Next nature: ‘nature caused by people’

Here is the wordle for Sue Thomas’ piece “Next nature: ‘nature caused by people’”. I’ve made all the words lowercase and applied the ‘moss’ colour scheme, lending a more ‘organic’ feel to the graphic. Nature dominates, but the eye is drawn to mishmash of the natural and the (human) constructed: world, science, design, technology, meat, plants, grow, etc. as well as the ambiguous and intriguing ‘next’. Looking deeper, the pattern continues with more specific language. It’s our natural environment and human activity all mashed up, big and small. Nature dominates, but human activity surrounds it, filling every nook and cranny.

I guess I’d better read the article.

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Reference


Thomas,  S. (2013). “Next nature: ‘nature caused by people’,” Journal of Professional Communication, 3.2, Article 5, http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/jpc/vol3/iss2/5

Wordle Map and Video Games

I chose the article "Study: Relaxing Video Games Make People Kinder."

Had I not read the article before creating the image, I would have assumed that this was some sort of study on the impacts of students playing video games.  But I would not have assumed that 'kinder' was the focus.  Maybe people play games to relaxed, violent or not.  In this word map "violent" is easier to spot than "nonviolent" in both size and colour.  Red is often associated with war, blood, fire and violence, gray is emotionless and dull, and black with power and death.  In no way would I have assumed this was connected to a study involving calming video games featuring the ocean.

Moore, E. (2011). “Study: Relaxing Video Games Make People Kinder,” CNet,http://www.cnet.com/news/study-relaxing-video-games-make-people-kinder/

Concepts in ecopsychology: Module 9 blog

Daniel B. Smith's article "Is There an Ecological Unconscious?" serves as an introduction to ecopsychology (2010). Some useful vocabulary explained in the piece:

1. Glenn Albrecht's definition of "solastalgia" as "the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault . . . a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at ‘home’” (cited in Smith, 2010),
2. Ecopsychology as a "psychological subfield" that posits that "grief, despair and anxiety are the consequences of dismissing equally deep-rooted ecological instincts" (Smith), and 
3. E.O. Wilson's definition of "biophilia" as the "innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes" (cited in Smith).

Certainly, the words that are emphasized in the above graphic emphasize the concepts behind these definitions. On the side of "nature", falls similar words: "environmental", "ecological" and "environment". On the side of "psychological", falls "ecopsychology", "psychologist", "therapeutic" and "health". 

Without reading "Is There an Ecological Unconscious?", from this graphic I would assume that the article discusses the intersection of nature and psychology. 

References

Smith, D. B. (2010, January 27). "Is There an Ecological Unconscious?" The New York Times. Retrieved March 21, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31ecopsych-t.html.