m a r t e n b e r k m a n
m a r t e n b e r k m a n
the ecology of perception
Landscape photography by Marten Berkman. Background art by Jane Isakson. Sketch by Ron Bolt. Inset art by Ron Bolt, Haruko Okano.
Presenting a paradigm shift from the duality of "environment vs industry", RS investigates why our industriousness is part of our nature. What RS also reveals is the human nature that has been left behind in our race to develop....
Remote Sensibility is about our emotion, passion, awe and inspiration in the natural world. It is about our spiritual capacity, and our membership in a vast community of living things. It is about wonder, beauty, and the experiences that can never be placed in numbers and words. It is about art being as essential as science in understanding ourselves and our home. It is about nature, and that includes human nature, why we need to feel it, connect to it, and how.
As artists explore, question, and create in a threatened wild watershed, their inspiration becomes a catalyst for the question behind RS: what is the meaning of “nature”, for all of humanity? Focusing on the pristine but threatened wilderness of the Peel watershed in Canada’s Yukon Territory, RS also travels to sacred sites in the Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, and Canadian Shield. We meet artists, scientists, spiritual leaders, indigenous elders, indigenous youth, miners, politicians and many more who have intimate knowledge of the land and face our relationship to it with compassion, insight and reverence. RS also gives an honest portrait of our industrial behaviour when we have lost sight of the sacred, challenging our utilitarian view of the world .
For urban culture bent on materialism, corporations
deluded by economics, and indigenous cultures
dissolving in the face of them both, RS asks
an essential question as our human nature
unravels the last wilderness on the planet:
What is our meaningful relationship with the rest of nature
in the 21st century and beyond?
Remote Sensibility w,p,d,dop
Feature length documentary in development
Remote Sensibility is about our cultural crossroads as we unravel the last wild places on the planet. Relevant to urban and industrial peoples around the world, Remote Sensibility explores a profound and meaningful relationship with the land for the 21st century. How do we connect with the rest of nature, when it is our own nature that draws us to inhabit manufactured spaces? What role does art play, in keeping a vibrant, passionate, and living link to the land alive? Can the heart reflected in art, be the balance for a culture preoccupied with material gain?
teaser, with opening artwork by Robert Mantla