one thing i'm fascinated by (as evidenced by some of the pictures in the 'destroyed' book) is the human inclination to create spaces that are (or attempt to be) 100% lifeless. like airports. and parking garages. and shopping malls (plastic trees don't count as nature, unfortunately). and etc.
it sort of makes sense, as from an evolutionary perspective we've had a complicated relationship with the natural world. we like the natural world when it keeps us fed (i.e: oranges). we don't like the natural world when it kills us (i.e: smallpox. bears). and for millions (well, billions) of years we (and our ancestors, lemurs, for example) have been at the mercy of nature. we lived in caves and trees and fields and we were always getting eaten by something big (bears) or small (bacteria). and now humans have, ostensibly, figured out how to control the natural world (although i still don't have hair, which is sad). we've mapped genomes and killed bacteria in their tracks (although my guess is that they're re-grouping) and banished nature to where we can see it, photograph it, and make sure it doesn't eat us.
so why this atavistic propensity to create completely lifeless spaces? not only do we create these odd, lifeless spaces, we even invent lifeless materials with which to build these lifeless spaces. it's weird. and it's fascinating. and sometimes it's nice (like in an operating room). and sometimes it seems pathological, almost as if we've adopted an hysterical us vs. them approach to biological life. which is especially odd, as we're swarming with bacteria and worms and viruses, both on our skin and in our bodies. we're, essentially, galaxies of bacteria, but yet we have a phobia of bacteria. and there is an irony here. well, there are a few ironies. one-that creatures comprised of hundreds of billions of cells would move heaven and earth to create environments devoid of even the tiniest of cells. two-that our aversion to biological life has led us to create lifeless environments which has in turn led to us weakening our immune systems and which has also led some of the banished bacteria to figure out how to be stronger and more pernicious than its antecedents. so we have super bugs which are the product of us trying to kill off the less super bugs.
i think it's fascinating. and a fools errand, as little hominids (aka: us) have only been around for a little while, whereas bacteria seem to have been around for 4 or more billion years.
oh, oops, time to go do more interviews. here's a picture i took of a lifeless environment.
lifeless environments are oddly beautiful in their emptiness, at least sometimes (i've seen a lifeless parking lot in birmingham england that is in no way beautiful in its emptiness). and i guess 'lifeless' is a misnomer, cos there's probably some super bug taking steroids and doing push-ups in the carpeting, just waiting to come and show us who's boss.
moby