The bib page

So I beasted some research today and made a fairly decent list of sources which I made a new page for and added to the blog.

I really really need some help finding information on the human- nature dichotomy. I know I have read several authors who talk about it but I cant for the life of me find any sort of starting point to delve into the subject and I really need to.

Working Bib

My bib as of now...

Berger, Peter L., and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: a treaties in the sociology of knowledge. New York: First Anchor Books, 1966. Print.

Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2005.

Reynolds, Michael. Earthship. 1. New Mexico: Solar Survival Press, 1990. Print.

Harvey, Graham. Animism: Respecting the Living World. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. Print.

Harvey, Graham. Contemporary Paganism . New York: New York University Press, 1997. Print

Also going to library today to pick up Biophilic Cities by Timothy Beatly and Biophilic Design by Stephen Kellert, Judith Heerwagen, and Martin Mador

Ethical questions

Fortunately for me since I am not going to be ( or at least as of yet have not found any reason to, or propensity for in my study) conducting interviews. This does not mean that my project does not have ethical concerns. I plan to get in contact with the Earthship company and hopefully Mike Reynolds himself in order to let him have access to the material I will be spreading about him. For me, the greatest ethical concern is for plagiarism, making sure that i site things correctly. When it comes to the biophilia concept, studies on architechure and human behavior, studies on human cognition and nature or how nature affects our emotions, these are areas where I have to be careful that the studies I am siting have been conducted in ethical ways. As of any other ethical questions I do not see any as of yet, but if they do arise and I will post them.

My thesis

This is the thesis which I have been able to draft so far.


How might current understandings of how architecture influences emotion/cognitive processing inform a hypothesized ability
for bioarchitecture to reinforce a nature derived spirituality and refurbish the human-nature dichotomy?

Research

Okay so I have been banging out some research and going through old coursework and materials which may be pertinant. At the moment, Mike Reynolds and Earthship is going to be one resource but mainly only for the understanding of sustainable buidling and bioarchitecture principles. I plan to use McLuhan in discussion of medium, Berger and Luckmann in discussion of socialization and cultural intitutionalization of behavioral norms, Graham Harvey and Animism/ Contemporary Paganism for a discussion on nature oriented spirituality, and im looking into the Biophilia concept (the idea that we have and inherent affinity for nature) because I believe that can add something to my piece. This is where I have gotten so far, if anyone has any suggestions on what I might read, or some input into how I am thinking about going about this and which authors I am using I am always open to suggestion.

getting started

so this week has been a big research week, I would assume for all of us, but for me it has consisted of further investigations into Mike Reynolds and his Earthship designs. I feel that I have a handle on his methods and building phisophies to some degree and im working to bring that up further. I have also started studying some spirituality issues in how people recognize spirituality particularly focusing on animistic spiritualism. Think thats about it for me this week.

Project

After much research I have desided to focus on Earthships and their designer Mike Reynolds in an attempt to find the intersections between personal spirituality or a feeling of nature as sacred and sustainable living/ lifestyles. I hope to understand how sustainability can reproduce reifying relationships with nature and cause a greater absorption of sustainable principles and techniques because of the strong presents of a spiritual connection to nature produced by them. I will discuss "bioarchitecture" and its praxis for the considerations it has for "natural development" , self containment, and green spaces.