The environing air: a meditation on communications structures in natural environments.

Spark, Judy

Abstract

Any attention paid to the positioning of telecommunications installations in natural landscapes usually relates to the aesthetic impact. However, such paraphernalia, particularly when contrasted with natural surroundings, invites us to think beyond the visible. Through Heideggers accounts of Zuhandenheit and Vorhandenheit, as well as his later articulations on Nature as it is subjected to the ordering principles of Gestell, this paper aims to highlight the overlaps of the natural and the technological worlds inhabited by communications structures, considering the relationship between the human and the natural realms, through the uncertain electromagnetic phenomena that envelops the two. The essay is underpinned by the extended phenomenological description of an encounter with such technology that includes, following Anthony J. Steinbocks outline of a phenomenological approach that might begin with the facts of the everyday sciences, some reference to the basic concepts of physics involved in transmissions technology.

Citation

SPARK, J. 2013. The environing air: a meditation on communications structures in natural environments. PhaenEx: journal of existential and phenomenological theory and culture [online], 8(1), pages 185-207. Available from: https://doi.org/10.22329/p.v8i1.3908

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 4, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jun 4, 2013
• Publication Date: Jun 30, 2013
• Deposit Date: Oct 16, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 16, 2013
• Journal: PhaenEx: journal of existential and phenomenological theory and culture
• Print ISSN: 1911-1576
• Electronic ISSN: 1911-1576
• Publisher: University of Windsor
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 185-207
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22329/p.v8i1.3908
• Keywords: Communications structures; Natural environment; Zuhandenheit; Vorhandenheit; Heidegger; Gestell; Anthony J. Steinbock
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/888