ARCHITECT AS SHAMAN

Where does the anthropological, and epistemological framework come into the conversation of environmental regeneration, or ecocide? The current framework, and conversation around environmentalism is structured in the form of rescuing nature from the results of industrialism, in the sense that we can aid, or restore what we have lost control of. One can look at this phenomenon as a pursuit of reclaiming a lost controllability of nature. This very perspective of rescue within climate change has to be questioned, as its foundation lies in a philosophical framework that still opposes a relevant relational connection to the threads of the environment itself, herself, him- self, their-selves, or ourselves. Before we migrate into what is now known as environmentalism, one can pose the question, what was the human perspective, and epistemological relations to the environment before the term was used as a description of actions that relate to caring for the environment? One not only should search for, and discover the layers of colonialism in the naming, classifying, and claiming land as a form of relation, science, and anthropological understanding to an ecological system, but one also should aim to explore the mental fibres which are evidence, or other ways of seeing these same classifications, and scientific analysis, i.e. What questions can one ask about the origins of environmentalism thinking, and how does it relate to cosmological, anthropological, and epistemological relationships of humanity cross culturally?

The global issues of change in the environmental conditions, and cultural migrations as a result, is one that can be traced to continental sections of Earth’s spatial organisation. I am not arguing that the use of carbon, consumerism, deforestation, or fracking is causing the environmental changes that we are seeing today, i.e. these are the unequivocal results of an anthropological, psychological, and physiological question of cultural perspective, and the awareness of humans relationship with the environment, or nature if we dare to call it that. One that has evolved over time, and can be traced back to a historical conquest based on exploration, and expedition. One that is at the root of love. One that is at the root of hate. One that is at the root of innovation. One that is at the root of war. One philosophical way of understanding the systems that connect life on earth. With the rise of cities, and urban agglomeration our aim is to document, and explore an array of research accounting for living, and extinct autochthonous cultures, and their anthropological view on human/nature connectivity though art, architectural creation, experimental discourse, and medicinal practices. The aim is to question the role of the architect, architecture, or experimental forms of medicinal architecture in a changing geosphere, in the light that humans can be animals, animals can be humans, and microbes can be humans.

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