One of the greatest quandaries that human beings now face (arguably the greatest) is how to balance human activity and growth with the natural world: how can industrialized nations and peoples make the necessary changes that will enable us to sustain ourselves and other living beings on the planet?
Hubris, shortsightedness, and overall alienation from nature is leading us towards catastrophic instability and mass-scale environmental imbalance, resulting in climate change and dwindling biodiversity. Many sense that a massive paradigm shift is necessary to reconcile the human species with our position in the universe and on the earth as animals, as a part of the larger fabric of life; to move our society towards perceiving nature as more than a resource merely to be “utilized” and used up.
Artists concerned with this environmental sustainability crisis are faced with the question: how can we artists best utilize our time, skills, and insights as creators to reconnect ourselves and our audiences with the natural world? Through research and writing for Landscape Music and the process of composing and promoting music inspired by landscape, I hope to find for myself and for other artists some possible ways in which to work towards this goal.
I don’t pretend to claim that art solves all problems, but it is a powerful force that influences peoples’ feelings, alters their priorities, and gives them purpose. Being affected by a work of art can awaken a person’s mind to the world around them.