Response: Passivity - An Ecocentric Paradigm for Collaborating with Natural Processes

In this essay, Adam Clarke exposes a sort of epidemic that has taken over society as a whole. The intense lack of respect for the naturally aesthetic and perplexing should bother us every day, but instead we ignore or even partake in the destruction.

To regain our rights in nature, Clarke suggests that we try a process as artists called passive collaboration. When one executes passive collaboration correctly there is no trace of manmade objects; in fact, the truths of nature that were there all along are revealed to the viewer. We can see examples of this attitude or approach to art making in the works of Andy Goldsworthy who understands that using so much as a knife in his artwork is vaguely intrusive upon nature.

I enjoyed how the process of passive collaboration was also referred to as re-enchanting nature. I like to think that this section of the essay calls for artists to reinvent themselves through nature in a non-destructive way. We must prove ourselves, not in the way that Robert Smithson did to the gallery world, but to nature in order to show that we can be a part of the cycle of the earth without destroying it. For me, the best way to understand Clarke's words is to be conscious of the materials I use and the marks I make, because they may have permanent affects on our earth. If I just use what is around me and my brain, I will be able to help bring out the spark of nature's cyclic beauty. This is of the utmost importance; after all, we will only be here for a short time, and then, the earth will just keep on turning.