Nature Interpretation

This blog was created for ENVS*3000, University of Guelph. 

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the University of Guelph. 

This week's blog prompt was interesting, but a tricky one. As a classically trained piano player, and a person with an affinity for nature, I often listen to music that is evocative of nature. But to really deconstruct what that means is a bit harder. Where is music in nature? After reading “The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music” I learned about all the ways that the sounds that animals make are so similar to scales and musical ideas in human music than I originally thought. My initial understanding of music in nature was more of the random sounds that animals make to communicate. I did not know it was so closely related to our music. This piqued my curiosity about how much our music has been influenced by animals. I know it was mentioned in this week's reading that people that live amongst nature hace nature sounds in their music. But I wonder how much of the foundations of music are influenced by nature. 

In searching about this topic I came across a composer named John Luther Adams who has a philosophy that it is necessary for people to strive for an “ ecology of Music” to change “the quality of our attention to the world” (Adams, 2012) I thought this statement really ties together the ideas in this unit. The impact of nature in music and music in nature is that it helps us pay better attention to the earth. Adams has composed music inspired by nature and did a campaign for the Alaskan wildlands. I have linked below his music installation called The Place Where You Go to Listen. 

This music piece was created along an art installation and was created by Adams through his years of experience with the Arctic region near the coast of Alaska. The inspiration came from the aurora borealis, seismic activity, geomagnetism, cloud cover and visibility and the movement of the sun and the moon. The process by which he makes music, he has called sonification, which he states is the “ process of mapping data with some other meaning into sound” (Adams, 2012). 

I understood the process of Adams music making as a form of interpretation. He is mapping out the nature he is experiencing and turning that into music. I chose his music for this as it is such a unique form of expressing nature through music. Listening to his music and knowing about the process of his music is art in itself. Music and Adams music as an example, shows how interpretation using the affective domain is done well. By mapping out the aurora borealis, listeners are evoked with the beauty of it which incites an emotional response to this natural phenomenon (Beck et al., 2018). Because he has been successful in heightening  people's “attention to the world” through music he has been brought in to do campaigns. To bring people closer to nature in such a way that they become mobilized is I think, the whole purpose of music in nature and nature in music.

Adams, J. L. (2012). The place where you go to listen: In search of an ecology of music. Wesleyan University Press.

When given this week's blog prompt, I was initially stumped. What exactly is an ethic? I wanted to understand and define this for myself so I could attempt to outline and put into words what I garnered from this class. In a book by Dewey & Tufts they explain ethics as the “ systematic account for our judgment about conduct, … to estimate from good or bad right or wrong.” I took this definition to mean what my  moral beliefs are, and I used this as the definition to write this post. 

 Through this course we have been asked to reflect on things that I have not had to think about in a lot of my other environmental science courses. And in that process I have developed ideas and opinions about things that I would not normally think about related to nature. Nature interpretation began to increase the protection of natural areas and parks by being a means of guiding people to care for and protect natural areas by understanding and having some feeling of connection to it brought on by the interpreter. A quote by Baba Dioum that explains this: “In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand.  We will understand only what we are taught.”(Beck et al., 2018). This quote and the ideas presented in the first chapter of the textbook, when I read it fully, helped me understand the importance and the need for nature interpretation.  

I bring up the ideas presented in the first unit because those ideas formed what the basis is for my personal ethic as a nature interpreter. My ethical beliefs as a nature interpreter are informed by the theories of Aldo Leopold, who was a forest manager and the writer of  A Sand County Almanac, which is a collection of essays that describe his land ethic, and the land around him. His land ethic is of the ecocentrist view, which states that our actions towards the environment should be made in a way that maintains the wholeness of the ecosystem as a whole, instead of just singular organisms. He states that “ A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity. Stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” ( Williston, 2012)In this quote there is a clear right and wrong, as an ethic is meant to dp, as stated earlier, and this ethic states that a correct action is one that keeps the integrity of an ecosystem. 

This is the belief  I hold  as a nature interpreter and I believe I should be responsible for maintaining and teaching other people to keep ecosystems whole. Another thing I learned through the course material is that there are many different ways people will experience nature depending on their age and their privilege. I also have a duty as a nature interpreter to make sure the people that I am interpreting for are able to access and fully experience what I would like them to. To achieve this I have a responsibility to do research and be fully aware of the experiences of the group of people I am catering to. This means I will have to understand how different age groups understand ideas and concepts. Familiarizing myself with things like Piaget's stages of Cognitive Development and Learning styles (Beck et al., 2018) will ensure that I can make informed decisions about how to deliver information to different age groups. In terms of privilege, I feel it is my responsibility to be aware of the ways my privilege impacts the way I experience and interpret things. To develop this I will need to do a lot of learning and reflecting. When I am interpreting to people I also need to be aware of the backgrounds of those people and how they are able to or have previously interacted with the environment so I am able to be sensitive and mindful when I do interpretations.  

Overall for myself as an individual interpreting nature through science is the most appropriate for me. I have noticed through this course that I had challenges interpreting nature in a way that was less focused on the science of nature. Writing about art and music was more challenging for me. I also think this is in line with my learning styles. I am a more tactile and kinesthetic learner, I prefer to learn through experiencing things(Hooykaas, 2024), and when I do I think it's easier for me to understand it and share it. So as an interpreter, it will be more suitable for me to interpret things related to science and it would be easiest for me to teach it in a hands-on way.

My personal ethics and approaches I have learned through this course so far as an ecocentrist will aid in my ability to decide how I can use and apply my knowledge and abilities into the world. Because I have been able to formulate better what my values are in relation to nature and how I need to express that I am able to better articulate my beliefs through nature interpretation the best way I can. 

Beck, L., Cable, T.T., & Knudson, D.M.(2018).Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage for a Better World (1st ed.).Sagamore Publishing. 

Dewey, J., & Tufts, J. H. (2022). Ethics. DigiCat.

Hooykaas, A. (2024, January 15). Unit 02: Teaching Learner.University of Guelph. https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/858004/viewContent/3640016/View

Evolution has always interested me and so have bees. So today I want to tell all of you about the bee dance and how it evolved. I read about this a couple years ago and when I did it completely changed my perspective on bees. When I used to  think of bees, I thought of simple insects that are programmed to be driven to any flower they see. Until I found out they dance to communicate which flowers to go to. 

An article by Doenhaus and Chittka (2004)  titled “ Why do Bees Dance?” showed me that bees actually have a way to communicate information about food sources with each other through dance. The dance in question is a “waggle dance”  done by moving their comb in a figure 8 motion (Figure 1A)   (Doenhaus & Chittka, 2004) . This dance is supposed to inform other members of the hive in which direction and how far they can find a good source of pollen. 

The way bees communicate direction and distance is quite interesting. The dancer repeatedly circles in a figure-eight pattern centered around a waggle run in which the bee waggles its abdomen as it moves forward (Dong et al., 2023). The direction of the waggle shows the direction of the food source, the duration of the dance shows the distance and the amount of waggles depicts the quality of the food ( more waggles means higher sugar concentration) (Dong et al., 2023).

 The experiment by Doenhaus and Chittka examined the evolution of the “waggle dance”. The overall conclusion of the article“Why do Bees Dance”stated that bees in environments with plants that flowered for a short time had more need for the dance than bees in areas where there were more options for pollen throughout the year. This showed that the dancing likely evolved in conditions of scarcity where this information could determine the overall success of the hive that season.(Doenhaus & Chittka, 2004)

 The study by Dong et al. intended to study how important it is for bees to learn the waggle dance from older bees. It did this by studying the accuracy of the messages sent through dance by bees that had no older bees to learn from and then from bees that did. It concluded that bees develop and refine their waggle dance by watching other older bees dancing (Figure 1B) . The study showed that social signaling when younger bees encoded and learned to deliver a specific message( distance, quality, direction ) in a certain way as a young bee, would continue to do it like that as it got older. So the first set of bees that did not have older bees to teach them the dance delivered messages that were more incorrect their entire life, but bees who had observed other bees as a young foraging bee were able to improve the accuracy of the messages in their dance(Dong et. al., 2023).

The evolution of the dance language and the ability for bees to develop and improve on their ability to convey information about distance, direction and quality shows how intelligent they are. Now you know how smart bees are!

Figure 1: A. shows the dance of the bee, 1 round of the dance starts at 1, the waggle is 2 and then 3 the dance is repeated. In the image below, w is doing the dance while the fs are watching to learn where to go. B. showing how the directional accuracy of bees in E1, which are young bees with no older bees around them, gave less accurate information about a food source than C1, young bees with older bees around them. (Dong et al., 2023)

The quote “ There is no peculiar merit in ancient things, but there is merit in integrity, and integrity entails the keeping together of the parts of any whole, and if these parts are scattered throughout time, then the maintenance of integrity entails a knowledge, a memory, of ancient things. …. To think, feel or act as though the past is done with, is equivalent to believing that a railway station through which our train has just passed, only existed for as long as our train was in it.” by Edward Hymes states that there is value in a full or complete telling of something, and the only way to gain a full story we must also include the telling of its history. Hymes states that without this we are only acknowledging a part of something. This is relevant in nature interpretation for a number of reasons. 

When we talk about natural areas we must also consider its past as it is relevant to know how it has ended up in the form that it is presently in. This can mean describing how lakes formed as a result of a past glacier or how lakes have disappeared as a result of climate change. Knowing what was on the land previously is the only way to fully understand the land now. It helps us understand why certain sediments or species are found there and it shows how those things and others shaped it to its present form. Understanding its natural history can also serve to show people how human actions can impact a natural landscape. Both knowing its history and the reason for its present state can help give people a closer relationship with that piece of land as well as more of an emotional connection. 

The varying impact of glaciers on a landscape

Additionally, it is important to think about the history of a place in terms of the people that lived there, because landscapes are not only impacted by natural forces but also by the people that have lived with them. The impact of people and the value of people that live in and with a landscape has value because they will know a lot about the land and its changes. They will also know about things that could not be known by researchers because their relationship with the land is more important. So when interpreting a landscape, gathering information about and from the people that have a close relationship with this land will be able to give more valuable insights. This will also allow the consumers of this interpretation a connection with the land because they will have a human connection that they can attach to the land. 

This video shows how the Native Americans lived with the land and is an important perspective to consider when telling the story of a landscape and its changes through colonialism.

My current relationship with nature is a good one. Nature is the place that I go to relax and clear my mind. It is also where I like to spend a lot of time because I like to hike a lot. I spent a lot of time as a kid outdoors because my parents liked to garden and be outside. I think this is one of the things that really propelled me to enjoy being outside. Now my favorite thing to do in nature is observe plants and grow plants and learn about them. 

Having this interest in plants early on gave me a sense of place because I was able to observe the things around me and develop an interest in things in my surroundings. Being able to appreciate the plants around me made me feel very lucky because I have always lived in urban areas but I always felt connected to nature because of my interest in plants. While observing the nature around me gave me a sense of place in my own environment because I knew a lot about the things growing around me. It also allowed me to connect with it and interact with it. 

I always grew plants of my own outdoors because I would know how they would interact with the environment around my house. I knew where to put certain plants and I knew how to handle them so they would produce the most fruit. I think that growing plants specifically that we could eat was impactful in my relationship with the environment. There is a need for more care and attention to plants than with plants that are purely decorative, because of the added incentive of having the fruit at the end. In growing vegetables and fruits I had to learn more about the plants I was growing and I had to know what would be best for them in relation to the place that I lived. This really propelled my interest and my knowledge of my environment and I think this is really the basis for my relationship with nature. Having spent so much time outdoors to tend to a garden as a kid really helped connect me to nature in a special way. 

Interpreting nature through art is a very important part of nature interpretation because this kind of interpretation can impact a large audience. When we interpret nature through art it can insight more of an emotional response from people, which could increase their want to preserve/conserve nature.

So who am I to interpret nature through art? For one I am a person who is able to sense the beauty around me. My camera roll is full of pictures of nature. I pay attention to nature everywhere I go. I notice when the leaves start to change color and I notice when the flowers bloom and I always appreciate it.  This is something that I think shows my ability to sense the beauty in my surroundings. This is an important part of interpreting nature through art,  to first be able to sense the beauty around us ( Beck et al., 2018) . 

This is a photo at the University of Guelph that I stopped to take between classes because the trees started changing color.

In addition to being able to sense the beauty around me I  also care about preserving the nature around me. I care deeply about my direct environment and also the whole planet. The fact that I am trying to get an environmental science degree, and also in my daily actions to live more environmentally consciously shows this.  

Finally I  feel a strong connection to the nature around me. I think of nature connection as the ability to be aware of the nature that is local to me. I developed this idea from an outdoor school that I was at, that promoted just the awareness of the nature around us as a way to be more nature connected.  

To put these ideas together, this is what I have interpreted the gift of beauty to be. It is the way that nature interpreters can use art to interpret nature. By appreciating and recognizing the beauty of nature then having a desire to preserve it they aim to feel more connected to nature and also allow others to do the same. 

Nature interpretation through art happens in many different ways. As a classically trained piano player, I have observed this a lot in some of the pianists I like to listen to. In this way they put the sounds of nature into their music or give character to the nature around them. This is impactful to me because when I listen to these pieces I feel like I am experiencing that environment and that is a connection that I would not have without the music. This is a way that these artists are interpreting nature through art. By recognizing its beauty and then sharing it in a way that makes people feel like they are connected but also want to do something to preserve it because they are experiencing the beauty that the artist did.

How does privilege play a role in nature interpretation?. First to define privilege, I define it to be the unequal access to opportunities people have as a result of things that are not in their control/ a result of their decisions. Because of this people who are more privileged will have access to more kinds of education and activities that others will allow them to achieve things that may be more challenging for others to achieve. I think privilege plays a huge role in how much someone is able to experience nature and therefore be part of its interpretation.

In nature interpretation privilege plays a role in a persons access to education. If we think of jobs that a nature interpreter may have, these jobs will require a lot of knowledge on a topic. We know that most people, who do not live amongst nature have to aquire this information through schooling. When people are not given equal opportunity to attend some kind of nature related program, because they were not able to afford it or could not because of some other reason unrelated to their own choices they will have a harder time finding work as a nature interpreter.

The second way that nature interpretation is heavily related to privilege is in the ways people have access to nature. People need: 1. time 2. resources to be able to experience nature around them to develop and interest and an understanding for it. People who are not privileged enough to have time, such as people who must work long hours, or people that need to cosntantly care for others will not be able to experience nature fully. And also people that do have time but are unable to spend the money or travel to places that they can experience nature is a way that privilege can affect our ability to become nature interpretation. 

This is all to say that privilege plays a role in what kind of person that we tend to see nature interpretation from. The most privileged people will get the opportunity to experience nature and learn from it, and be able to make a profession out of it. But this means when the average person is learning from a nature interpreter we are only told one kind of story. This is especially apparent in academic settings. We will read about white researchers “discovering” new theories and ideas from nature and presenting it as a new idea. When this knowledge may have existed before in other underprivileged communities, and is only now being legitimaized by someone with more privilege. We also see this inequality in TV programs that will often have white, upper class presenters, exploring foreign countries and their amazing nature through a western lense. 

My ideal role of environmental interpreter is something similar to things I have seen on T.V. growing up. When I think about the most impactful nature interpreters in my own life it's the host of shows like the “Krat Brothers” and BBC Planet Earth that introduced me to all the interesting parts of nature that I could not appreciate and changed my opinions on things I saw around me. 

This kind of nature interpretation is a role that holds a lot of importance in connecting and mobilizing youth, especially those that live in urban areas. These people played a crucial role in developing my interest and love for nature. Having grown up in urban areas I had not had the chance to experience nature like I could on these shows. They played a crucial role in shaping my interests and curiosity towards nature and helped me pay more attention to the natural world around me. Through them I started learning about all the interesting things nature has to offer. The skills that they have would be a deep knowledge about something but also the ability to deliver this information in a way that can maintain the audience's attention as well as pique curiosity.  

What I realized later on, as I watched a BBC Planet Earth episode is that it's not only what but how these presenters deliver this message that captures my interest. It is clear that the presenter has a deep knowledge and passion for nature, but also the story telling aspect of the delivery can really reach and hold a large audience. Along with the well thought out descriptions and narrations of what we are seeing, that is informative, simple and interesting. I think this storytelling is an important skill that a good nature interpreter needs to have. While being able to teach things simply is also important, people will be able to garner more of an emotional connection with something if a story is told in relation to something. And I think helping people experience a connection of some kind should be one of the goals of a nature interpreter. A deep knowledge about something is important but also the ability to deliver this information in a way that can maintain the audience's attention as well as pique curiosity.