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The Construction of Nature

Thinking of nature brings fourth vivid memories of renewal. When we go camping, or hiking, and take pause to enjoy the wilderness around us, it brings a sense of spiritual healing. 

We seek to connect with something inhuman, something to transcende our modern problems and give us meaning. 

However, these feelings are not inherit to the land. 

As humans, we like to seperate ourselves from 'the wild.' We have historically seperated ourselves from nature, but intentionally constructed cultural components attatched to the 'myth of nature'

 

Two key components to that construction are the feeling of sublime and the construction of the frontier. 

 

 
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Hover

Visual depictions of the American west have played a part in constructing the myth of nature. On the fronier, these legacies still exist. 

 

You are at the Rio Grande in the southermost part of the Valley. 

 

Hover over various parts of the landscape to see examples of visual depictions of the frontier. 

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Robert B. Decker

Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve

 

Poster in the style of Works Progress Administration national parks poster

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Hover over the landscape to see visual artifacts that applied this myth to the San Luis Valley.