Why we clean half the pond in autumn
A multimodal ethnography with volunteers in Het Groene Woud on skilled visions of nature
Abstract
This research is a multimodal ethnography with volunteers in nature workgroups in Het Groene Woud. The methods I used are a combination of ethnographic filmmaking, participant observation and walking interviews. The observational film ‘Weaving Visions into Landscapes’ covers the care that the volunteers practise for their local nature and volunteer group, and how this affects the way they notice nature. It shows how the noticing is informed by curiosity, environmental knowledge and technological mediations.
The text deepens the film by exploring the ethnographic material through the concept skilled visions of nature. This concept is derived from Grasseni’s (2004) skilled vision and Tsing’s (2015) arts of noticing, and addresses the shared and skilled sensory experiences of local entangled nature in the volunteer groups.
The text explores how the volunteers practise skilled visions of nature. I argue that landschapslezen [landscape-reading] and curiosity are two noticing skills that reinforce the care felt for the local environment; these are the basis for skilled visions of nature. I argue that skilled visions of nature are mediated through tools that require other skills and that they are embodied in the capacities of individual bodies. I finally argue how landschapslezen and curiosity are practised in nature workgroups, and that they build a shared care for the local environment, a reason to keep returning every week.
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References
Grasseni, C. (2004). Skilled vision. An apprenticeship in breeding aesthetics. Social Anthropology, 12(1), 41–55.
Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. University Press.
This thesis was written for the MSc Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology in the Visual Ethnography specialization under the supervision of Sander Hölsgens.
Ladders and fruit trees
“Pruning is looking,” Huub says to me, the first Saturday morning I join the Hoogstambrigade. I’m watching him look at the tree. For about five minutes, he’s walking to and from the tree, to get a good perspective. Then he climbs up the tree, snips a branch and goes back down. Or he stays on the ladder and arches his back to get more tree in his vision.
Henk, a man who at least one other volunteer jokingly refers to as ‘teacher’, tells me something that explains Huub’s statement: you need to envision the tree in twenty years. When you look at a tree like that, you find branches that could pose a problem: branches that go through the crown, shoots at the bottom of the trunk, or branches that cross each other.
On another Saturday, I’m standing in a different orchard. It was owned by a member of the Hoogstambrigade who passed away last year. His wife asked Huub if they could keep up the maintenance. All around me, ladders are carried upright on shoulders, clinking loudly. People are climbing on the ladders, snipping off some branches and climbing back down to take their distance.
I film Han and Yvonne pruning a tree together for a while. Jolanda joins from the ground. While Han and Yvonne are in the ladders, Jolanda provides the ground perspective. They’re discussing what to do with some of the branches, it’s the first time they’re seeing these trees.
It is a little ritual of taking on different perspectives. The ladder allows the pruner to get to the tree, but also shifts their perspective too close to see the future in the tree. In this chapter, I discuss how skilled visions of nature are mediated. The ladder mediates the different perspectives that are necessary to prune a tree