environmentally friendly human interactions with the natural world, and if so, how. The study draws on primary data gathered by the Indigenous authors (peer researchers) of this article via a set of interviews with representatives of these four communities. We argue that the cosmologies that these communities live by signal practical ways of achieving ecological justice and challenging anthropocentrism.

“That’s the Wonder of It”: Affective Dimensions of Visual Rhetoric for Biodiversity Conservation

In environmental communication, audience engagement is an essential prerequisite for achieving persuasive aims. This article responds to recent interest in visual storytelling and emotionalization – purposeful display and elicitation of emotions – as engagement techniques. A case study of the 2020 Global Biodiversity Festival – part online science festival, part fundraising event – provides evidence of how these techniques are employed in environmental communication for biodiversity conservation. Informed by scholarship on affect, emotion, visual rhetoric, and environmental communication, the case study analysis shows how visual representations of nature, mediated experiences of nature, and accompanying narration orient festival audiences toward specific ways of seeing and feeling that foreground emotional commitments and draw audiences into potentially transformative encounters. The visual rhetoric and affective dimensions of the festival’s website, virtual fi eld trips, and multimodal presentations focus attention, create moments of connection, and call audiences to action. The case study analysis also reveals how the festival, planned in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, treats this crisis as a kairotic moment for encouraging awareness, care, and pro-environmental behaviors.

Methodological Basis Of Creation, Organization And Decoration Of Platter's Artistic Composition In Applied Art

The article contains all the patterns that have been used since ancient times in Applied Arts, although they are conditional representations of nature and reality, they have their own rules, and these rules are derived in a stylized way from nature itself. The article provides information on the artistic processing of the bowl, which is typical of the art of woodcarving.

Safe from what? Understanding environmental non-migration in Chilean Patagonia through ontological security and risk perceptions

Why do communities prefer to stay in place despite potentially dangerous changes in their environment, even when governmental support for outmigration or resettlement is provided? That is the key question this paper seeks to answer. Voluntary immobility is a burgeoning research topic in environmental change-related migration studies, although the role of local sense-making of perceived risks and migration pressures has received only little attention. In order to examine decisions for non-migration, we argue that we need to consider people’s ontological security, or subjective sense of existential safety, which shapes risk perceptions. We apply this to the case of Villa Santa Lucía in Chilean Patagonia, where the local population has rejected relocation policies after the village was severely damaged by a mudslide in December 2017. We show how this rejection is not based on the lack of abilities to move, but on a fundamentally different risk assessment grounded in locally specific social representations of nature and human-nature relations. This alternative understanding of environmental risks allows the local population to uphold their sense of ontological security while remaining in Villa Santa Lucía, and renders relocation to avoid exposure to natural hazards futile or even inconsistent with local identities. We conclude that local sense-making of environmental risks is an important component of a more fine-grained understanding of environmental non-migration decisions.

‘Muzak for Frogs’—Representations of ‘Nature’ in Decoder (1984)

This paper examines the various representations of ‘nature’ present in Decoder (1984), a German experimental cyberpunk film that was inspired by William S. Burroughs’ thoughts on utilising tapes as revolutionary weapons. Though Decoder is not a film one would easily associate with labels, such as ‘green’ or ‘environmental’, signs and images that represent or refer to ‘nature’ and non-human life are not omitted. Through a close reading of the film, the paper first explores the ways in which these representations convey and evoke certain meanings and associations and then elucidates the themes at play in the context of these representations.

Virtual Reality Representations of Nature to Improve Well-Being amongst Older Adults: a Rapid Review

Poor well-being amongst older adults poses a serious health concern. Simultaneously, research shows that contact with nature can improve various facets of well-being, including physical, social, and mental well-being. However, nature is not always accessible for older adults due to mobility restrictions and related care needs that come with age. A promising strategy aims at bringing nature inside through pervasive technologies. However, so far, there is little academic understanding of essential nature characteristics, psychological processes involved, and means for implementation in practice. The current study used a three-folded rapid review to assess current understanding and strategies used for improving well-being for older adults through virtual reality representations of nature. Searches were performed across three databases, followed-up by content-based evaluation of abstracts. In total, a set of 25 relevant articles was identified. Only three studies specifically focus on digital nature as an intervention strategy for improving well-being amongst older adults. Although these studies provide useful starting points for the design and (technological) development of such environments, they do not generate understanding of how specific characteristics of virtual nature representations impact social well-being measures in particular, and of the underlying psychological processes involved. We conclude that follow-up research is warranted to close the gap between insights and findings from nature research, gerontology, health research, and human-technology interaction.

Dominant Anthropocentrism in the Representations of Nature in Jakarta Post “Destinations” Travel Articles

Travel, travel writing, and tourism industry are today inseparable although travelers are noted to try to distance themselves from tourists. Seen in the critical context of the potential harms caused by tourism, travel article (a sub-genre of travel writing commonly published in mass media) might contribute in one way or another. Therefore, a study on this sub-genre is important to gain a better insight of the degree of its participation in the potentially harmful impact of tourism. This essay covers a study on travel articles from the “Destinations” section of The Jakarta Post between September to December 2017. The articles are analyzed for words, sentences, or passages that in one way or another represent to nature. The purpose of this study is to explore and explain how tourism articles represent nature. By extension, I hope to demonstrate how today’s travel articles might contribute to the potentially damaging impact of tourism on nature. Throughout the research, I discovered that there are seven ways in which writers represent nature in the studied texts. These ways include representations that focus on 1) spirituality, 2) visual beauty, 3) celebration of popular culture, 4) social media presence, 5) mental rejuvenation, 6) prudent treatment of nature, and 7) concern for preservation. Further analysis on these seven ways of representation led to three tendencies in the representation of nature in the twenty articles, i.e. full anthropocentrism (which covers the first five ways of representation), thoughtful anthropocentrism (the sixth way of representation), and relative ecocentrism (the last type of representation). The unbalanced percentage of representations of nature in the first category appears to support the critical opinion of tourism. Therefore, I argue through the analysis that tourism writing contributes despite relatively small to the imminent threat of tourism industry on natural preservation.

Ìrègún Music and Sounding Spaces among Yagba-Yoruba People of Nigeria

Scholarship on Ìrègún music, as an indigenous musical tradition, has attested to the performance practices of the genre yet very little is known on the connections of the music to environmental sustainability and nature spaces. Representations of nature space generally serve as an anchor for societal norms, values, and virtues. This article examines the nature and cultural spaces in Ìrègún music. I employed ethnographic method with musical and textual analysis to examine the concept of nature, animals, and their cultural signifier in Ìrègún music. Through ecomusicology theory, I argue that Ìrègún songs serve as a tool for didactic, corrective, social, and environmental sustainability awareness spaces.