Urban Environments - Justice Le Tran Alexander

Growing up in an urban environment and traveling frequently to dense population centers has brought me to think about the contrasts with rural or countryside living. Cities shape not only how we move through spaces, but how we conceptualize nature's beginning. In a concrete jungle it becomes easy to see the nonhuman world to be distant or out of reach---somewhere you have to go out of your way to go to. So when Dr. Redick states, "A turn to the wild is also a gesture of opening oneself to the world of things that exist beyond the conceptual framing imposed by human beings" (American Camino pg. 44) it resonates. Urban environments indoctrinate seeing the world as intentional layerings of human architecture. Even public parks are designed in a way to mimic a perception of nature. Gardens are curated and managed in away which humans design they ought to. They function less as wilderness spaces and more as controlled areas which are within the main urban structure. 

Redick's point stresses that turning back to the wild requires a shift in perception as much as place. It asks to redirect our minds towards ways of living and types of materials which are independent of our presence and aptitude. For someone accustomed to urban living, this can feel like a de-centering of self in recognizing that the world continues to live outside of what humans deem to be an acceptable framework. When I visit or travel through the countryside I feel an innate sense of slowness. Not out of boredom but out of a need to experience a more integrated landscape. This is why I love to find forms of nature wherever I can. It is a continual journey to help reorient my concepts of the environment.

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