FEEDBACK FOR GROUP 4

Hello there,

For starters I really liked your video and the visuals it felt very relaxing and calming.
However, I have to agree with India about the use of some concepts and vocabulary, I study at WDKA so we probably have a much more practical mind then the students from EUC/EUR that deal with different concepts and read much more then me on a daily basis about intricate topics. In a way I feel like this creates some sort of gap between us in a way. There are some philosophical concepts that I don't get that might be very well known because I don't study them. I think it was good that you mentioned that the video was destined more to the minor then people outside it, but still some students in the minor (including) myself still feel a little bit left out because of a lack of knowledge I think. This isn't in any way an attack on you and / or your project but more so you can think about it and make some concepts more easy to understand of give some clear and tangible examples that support your arguments :))

But it was very interesting nonetheless!

Laila

Regarding accessibility, I think the zine serves as a point of entry to the range of perspectives that you would like people to engage with. It would be nice to include a sort of “guide” for how to engage with the ideas that shape those perspectives. Such a guide could include for example suggestions for ways to effectively engage with literature and with the initiatives related to the project. That could be a valuable resource to the people that you reel in. Having resources like that could amplify the reach of the project in the long term, since it would provide your “converts” the means to engage with others about the issues that the project addresses. On the other hand, that would come with the risk of creating a sort of dogma.

| Nathan

Helloo, this is Jessie :) 

First of all, the topic you chose is something I love and have encountered before (for example in the course Climate Crisis at EUC). When I heard about those things for the first time, it really changed something in me and I'm really grateful for that.

As that course was for me a life changer, your project could for other people be the same kind of. To get into a different mentality when thinking about and engaging with nature and not seeing it as outside of ourselves. So I think you chose a very relevant and fun topic!

Like I said, the only thing I was pondering about was the way you presented it. It felt like a very specific ideology with specific norms/values, but without the ability to be critical in and of itself (at least the way it was presented). I would have loved to see the other side of it. You're trying to blur and decompose the boundaries between nature and humans, but I feel like setting such a strong ideology actually polarizes the relationship and strengthens the boundaries between different human beings. I feel like a conversation between the 'mainstream' and this ideology needs to be held :) Because I believe you bring valuable points and insights in which many people could learn from and it would be a shame to scare them off completely with a kinda too strong point. I hope you get what I'm saying.

One last remark about the video, is that for some reason it didn't hold my attention. The pacing was so slow, and sometimes I felt like you were kind of repetitive in your views, so I kinda dreamt off for a couple of seconds sometimes and then had to direct my attention again towards it. So maybe something about the pacing or the usage of your voices can be done to make it more interesting. You're obviously very excited about this project and I heard that when we were talking through zoom. But, uhm, because you used your voices in quite a monotonous way, it wasn't as appealing as it could have been (to me at least, it's just an opinion).

I hope you can do something with this and also keep on following your own track and process for this project!! I'm excited for the zine.

- Jessie

Thank you for your presentation I thought it was very interesting and beautifully made. I liked hearing about the process your team went through and I could see a lot of time and effort had gone into the video and into all of the research you did as a collective. I did think that your ideas came off a bit homogenous in their content and maybe a bit too idealising of nature without bringing across information from the basics – I don’t think everyone could understand the context of ecofeminism and ecosexuality straight off the bat. Looking forward to reading your manifesto and it looks like it’s in a very interesting format which I can see you all put a lot of thought into. I wonder though if accessibility of philosophy just in one document might be a little bit limited – perhaps there is room to consider making multiple editions of the publication. I also thought Julia’s comment about making a reading group would also be a nice addition.
All in all great to see! Thank you for showing us your work so far 😊
All the best, Zarah

please don't be afraid from the idea of not making something new!

NOTHING IS NEW!

we're all just copying and remaking and recontextualising things of the past!

be aware of it and use it to everyone's advantage!

and please, don't forget less is more! video could've been much faster paced and to the point. gorgeous though. 

but also everything is constantly made anew and every moment is unique.

I really think you have an interesting topic that could really help people understand their surroundings and their connection to nature more. Also, I think that when people realize that they would respect nature and the earth more. I did not, however, fully understand the philosophies you used, as I'm have no experience with philosophy whatsoever. Therefore, I'm really interested in your accesible and simple explanation of these and how you could implement them practically in the connection of the communities you found in Rotterdam or in building your own initiative. I think if you manage to do that you're research will also really have a contribution to society.

Moreover, I think the map of all the initatives is a very good idea! I hope that a collaboration or connection between all the initatives could arise from your poster/ zine. I am looking forward to seeing it!

XX Matti

Loved the way you visualized your topic in the presentation. I thought it was a nice insight, that while doing research you found that the problem wasn't t that there are no initiatives or collectives concerning nature in Rotterdam, rather their visibility. therefore your intention was to visualize them and bundle them. However I think you might stumble again on the problem of visibility. Therefore I would have like to know more about the strategy on how to make the map accessible, noticed and most importantly "used". Nonetheless lovely presentation about a very important topic. - Claire